Brook Green Hotel – a view from the outside

28 Mar 2010

Not too far from The Top Floor Flat is one of my favourite areas of London. I’ve mentioned it before, the home of the Queen’s Head pub (in my opinion one of the coziest in London) as well as a number of other local amenities (church, doctor’s office, tennis courts….). I was particularly fond of the Green last autumn when the leaves were changing colours but now that it’s nearly nice outside again, Brook Green is starting to pick up in activity. The playground was packed with kids, all the tennis courts full, dogs running around and the daffodils in full bloom.

My trip to the Green (not that it generally needs a reason) was to scope out the Brook Green Hotel for my mother who will be coming to visit The Top Floor Flat after nearly two years of residence here. While I am incredibly excited, it’s also important she finds a good place to stay nearby. The options are varied – being as near as we are to the Olympia Exhibition Centre and Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre, we get a lot of year-round traffic for people attending conferences. The Brook Green’s website was gorgeous and I knew the area was lovely so I thought I’d take a peek today while on my walk.

Unfortunately they were so busy I didn’t have a chance to take a look at a room (generally a good sign, though!) but the downstairs pub, also the main reception area for the hotel, was frightfully British with a full bar and very traditional pub feel. This is fine if you don’t mind sharing your hotel lounge area with ordinary evening punters but probably not ideal if you’re looking for a relaxing, low-key common space during the evenings. Additional, I had slightly misjudged the location of the Hotel, expecting it to be further on the Green while instead it was at the far end which, while absolutely fantastic for public transport (this has to be one of the easiest hotels in London to get to from Heathrow), would be less fantastic for noise level and view – half the rooms faced the Green, but also a busy high street; the other half were quieter but faced a parking lot and giant Tesco.

Having not seen one of the rooms I of course can’t judge the hotel overall – and it looks ideal for someone visiting the area and looking for a comfortable, easy to access, authentic British pub hotel stay. For anyone who is particularly sensitive to road noise at night (don’t come to London!) or wants a more traditional hotel offering with a quiet public area, this might not be the best bet.

I have to say, what would swing the stay in my favour, if I were travelling alone, would be the basement pub at the hotel which was offering up some pretty high profile comedians over the next couple of nights. Perhaps I’ll have to swing by for one of their shows, even if I am not visiting my family in one of their rooms.

Regardless, Brook Green is still a fantastic area, a gorgeous neighbourhood and a great place to grab a bit of sun, a game of tennis, a bit of fresh air or a pint.

The Affordable Art Fair

14 Mar 2010

The Affordable Art Fair in London occurs twice yearly and offers the chance to take home a piece of quality artwork from both up and coming and established artists for anywhere from £20 to £3000. With pieces ranging from prints to paintings to pottery and with over 120 galleries displaying work, it’s a huge event and for the first time this weekend, I had a chance to visit the fair with our Spoonfed arts editor Tom.

While I didn’t end up leaving with any affordable art (seeing as their definition of affordable and mine don’t entirely match up), there were a number of pieces that caught my eye and I would have loved to own – along with a number of pieces so hideous I wondered if it was some sort of joke. All in all, it was a fantastic art fair with the whole range of pieces to laugh at, gaze at in wonder and covet. And butterflies. There were lots and lots of butterflies.

Favourite Pieces

Here are some snapshots (in appalling quality) of some of my favourite pieces. Embarrassingly, I managed not to get the artist, title and gallery name in all cases, so if you like it as well but I haven’t listed the details, sorry, can’t help you out there!

“Old Books and a Porcelain Jug” from The Framers Gallery in London

“History of England” by Thurle Wright

“Octosub” by Graham Carter at Boxbird Gallery

“Magic Benni” by Hilary Twiselton

By far my favourite gallery was the Boxbird Gallery in Hove (just near Brighton). I didn’t end up buying any prints or pieces which I am just beginning to regret although Tom took home a cute piece by one of their artists, Zara Wood, and I had to talk myself out of spending £250 on a print by Graham Carter.

It was a great afternoon and I really enjoyed the event – I’m looking forward to the Autumn AAF and who knows… maybe next time I’ll even go home with some art!

