2007 big vacation: Day 8 - London 2007

This vacation day started slow with laundry doing and dozing.

***

Oops! Forgot to mention this whole outing:
We had one errand we definitely also wanted to fit in on this trip: shopping for spirits that are hard to find in San Francisco. All bartenders seem to agree that the place to go in London is Gerry's in Soho. They were so very very right. We came in the door, stared agog at the selection and under the brisk but courteous interrogation of the storekeeper we found ourselves out on the sidewalk again gasping like landed fish about 5 minutes later with four precious bottles. It went something like this:

"What can I do for you?"

"Could we get some Amer Picon?"

Bottle is grabbed from two steps away and set on the counter.

"There's a tangerine liqueur..."
"Van der Hum from South Africa." Bottle placed on the counter almost as he finishes speaking.

"Um...Amaro Montenegro?"
Reaches up beside the counter, adds the bottle to our group, looks at us expectantly.

"And could we see the bitters selection?"
"Step around the counter..." and there we see every variety of Fee's including the Whiskey Barrel Bitters, Angostura, Peychauds, plus four kinds of Bitter Truth of which I selected the Orange (rather than the Orange Flower which they also make).

Stunning.

We'll be stopping in for a few bottles at Gerry's on every future London trip I suspect.

Laden with boozy loot we headed back to drop it off at the hotel, stopping along the way for lunch at the Cafe in the Crypt at St. Martin's In The Fields on Trafalgar Square. Very tasty food and a fun setting.

***

Eventually we got ourselves out and on the way walking to the pretty square at Lincoln's Inn to take in Sir John Soane's Museum with our friend Michael. The weather threatened rain at us but only dripped a bit.

Inside, as expected, we had a delighted time exploring this eccentric old gentleman's beautiful and creative home stuffed to the gills with every possible collectible you could get your hands on in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. My favorite bits remain the breakfast parlour, the library, and Hogarth's Rake's Progress in the art collection.

After our museum itch was scratched we rambled along toward Michael's favorite pub by way of Seven Dials and cheese shopping at Neal's Yard Dairy. Along with the obligatory excellent loaf of crusty bread and a good apple, this time the cheeses chosen were Innes Bosworth Ash ("A log-shaped, unpasteurised goats cheese rolled in salted ash beneath a layer of white rind that creates a jagged, grey circumference when sliced.") and Sleightlet ("Little discs mottled with black ash and white, blue and green moulds. The interior is bright white as with most goats cheeses. Soft, creamy and slightly fluffy texture that seems to dissolve on your tongue. The flavours are lemony, a little bit goaty and slightly nutty.") Extremely tasty!

We had a good time whiling away the early part of the evening with Michael at The Angel talking about technology, Douglas Adams, and other generally pleasing geek topics. A very pretty old pub with a lovely tiled, covered side yard.

A few pints later and it was time to scurry off through the West End crowds to get to the Royal Haymarket Theatre for The Country Wife. It was a great show - bawdy, witty, biting and frivolous fun! I think I need to see more Restoration comedy, or at least things staged at least half as well as this show.

Good thing it was such a good show too, because our escape from  the West End afterwards turned out to be quite irksome. We had left a message in the morning at Milk & Honey asking for a 10:15pm reservation. When we got there we were told that they didn't have one for us since we hadn't answered when they tried calling back to confirm. (When we got back to our room there were no messages, so we're dubious about their having even tried).

Bottom line: given the other choices of places to go for exceptional bartending skill, courteous hosts and friendly treatment in London, I really can't see how Milk & Honey is worth the attitude or the bother. I'm willing to listen if someone wants to try to convince me otherwise, but I'm left with the distinct impression that Milk & Honey [in London] is for posers looking to brag about their money, not true cocktail fans. [Either that or Saturday night is a complete experience drag at any good place in central London.]

After the disappointing experience, we decided to call it a night unless a decent looking bar fell into our path on the way back to Club Quarters. Instead the drunken oafs (of both genders) of Saturday night partying hooted & screeched their way around us and we had to avoid stepping in vomit on more than one occasion. I think that perhaps an 11pm bar closing doesn't actually help reduce drunkenness as people jam too many drinks in too fast.

We swung by the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel, but it was closed to non-guests and had a cheesy piano player crooning "Dock of the Bay" in the whitest possible fashion, so we fled. At least we saw the interior briefly before it gets remodeled. Who knows, maybe we had the real experience in a nutshell too! ;)

We were glad to get back to our room and chill out a little. We came to several valuable conclusions about ways our day could have been better:
- Make sure you get some breakfast before you start the laundry;
- Always make sure you drink enough water throughout the day;
- Eat a real dinner (instead of just bread & cheese);
- Three timed commitments (2pm at the museum, 7:30pm at the theatre, 10:15pm at Milk & Honey) is too much structure for a vacation day;
- Spend as little time as possible on the streets of the West End on Saturday night.