2007 big vacation: Day 2, second half - London 2007

We napped like rocks, like logs, like lumps of mud, and woke up to the prudently set alarm rather similarly stolid in cognitive powers. After a bit of staring and blinking and watching BBC news on the telly, we started to function normally enough to aim ourselves toward dinner.

This time we did not stop a block short and got ourselves to 1 Aldwych and the Lobby Bar. Really glad we did too; we enjoyed two of the most innovative cocktails we've tasted since our first try of a Bravo at Citizen Cake. I had a Caraway Maker - Maker's Mark, Kummel, Angostura bitters, Xanath vanilla liqueur - which had a very extended set of flavors it rolled slowly through with each sip.

Joe ordered a Gentleman and it proved to be an immediate favorite. Made with a bold and unexpected combination of ingredients - Campari, Pimms, and Fonseca 10 year old Tawny Port, shaken together with an orange peel garnish - it's a true original. We spoke with the very nice bar manager Roberto De Vivo and he told us that the drink had been invented by one of their Italian bartenders, Giovanni, who has since returned to Italy. The Gentleman will be off menu for the winter season as they make room for hot drinks to warm up visitors from the nearby ice skating rink at Somerset House, but I bet you can still get one if you ask nicely. ;)

I'd like to see the appetizers at the Lobby Bar rise to the level of their drinks and their flower arrangements. Maybe we were spoiled by Pegu Club in New York City, but it did serve to illustrate how food and drink can both shine and enhance the experience of each other. With the artistry of Lobby Bar's drinks as a starting point, the potential for a skillful chef to create better food pairings is clear. The one standout from our otherwise just perfectly adequate appetizers was a proscuitto wrapped around a breadstick; great flavor and ideal presentation for easy eating. The rest of the plates didn't seem well thought out for their context - low tables and deeper chairs - and it took a fair bit of coordination avoid spills.

Overall, a very good experience and we'll definitely visit Lobby Bar again on future trips to see where Roberto has taken it.

Well-pleased with our good fortune we tramped off through the theatre district to locate Milk & Honey for future reference (and to try our luck, but sadly they were closed). As always seems to happen when visiting London, without really intending to do so we found ourselves walking along Oxford Street. Perplexing to see the holiday decorations up already - thank goodness for the buffer Thanksgiving provides in the U.S. before the shopping advertising blitz.

Our next stop turned out to be a real surprise. I cannot recommend highly enough the wonderful public toilet at Oxford Circus (the intersection of Oxford & Regent streets). Spotlessly clean and well-maintained, it was a marvelous convenience. Joe spotted a plaque saying it had won Loo of the Year 2007 and it certainly seems to deserve the kudos. San Francisco could definitely use a few of these!

Heading on up Regent Street we were going to stop in at Market Bar but it had been taken over for a private party, so we went on to Artesian at the Langham Hotel (across from the BBC, who we thank for their presumed steady fiscal contributions in its success). Another solid performance here and an enthusiastic bartender, Alex, happy to share cocktail geek conversation and recommendations.

I had the house signature drink, the Artesian Cocktail (equal parts of Ciroc grape vodka and Lillet Blanc vermouth with subtle hints of Absinthe and orange oil) and Joe, always on the lookout for a good Fernet Branca cocktail, ordered a Frisco Mule (Havana Club Añejo Especial, shaken with Fernet Branca, vanilla syrup and freshly squeezed lime juice, lengthened with ginger beer, poured over crushed ice, garnished with sugar cane strips (which Dinah ate almost all of in a fit of nostalgia for Honolulu)). Artesian specializes in rum and we got to taste two special ones - from 1990 and 1997 - each aged in oak, the younger in bourbon barrels as well and the older in virgin oak. Really different flavors and both excellent. Alex also encouraged us to try a drink called Jerry's Medicine made with Mount Gay XO, Pedro Ximenez 20 year old sherry, orange bitters, angostura bitters, and a hint of creme de banane, finished with a flamed orange twist. Very tasty indeed.

Between the light supper, the jetlag, and great cocktails, we could barely keep up with Alex's rapid litany of recommendations for more of the best of London bartending. [I've integrated these into my Bar & Cocktail roundup post]  I think he could have given us another ten, but a large party came in and he had to go pour wine for the fools who weren't ordering his delicious cocktails.

Definitely a fine way to round out the evening and we walked back to our hotel through quiet streets. Or perhaps we floated and bounced - our very light supper gave the drinks more impact on our sobriety than usual. In any case we made it back quite cheerful. Before sleep I read aloud chapter one of William Pene du Bois' The Twenty-One Balloons, which fit our buoyant mood.