Tags
80s music, 80s office party, Abigail's party, Alice Hodge, Amanda Bellingham, artichoke ravioli, broth, cosmopolitan, flutes, games, Haggerston, London, Moro trained chef, paradigm shift, pickle, pickle shot, pickled butternut squash, pop up, ravioli, rose lipman building, set designer, smoked quail, supper club, The Art of Dining
Wednesday night marked the opening of The Art of Dining’s Pop Up 80s Office Party which took place at The Rose Lipman Building in Haggerston. This was my first Art of Dining experience, therefore I wasn’t really sure what to expect however any evening that’s 80s themed can’t be bad, hey?!
The venue definitely didn’t disappoint. I went along with my friend, Adrian who had attended their Abigail’s Party dinner and said it was one of the best events he had been to, due to the attention to seventies dinner party detail and the characterisation of the Abigail’s Party hostess. We both loved the décor, designed by Alice Hodge who has previously done several of the set designs for Art of Dining events. The room was laid out with several rows of tables consisting of blocks of eight, with a wonderful bar a level up at the back of the venue where pickles (a key ingredient, to say the least of the evening) were on display and you could order a special pickle shot in line with the themed office exercises.
There was also the option of buying wine flutes for £20, which offered a flute of wine for every dinner course, which I was very tempted with – however we wanted to try out the cocktails as pina colado was on the list and a special cosmopolitan (renamed as The Paradigm Shift). To keep the theme in the forefront, we had floppy disks as coasters and a staff manual doubled up as a menu on every seat. There was also an overhead projector and a selection of photocopiers strewn around the room, as well as office folders to fully flesh out the office environment. The playlist was a nice addition as there were a range of power ballad-esq ranging from Hungry Eyes to Love is a Battlefield, which definitely make us feel as though we had stepped back in time.
Guests will be invited to grab a glass of punch from the water cooler and get ready to Enjoy Moro-trained chef Ellen Parr’s five courses of office inspired food from the era, presented with a contemporary twist that will take guests from the morning black coffee to the afternoon biscuits.
Cornucopia
The walk to the springs themselves is beautiful and takes about 20- 25 minutes. Along the wooden panels people have had names and messages engraved, the best one being Clara Richardson will you marry me? I’m pretty sure she would have said yes considering the view she would’ve been looking at, other than her boyfriend at the time.
The springs themselves are quite small so it’s recommended you get there early. We took the 9a.m boat and didn’t have any trouble with overcrowding. There were only about 10 other people there at the time so plenty of room to all have a dip in. The springs are very warm, with the first ones you step in being super hot (you wouldn’t sit in them for too long!) It’s a beautiful cove that feels like a secret place considering where it is. The best part is when you reach the end of the hot springs and there is a section where you can sit down and feel the warm water on your back but then the tide comes in from the front and splashes you with cold water. Super refreshing! There’s a little cafe on a boat back where you get picked up and a beautiful husky dog there to greet you. As it’s in the middle of nowhere they do get away with putting their prices up, $4 for water – eek! However they did do a very tasty coconut oatmeal cookie.
Next stop for our adventure was Portland Oregon. I didn’t really know what to expect from Portland, I just remembered a chat I had with two people in my first week at the hostel where they had said it was definitely worth a visit. We had an early start as our flight was booked for 9a.m. Again we arrived at the airport about 45 minutes too early but it was fine as we sat and got a filling breakfast. The flight was so quick and before we knew it we had landed in Portland at 11a.m. The weather was a scorching 32 degrees and was actually really lovely to come back into having been in San Francisco for the past three days. We jumped on the train and went to the city centre where we knew we could drop our bags off in a place called Powell’s before we needed to check in to our air bnb. As soon as we got to Powell’s we both fell in love with it instantly. If I thought the bookshop in San Francisco was amazing this was about eight times the size and was just incredible. The staff were so friendly and accommodating and there were so many rooms and books it was hard to know where to begin. If it had been a cloudy day I know where we would’ve spent the whole day! 
Next stop on our trip was San Francisco. I know Craig was secretly dreading it because he loved Las Vegas so much and wanted to stay in the heat but I was super excited to be going as had heard so many great things about it. We arrived around 6p.m and luckily our hostel wasn’t too far from the station. We did go around in circles a little bit before getting there but we made it in the end. Our hostel, Hi International, was located on Mason Street, therefore a good spot for getting around. We had booked a private room and when we saw the room it was a really small room with a double bed and then a bed on top. I could just see Craig’s face drop as we had gone form having two double beds and a bathroom to a small kind of dingy room for the same price. I’m quite used to hostels so didn’t mind too much but yes it wasn’t quite as fancy. We both thought the bed on top was pretty funny plus there were bars at the end of the bed so Craig was too tall for it!
If you know me well, you’ll know that I am a huge lover of tea. Consuming approximately four cups a day is no challenge for me, more a habit. My family are Irish so of course I was always going to be a big tea drinker but I would say it’s only been in the last couple of months that I have weaned myself off simply drinking English or Irish breakfast tea and have tried sampling some of those other lovely herbal remedies. Last week with my friend Maz visiting, I wanted to find someone lovely to go and have a good catch up and I stumbled across the most perfect place on West Broadway called 
Yesterday was an eventful and beautiful day despite having less than 5 hours sleep. I started it by cycling down to Stanley park where the Scotiabank charity challenge, where you could choose to run or walk 5k or a half marathon, was taking place. For those who were running the half marathon, their morning had already began at 7am and some of them were near crossing the finishing line by the time I arrived at the charity village to help the 
I’m not quite sure what it is about seeing vegetables in a spiral shape but somehow it makes them tastier. It’s taken me a while to purchase a spiralizer as I wasn’t convinced I’d use it enough but now that I’ve tried it there’s no going back.
TEA and TAKES 