The Listing Launch Party - Drake & Morgan, London

The Listing - Drake & Morgan
27 Bush Ln,
Cannon Green,
London, EC4R 0AA

0203 948 9820

The Listing is the latest (19th) Bar & Restaurant from Drake & Morgan, that has just opened near Cannon Street. I was lucky to be invited to join Joanne of Love Pop Ups London and Steve for the launch party on the 9th of November .

The lines to get in seemed really long which just goes to show how popular this spot is going to be. The process was pretty fast though and I was inside in under 10 minutes where my friends were already waiting.

The space is huge and absolutely stunning. With a two storied glass frontage which wraps around the building. The party was being held downstairs in the bar and restaurant section, but we also went up to where the Deli will be and that section was so warm and inviting, I just wanted to curl up on one of those chairs with a blanket, a book and a cup of coffee. All of which they provide.

There was quite an assortment of canapes being served and as we walked around the open kitchen, we saw how hard they were working to keep the food circulating. This was the first time that I was watching an open kitchen for this size of an event and I was thoroughly impressed at the efficiency of the chefs and serving staff.

The desserts were decadently delicious and I hope that they will continue to offer those brownies and mint marshmallows (were they gin and tonic marshmallows ?) on the menu.

The bar tenders were also working very hard to keep up with the demand. I did not get the opportunity to try one of the drinks at the bar, given the crowd around it. But there was a kiosk run by The London Essence Co. that served up some amazing cocktails. Plus we go to try a new flavour of Rekoderlig Cider - Premium Spiced Plum - very Christmassy flavours.

There was a glitter station, where we got ourselves glammed up - all shimmery and sparkly. Such fun. Being London, I was able to travel home by bus with all the sparkles still on my face, without any stares or questions. I just love living in this city!

The Listing is a great venue, very beautiful. Modern interiors below at the pub and warm comfortable tones upstairs at the deli. What we ate, isn't likely to be on the regular menu, but the chefs and bartenders know what they are doing, so I'm sure this place will be very popular.

Do take a look at some of their special menus for the upcoming Christmas season. They are quite ideal for office parties. The Listing will be open on weekdays from 7:30am and weekends are available for private hire.

Schweppes Laboratory Experience

Schweppes’ Alchemy Bar
21 Slingsby place
London
WC2E 9AB

The invitation to the Laboratory Experience said :  
"Schweppes Alchemy Bar invites you to explore the curious world of the original alchemist, Jacob Schweppe.

Coming to Covent Garden 2nd - 8th October to celebrate London Cocktail Week, the Alchemy Bar hides many secrets and is offering you the chance to delve into the wondrous science of cocktail making.

Dive into over 200 years of bubble-making expertise and book your place in the Schweppes Laboratory Experience. You’ll create your very own sparkling concoction and learn the secrets of flavoured bubbles from London’s revered experiential mixologists, Smith & Sinclair. From colour-changing gin & tonics to inhalable gin-based clouds, the Schweppes Laboratory Experience will take you back in time as well as giving you a glimpse into the future; that’s if you can find Jacob’s secret study of course. Schh!"

For £10, I thought this would be a great way to take a break, since I've gone back to studying for a bit and needed a rest. I thought I'd spend an hour listening to some interesting facts, maybe get to try some concoctions of my own and maybe meet a few new folks. To be honest I wasn't expecting much.

But when I got here, I realised that an entire full fledged bar had been set up at this spot. Once we registered, at the appointed time we were taken into a classroom with 5 tables where we could work in sets of two.

It was great fun, we donned leather aprons, inhaled alcoholic clouds, mixed some cocktails, bantered a bit, made some boba style bubbles (woohoo)and drank the coctails we had made.

I was quite happy with this itself, but then we were led to a secret bar - 1783, where we got to taste a couple of the new flavours that Schweppes is coming out with. I can't wait for the cucumber one to hit the market, it is amazing!

We also had a choice of cocktails mixed for us and got a chance to hang out and chat with other people in our group. I'm still curious about the group who popped in on their lunch break, did they get any work done after returning to office?

#ultimatemixer

Casa Brindisa, London

Casa Brindisa
7-9 Exhibition Road,
South Kensingtin,
London SW7 2HE
020 75900008

After a whole day of exploring the Victoria and Albert Museums, we just wanted a place where we could sit down and calmly reflect and discuss the many wonderful objects of art, that we had seen during the day.

