Entertainments in London
Just a short post to share our night on the town. We were staying at the Blakemore Hyde Park hotel and weren't terribly excited about the menu the hotel restaurant offers, so we made reservations at what is advertised as the original restaurant The Ivy. Those of you who travel in the UK know that The Ivy is ubiquitous. They're all decorated alike and, to me, give out a "faux-posh" vibe. I was curious abut the original.
We took the tube to Tottenham Court Road where there's a terrific video experience called The Outernet London. Below it, apparently, is a very hip nightclub. I say apparently because a.) I'm not hip, and b.) my days of frequenting nightclubs are decades behind me. At any rate, the Outernet is a series of screens that show video displays and is free and open to the public. Virtually everyone who alights at Tottenham Court Road passes by or through it. The display at that moment was called “The Butterfly Trail.” We watched for a while and I held my purse particularly tightly because this place is rife with pickpockets. From the point of view of a pickpocket, it must be nirvana: people looking up at screens, totally absorbed in the spectacle and being jostled by all the people going to and from the tube.
We made our way to Cambridge Circus and down West Street to The Ivy.
What a lovely surprise. Far more charming than the many franchises, this Ivy opened in 1917.
Its proximity to West End theaters and its late closing time made it a huge hit with actors like Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, John Guilgud and Noel Coward. It became so famous as a celebrity haunt that in the 1943 revue Sweet and Low there was a satirical sketch included entitled Poison Ivy, where the show's star, Hermione Gingold, "would exchange wicked and salacious celebrity gossip." No celebrities here tonight, I'm afraid, but loads of other people. In fact, we had to reserve a seat at the bar because the tables were fully booked.
That turned out to be serendipitous because the bartender, Luke, was marvelous: charming entertaining, and knowledgeable. Bruce ordered an Ivy Club cocktail
and I had the drink that Luke described as his favorite, a riff on a Manhattan made with amaro instead of vermouth.
Mine came in the most delicately engraved glass.
We shared a soft-shelled crab appetizer which was good, though I would have preferred it without all the breading.
Mains followed, Roasted Monkfish Tail for me,
Roasted Venison Loin for Bruce.
We could easily have stopped there, but we had 45 minutes to kill before the play started, so we opted to share a dessert of Pineapple and Mango Pavlova. It was a lovely thing, though the pineapple was in absentia.
I spotted a vintage port on the dessert menu but it was only available by the bottle. I noticed that there was an opened bottle of it in front of me on the bar, so I figured ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained' and asked if Luke could pour me a glass. After consulting his manager, he said yes and I got a gorgeous glass of port which could not have been a worse pairing with the pavlova. That's alright, Bruce ate most of the dessert, I drank most of the port.
We bade farewell to Luke and company and walked the short distance to The Apollo Shaftsbury Theatre. The play we had booked was The Truth,
a French farce starring Stephen Mangan, Ardal O'Hanlon, Sarah Hadland and Janie Dee. I've been a big fan of Ardal O'Hanlon since I first saw Father Ted and My Hero. His performance was wonderfully nuanced, showing that he has actual acting chops. I’d only ever seen Stephen Mangan on QI, the quiz show, so was blown away by his performance here. Being a farce, French, and written by a man, it's not surprising that the womens' roles were not quite as well fleshed out, though Ms Hadland and Ms Dee brought everything possible to their characters. It's a lively show, 90 minutes with no intermission, and I found it delightful, if a bit sterotypical.
As always, no photos or recordings of any kind are allowed, so this photo of the house will have to suffice.
All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable evening on the town.
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