Tuesday 16 June 2010
Well, the good news is that creating lists on the blog were not as bad as anticipated and I managed to develop pages showing the venues down the three streets (both east and west sides) without too much trouble.
Yesterday, I started to verify the findings from http://www.streetsensation.co.uk/ with reality. Although I've only done Dean Street, the bad news is that I've now added five more places to the west side and one to the east side.
However, the good news is that yesterday, I manged to hit three venues in one day!
First of all, I started with a lunch time coffee (£1.75) and flapjack (£1.45) in Cafe Nero on Frith Street (west side). Yes, its the same old formula but this one does have chairs along the pavement and its a nice place to sit and watch the world go by. Directly opposite was an independent looking coffee place (called 34b) which extolled expresso and cappuccino in large letters. How will it compare? A couple of doors away from 34b was a place on my list called Jimmy's, which I know from the internet is a Greek restaurant. It had a dusty, tired looking blue door with no ground floor frontage. It would be very easy to walk past without realising it existed and so having been intrigued, I suspect it won't be long before I visit. I'll probably find a huge plate smashing emporium on the first floor.
Anyway my second hit of the day was an after work bottle of wine in Cafe Boheme (www.cafeboheme.co.uk). Unfortunately it was wet and rainy but we sat just inside whilst other braver souls sat outside under the awning. The service from the immaculately attired staff (black shirts and trousers with long white aprons) was excellent. We chose a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc which whilst not cheap at £23.50, was served in beautiful glasses with tap water being automatically offered. If we'd decided not to eat out, I'd have been tempted to try one of the small plates at £5 each. The prix fixe at £12.50 for two courses seemed good value and it was good to know that not only are they open from 8am for breakfast, they also serve my favourite early morning dish - eggs benedict. If I wasn't trying to visit lots of places, this would become a very firm favourite!
We then dashed diagonally across the road in the pouring rain to Maison Touareg (http://www.maisontouareg.co.uk/) for two reasons (a) it was near and (b) we are going to Beirut for a week on Saturday and I do like to tickle my taste buds with what is to come before I go. We avoided the Beirut special at £25 as it included pudding and mint tea and plumped for three hot and three cold mezze dishes. This together with a bottle of Lebanese wine from the Ksara Winery (which we visited last time we were in Lebanon) produced a bill of £54.80 including service.
Now I know that you may think that this is cheating, but before I started this challenge, but after I started my new job, I visited three places which I'm going add to my list of achievements. The first was on 9 June when I took a friend who was about to retire (after lots and lots of years) to Kettners (www.kettners.com). I've been there lots of times, and it never fails to deliver a slightly decadent, bohemian experience. After a bottle of champers, we headed for The Delhi Brasserie on Frith Street and with cobra beers and our usual staples (which for me is popadom, samosa, chicken vindaloo), the bill came to around £54 (the price of decent champagne in Kettners). The third hit, was on 11 June when after my leaving drinks, I was desperate for coffee and carbs. Cafe El Buen Gusto served up skinny latte (£1.70) and a fabulous bacon roll (£1.30) which helped bring me back to life. The bacon was freshly cooked in front of me and the roll was warm and crusty. With lashings of brown sauce it saved my bacon!!!
I'll be back walking the streets tomorrow to finish verifying my list so that my true mission can be baselined ready for monitoring.
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