A right and left turn from the museum entry, took us to this beautiful cul de sac filled with many eateries. While the pastries in the Lebanese  place were extremely enticing, we settled on Casa Brindisa, because we liked the look and feel of this place the best.

Part of a chain, Casa Brindisa is a small Spanish Tapas bar, just across the Natural History museum with a lovely range of Spanish cured meats, tapas and wines.

When we entered and asked for a table for 2, the lady in charge said something about an hour and a half. The place was full, so I said "I'm sorry, but we can't wait an hour and a half for a table" She then said "Sorry, if I wasn't clear, but I need the table back in one and a half hour as it is booked for someone else" Talk about organisation and being prepared!! But, I think this is also because most patrons here, seem to order a bottle of wine from their huge selection and take their time relaxing and catching up with friends.

For us, we just needed a quick pick me up of coffee, a bit of food for energy and a warm place to rest our tired legs for awhile.

They have a lot of original Spanish cured meats that were being sliced at the entry and in a bid to sample a few varieties, I ordered the Charcuteria Regional selection (12.50). It came with Teruel ham,  salchichon, lomo, and chorizo with fresh sourdough bread and olive oil. The platter was really huge and meant for 4 rather than 2 people. The same platter with iberico ham instead of Teruel ham was 21.50 pounds, but I wasn't in the mood to spend that much on a tea break - we shall try iberico ham when we visit Spain. :)

They have a lot of lovely touches around the place, the cutlery served in empty pimento cans, the menus as table mats, water served in wine bottles.

The latte that I ordered was 2.75 pounds and quite good.

They have quite a few mains and hot starters too. Definitely worth trying either for evening drinks or an early dinner.

Rating : 3.5 / 5

TLR Cafe, Delhi

TLR (The Living Room) Cafe
Main Market
31 Hauz Khas Village
www.tlrcafe.com
4608 0533 / 44

TLR Cafe is a comfortable hidey hole in the middle of Hauz Khas Village. You have to negotiate some tricky stairs to arrive here, but its worth the climb. It operates as a cafe during the day with board games on offer and post sundown it morphs into a lounge/bar.

TLR is split across 3 levels. The lowest has darker lighting, well suited for the night with space for the live band. The next level feels brighter and airier as it has more natural sunlight coming in. The highest level is open air which is mostly used as a smoking zone in the current weather conditions.

They sometimes have live bands playing. The events section on their website is temporarily silent, but they promise to start updating this section sometime soon.

We revisited TLR a few days ago, as we had loved our first visit to this place in January. The prices have shot up in the last few months, but the taste remains as wonderful as before.. The pollo cilantro was 395rs a few months back, now its 450Rs. Its half a chicken marinated in a corriander and chilli sauce, served with roast herbed potatoes and some grilled veggies on the side.

The last time we were there, we had a Lemon Chicken Soup for 180rs, that was a comforting and filling broth with delicate well balanced flavours. This time, we ordered a T-Total and T-ease  (black and green ice teas with lemon grass and basil and ginger and mint) for 100rs each. Very refreshing.

As starters we ordered the Sea Biscuits (370Rs) - Thai inspired fish cakes, again very delicately flavoured with a bit of garlic mayo to round up the flavours. We also tried the Spicy Porn Cuffs (twist on corn puffs) for 265Rs - a vegetarian dish of roasted corn kernels served in little spring roll pastry bases. Very tasty, but a little difficult to pop into the mouth in one go. It was fun watching the kernels drop and roll as we attempted to manouver the bite right into these spicy and tricky buggers.

For dessert we had the Creme Brulee (195rs) and Hot Chocolate Souffle (was 160rs, now 235rs) which sufferred a bit from the fluctuating electricity problem.

The last time I had the chocolate souffle it burst open with some gooey chocolate pouring out from the inside. But this time, since the power went off, when my souffle was in the oven, it came out cooked through and through. While the taste was still great, I do love the molten chocolate goo more.

Service Charge of 10% and VAT at 12.5% and (20% for alcohol) will be tagged on to your bill.

The menu has a lot of hot and cold coffees, teas, fruit juices and smoothies on offer if all you want is to cool down with a nice drink after trudging around the Hauz Khas village and ruins. There are a large variety of cocktails and beers on offer too.

Pastas, sandwiches, risottos, burgers are some of the other items on the menu, which is inspired by world cuisine. So be ready to try out something new.

The food is awesome, TLR offers something different in a city where Kebabs and Indian-Chinese restaurants rule the roost. The only thing that could make this place better was if it had a view of the ruins or the deer park next door.