Espresso. Passport stamp. Wheels off. London baby. Pubs. Pints. 20 miles walked. Birthday suit. Ribeye. Cocktails. No sleep. Alarm. Security check. Italy.
What a blink of an eye this past weekend was and yet logged into my memory forever. We boarded Ryanair from Perugia just 30 minutes from our door and set off for a birthday weekend massacred in London, one for the history books.
We’d booked a place in the heart of Covent Garden which is in the dead center of the London scene and our very first stop off after exiting the cab was a cask ale pint and a Guinness at Flag and Lamb. The immediate allure, and maybe because we can’t do this in the states, is that everyone, and I mean everyone, stands in front of the pubs with their mates and drinks their beers in the streets. It gives this facade that the pub is actually slammed inside to which after working working our way through the street crowd realized was not the case. We ponied up at the front of the pub looking out the window into the crowd and immediately settled into our weekend home.
Our apartment was on the 3rd floor overlooking the main square that was bustling with Friday foot traffic over the uneven cobble stone road that is blocked off to cars on the weekend while live street performers are serenading us as we get ready to go out. So much of how Shiloh and I vacation, and really live our life, is eating and drinking our way through the days. Yes, of course we saw the Eye, Westminister Abbey, Piccadilly Circus and Buckingham Palace - but those were only amuse bouche’s to our weekend meal.
Friday:
London Edition: Non traditional High Tea with 3 courses of tea, snacks and cocktails
Barrafina: Michelan Star Spanish Tapas Bar where we had a glass or red and chorizo chips and fish
Lamb & Flag: Pints of cask ale and Guinness
Hawksmoor: We sat at the bar and had a make your own cocktail for 2, Potted Beef & Yorkshires, and butter infused whiskey
Flesh & Buns: Japanese style pork belly and duck steamed buns and loads of sushi with some champagne and local craft beer
Saturday:
Delaunay: had a traditional birthday brunch with pastures and coffee along with eggs benedict and avocado toast
Brewdog Soho: a bucket list beer bar visit for me. we shared a pint of dark chocolate stout on nitro, citrus IPA, Scotch cask aged strong ale, and juniper berry abstract stout
Blanchet: a quaint French bistro where we had braised lamb shoulder, beef tartar and some french wine
City Social: Swanky Cocktail Bar on the 33rd floor overlooking all of London, a couple pre-dinner drinks, oysters and tapas (our server was the Sneaky Sneaky guy)
Barbacoa: Jamie Olivers upscale Steak House. 68 Ounce Dry Aged Rib Eye, bottle of 2003 Ormes De Pez Left Bank Bordeaux and finished with a glass of 20 year Pappy and birthday treats
Arts Theater Club: And underground speak easy cocktail bar playing 80’s music and patrons singing and dancing along, kind of a time warp
Pub: can’t remember the name, too many drinks, just grabbed a beer and some wine and stood in the street
Sunday:
Heddon Street: Gordon Ramsey’s higher end bistro for brunch. Local craft beer breakfast, no croissant.
Shakespeare’s Head: More drinks in the street
Lamb & Flag: Couldn’t leave London without a proper Fish&Chips and theirs is touted as one of the best
Andrew Edmonds: Cutest little restaurant with almost no signage, incredible food and had a Treacle for dessert with our bottle of Chateauneuf De Pape
Experimental Cocktail Club: We had plans of going to a few cocktail bars, but when we locked down our corner bar seats here and befriended the head bar tender we spent the next 3 hours and 10 cocktails with him.
**wandered home, picked up gyros and pizza, the end.
We fit all of that into 2 1/2 days and it couldn’t have been more perfect, including a hipster haircut at a proper barber shop called Murdock's. The worst part of the trip was waking up at 4:30am Monday morning to catch our flight home after going to bed at 3am (1 1/2 hours of sleep is basically negative sleep. I think it’s worse for you to fall asleep only to wake up than to have just powered through). Security, take off, landing was all an insomniacs blur and the first memory I have is our saviors Tony & Andrea picking us up from the airport and giving us a lift home.
And the most perfect birthday gift awaited me when I got home, other than my beautiful children, the wild cat that we’d been taking care of had 2 kittens and picked our home as her place to raise them. So beyond the kids being on cloud 9, me being an Ace Ventura animal lover, I’m pretty happy too.
We barbecued some chicken and sausages and had a great meal together, but the attention was completely stolen by the kittens. A little work, then I passed out and slept until noon. Much needed.
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