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.

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