“Polkabrella” by Graham Carter at the Boxbird Gallery

Cafe du Pique-nique at the Future Gallery

14 Mar 2010

Can I just say that I love Courvoisier and their venue, The Future Gallery? While I was first introduced to the cognac brand and their Future 500 network through our Spoonfed directors who are part of the network, I’ve now had the opportunity to experience first hand three of the events that Courvoisier has hosted and boy, do these guys know how to throw a party (and make punch). First was the Mixology Event which saw top bartenders from London helping us create the ultimate Courvoisier-based cocktail. Second was the rather epic giant Punch Bowl Experience which saw me floating across a giant cocktail on a wooden orange slice.

Continuing in the tradition of events that at first cause visitors to ask “what’s the point of this” and see them leaving asking “when can we do this again?” this weekend Courvoisier is hosting the Cafe du Pique-Nique at the Future Gallery in central London. Described as follows:

From the 13th to 20th March, The Future Gallery will be transformed into a vast indoor picnic area. For just one week, while the wind, rain (and most likely snow) rage outside, you can enjoy your indoor picnic, in a perfect grassy setting, in contented warmth.

Exactly as described, we stepped into the Future Gallery which, rumour has it, was jointly designed with SAD experts who advised on the optimal amount of sun lights needed for the perfect cheery summer effect, to discover a carpet of fake grass, a room of fake sunshine and a really great summertime feel. Dozens of visitors sat on picnic blankets in summer dresses, enjoying the Courvoisier punch, nibbling finger sandwiches. Our group grabbed a drink and stretched out in the artificial sunlight. My coworker immediately started sneezing, his apparent reaction to the nice weather and anticipation of pollen, and we all agreed we were feeling much more cheerful – the pique-nique was certainly having the desired affect (or was that the punch?).

Regardless, it was an excellent opportunity to relax after a very long week and I can’t wait until Courvoisier’s next event.

London Pubs: The Mall Tavern

4 Mar 2010

Finding a place for a quiet drink after work was proving to be a bit more difficult than I had imagined – the issue was the friendly between England and Egypt which meant that any pub with a screen would be packed with punters eagerly awaiting the first of England’s efforts as we move towards the summer World Cup.  This meant that I had to find a place off the beaten path, without a television and with easy transport access. Where else to look than Notting Hill in West London?

After a few false starts (both of the original pub choices had TV screens and, in an indication of how noisy it would be, numerous England flags already hung in anticipation of the match) we decided on the gastropub/wine bar The Mall Tavern which, while only a few metres from the Notting Hill Gate tube station, felt quite removed from the busy high street.

As far as a gastopub goes, The Mall Tavern was much what you’d expect, comfortable tables, dimly lit, nice wine – my friend was at first impressed at their range of imported beers on tap, then less so when it turned out they were out of nearly all of them. It would have been a fairly average pub-going experience had it not been for one thing: the free scotch eggs and pork pies.

For whatever, reason, the kitchen decided that this was the day they would provide all punters with some of these traditional British delicacies. Having never had either a pork pie or a scotch egg before, this was an opportunity to expand my British horizons. A scotch egg is a rather hideous creation of a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage, wrapped in bread crumbs. With an off the charts calorie, fat and salt count, it’s probably not something you’d want to eat more than once a year but having heard so much about them, I figured I might as well give them a try (that and my friend was in shock I’d never had one before).

While I can’t say I’ll be ordering a scotch egg again any time soon (for health reasons much moreso than taste) nor was it, according to my friend, the best example of a scotch egg that Britain might provide, I will certainly be returning to The Mall Tavern. It’s quiet, friendly, provides decent drinks and, best of all, bribed us to return with free food. Works for me!

The Mall Tavern
71 Palace Gardens Terrace
London W8 4RU
020 7727 3805‎

Countryside

24 Feb 2010

This past weekend I, along with a few coworkers was invited by a work colleague to spend the weekend at his home in the country. It was absolutely amazing to get out of London for a few days and I was completely spoiled with good food, fresh air, glorious weather and two incredibly friendly dogs. It was exactly what I needed after a month and a half of missing California and dealing with dreary London weather and we made the most of our time with long walks (with the dogs of course) across the fields, a lot of time in front of the fire, and the talent samplings of our two peers who play the guitar.

Although getting back to London (where it immediately began to rain) was less than pleasant, the city and its terrible weather is definitely made more bearable through weekends like this one. Here are a couple of snapshots of the house, the fields and our walk through the British countryside.