Happy New Year !

May 2013 be surprising, loving, successful, healthy, passionate, juicy, glamorous, trendy, cosy, sweet, magical, fun, salty, amazing and delicious!

I am sure Santa broke into your homes to deliver amazing gifts to you all!

I just got back from my winter holidays. A week enjoying the family followed by a week of snowy fun in the French Alps with a bunch of friends!

I hope you had a blast to end 2012 and 2013 started the way you wanted it to!

Have a intrusion into my wintery life before I start 2013's yummy posts. 

My LG and myself

What a beautiful NYE table, isn't it?

2013 first mess!

Happy New Year Everyone !!

Mayor of Scaredy Cat

You all know my addiction of prohibition style places. Well today I'll post about a place that is not a secret place (due to the queue to get in) but that fills the urge of surprise and speakeasy.

I love how they hid it and how to get in. In fact, that's the most amusing element of this venue.

Have you ever been to The Breakfast Club in Spitalfields? If not, surprise your colleagues or friends by taking them there for after-work drinks. They may seem amused, intrigued or even not really willing to accompany you, but take the risk of looking pushy and insist! Once there, step inside The Breakfast Club, wait for a waiter and ask to see the Mayor. If your guests don't know the place they will be quite puzzled about your enquiry.

The waiter will ask you to follow him till a huge vintage american-style fridge. Ornament, you say? No, no, this is the secret door to The Mayor of Scaredy Cat! The waiter will open it for you, and you'll see a staircase taking you underneath The Breakfast Club. Imagine the face of my friend when the restaurant staff opened the fridge! Priceless!

I love the effect of surprise and the feeling that a hidden place gives. It is like unwrapping a gift. You have no idea what's inside but you are just too exited!

The Breakfst Club

The Mayor of Scaredy Cat (apparently named after a sitcom episode but I couldn't figure out which one) asks you to play along till the end of your visit. When you feel the need to leave (or have a smoke) you'll be asked to take the stairs up but to go out through an other door than the fridge one. You'll find yourself going out by The Breakfast Club toilets! So Breakfast Clubbers won't get suspicious! This is simply brilliant!

The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club

The Fridge !

Enough talking about how to get in/out and let's discuss about the real matter is: COCKTAILS!

From 7pm to 6pm it is Happy Hour! So if you manage to get during this hour you'll be able to enjoy their cocktails at a ridiculous price of 4£. Not to mention that the earlier you get there the most chances you'll have to get a table. Scaredy Cat gets really busy and people are put on hold in the Breakfast Club till someone leaves.

The menu offers a large variety of cocktails for every taste. All made with precision and skill. Some invented, some classics. Always nicely dressed. We ended up having wine when the happy hour ended. Much more better for our wallets! The bar also have "Cat Food", mostly snacks or even weekend brunch.

They played the Cat theme really well, emphasizing on the details.

We really enjoyed the time spend in this lovely basement with nice drinks, nice food and good company. Go there to impress your friends and to have nice quiet drinks. Also suitable for an original date.

12-16 Artillery Lane, E1 7LS

020 707 89 639

henri@themayorofscaredycattown.com

Tweeter: @mayorscaredycat

Rrrrooooar, I am back !

My very dear followers,

I apologize for my absence these last weeks, it is unforgivable that I didn't even warned you about this time out!

But I am back and I will keep posting about my London discoveries every three days as usual!

Now you can also find some of my posts in Tea & Biscuits (once a week) as I recently became one of their contributors.

The reason of my absence was that I went back to Switzerland to celebrate my best friend 25th birthday (and mine too). Of course my return to Switzerland also allowed me to fulfilled my cheese needs! Immediately after arriving my brother prepared me a wonderful Fondue, mmmmh yummy! I think that one of my dearest dream would be to swim in a sea of cheese.

To celebrate our quarter of century, we rented a huge Chalet in one of the Swiss mountains for a night of craziness celebration. We were really surprised about the Chalet we rented as we couldn't visit it before and only saw pictures of it. It was HUGE, with plenty of rooms and beds, and there was even a skate ramp inside!

The theme was Animals and I am very thankful as every guest played along and came wearing their best feathers, fur, claws and happiness! Also thankful to my DJ friend who did an amazing set all night long!

To apologize for my lack of post, please have a small peek at some of the disguises!

Lovely Swiss Weather

My sweet Panda-Bear, my best friend the 25th year old Cow, and my lovely penguin celebrating his 24th birthday too.

Skate Ramp

Buffet

Cheeeeese !

My bunny and me

The Price for the best disguise goes to the amazing Zebra !

Ping

Last Wednesday, with a bunch of friends we finally went to Earl's court to try a bar that opened in July, the Ping. We have been talking about this place for ages and never managed to find a date. So now it is done and it was a wonderful surprise! We didn't really know what to expect as I just read a post in a blog and found it quite appealing.

You will have to book in advance. Then you arrive in front of a huge black door and a desk where a beautiful girl will call one of the waiters to take you to the table.

After some stairs you find yourself in the middle of old-school arcade games, ping-pong tables and cosy armchairs! What a strange mix! But it works perfectly!

  

We were nicely surprised about the prices of the food and cocktails. Kind of really cheap for a place like that! 

Pizzas are delicious! With interesting fillings such as truffle oil and brie or stilton, pear and honey (yes, I do love cheese).

And the cocktails, ô cocktails! I tried one with amaretto and cinnamon and then an other one called Berry Blast and both of them were spectacular. The only problem is that they are too easy to drink and the glasses emptied it-selves too quickly! To end the dinner I highly recommend their Espresso Martini, better than having a simple coffee, don't you think?

And what about the desserts? We choose to share a Ping Porn (which is a Nutella pizza (yes such things exists)). I think it is pointless to say that it is an incredible invention and that it deserves its name.

But for the milkshake lover that I am the best dessert was My Milkshake Brings All The Boys To The Yard.  I am craving for one right now. The ingredients may look simple but everyone agreed on the taste.

But Ping is not only about food and a lot of drinks. It is mostly about the entertainment. In the middle of all this you will find ping pong tables. Perfect to play a nice and quite game you said? Impossible! But perfect for beer-pong (or even Champagne-Pong). As we were five girls and five guys you can figure out what were the teams. It felt nice to play this college drinking game in such an atmosphere, far away from a student residence hallway, and of course it brought back a lot of memories!

Ping has quickly become one of my favourite places in London. We had so much fun that I think we will be going back really soon.

Try it with a bunch of friends and be prepared to laugh a lot! And don't forget to put your name on the ping-pong list as soon as you arrive!

180-184 Earl’s Court Road, SW5 9QG

02073705358

hello@weloveping.com