Had a very good ‘girls’ day out in East London’ on Thursday with Janine. Partly to use my Xmas present Cowshed facial voucher and partly – just because we could!
Kicked off with a very good, and extremely spicy, Thai lunch at Smoking Goat in Shoreditch followed by an amble around Old Spitalfields and all the street art, chomping on a lot of ‘kill the lunchtime garlic breath’ gum before our facials.
Very last minute we then booked ourselves into a Shoreditch secret bar – Lounge Bohemia – for pre-dinner drinks, and I was SO pleased that we did.
Discovered their brilliantly inventive ‘cocktail flights’ – each was 6 drinks themed around something like ‘school day memories’, wild in nature’ or ‘getting up in the morning’, which I chose. No ingredients listed so they take you on a voyage of exploration into the unknown.
And each one was so cleverly and thoughtfully executed. If you’re ever going there then don’t read on. If not, here are a few pix and blurb to bring it to life.
Started with morning ablutions – the first cocktail was served in a ceramic bathtub with bubbles – and a straw to drink (what turned out to be a lychee poppyseed and lavender vodka martini. Using a little spoon for the edible, melting bath foam. With the piece de resistance being the tiny yellow plastic duck that was uncovered as the drink was consumed. Sweet touch that made me laugh, a good start.
On to the one we forgot to picture, a little board with what looked like a small espresso with a Refresher sweet and a tiny towelette. Morning coffee poured on the sweet, nosh it all down, towel for sticky fingers. Luckily it was nice as I don’t even drink coffee…
No.3 was then the ‘spritz-time’ Perfume bottle – smelling the same as a Le Labo quite savoury actual perfume, somehow constructed as a cocktail using green and black pepper, patchouli, leather, sandalwood and vanilla. Actually smelled the real perfume at the end and they were weirdly similar, even though you can’t ever imagine drinking a perfume..and it didn’t taste at all perfume-y!
No.4 was a small white tube, you had to piece the end seal, and turned out to be time for brushing your teeth – mint with white choc and pea. All of these with vodka by the way.. Sorry about the giant nostrils below.
No.5 was more breakfast-y, a frozen Coffee liqueur with condensed milk and vodka in a sweet little jug.
And then time to turn out the light as you head to work. This one served in a Lightbulb with Szechuan button and Stoli blueberry -very bizarrely exactly the same metallic taste as licking a battery, which is exactly what I did first – and got an electric shock. Who knew I would finally lick my first battery aged 50..
Then headed to Sagardi for a Basque style tapas dinner with excellent cai pirinias, and then back to our ever-so down-with-the-kids hotel – check out the tv greeting.
Final breakfast at the Albion in The Boundary Hotel the next morning – sausage patties on the menu, my fave, and that never happens. A right result of a 24 hour mini break all round x