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Eat, Live, Play

House Classic: The Kentucky Manhattan

I’m a late comer to this cocktail – call it a lockdown revelation, but it’s currently my favourite tipple. Strong, warm and silky – the Manhattan is one of the dark spirit cocktails that effortlessly crosses the seasons.

Originating in…of course… Manhattan, sometime in the mid-late 1800’s, the original Manhattan was a mix of  “American Whiskey, Italian Vermouth, and Angostura bitters”, and I guess my house classic doesn’t veer too far away from these original roots.

Glassware

I like to serve a Manhattan in coupe, a shallow, saucer shaped stemmed glass. My current favourite is the Riedel Bar Crystal Glass Nick & Nora set. At 140ml, they are slightly too small for the recipe below, but it means you can leave some in the cocktail shaker chilling while you drink the first glass.

I always put the glass in the freezer for 10 minutes before making the cocktail.

Ingredients

I’ve tried different variations of Bourbon, Rye and Vermouth brands, but this one comes out on top for me. The Starlino is an Italian sweet Vermouth di Torino, aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels. It includes wormwood, cloves, vanilla, rhubarb, ginger, cinchona tincture, grape skin, raisins, bitter orange peel and other herbs and spices, and unlike some Vermouth, is not too bitter, so it balances well with the Kentucky-originating Jack.

Recipe

  1. Take one round, golf-ball-sized ice cube and place in cocktail shaker (square ice cubes are also fine – but bigger the better)
  2. Add the spirits and the bitters (you could also add cherry bitter here if you like)
  3. Stir until it’s nicely chilled
  4. Pour, either straight up or with the single ice cube, into a cocktail glass and garnish with a maraschino cherry and a tiny drizzle of cherry juice.

Sip and enjoy with a snack.

 

 

12th September 2021
Play, Work

Lockdown Pub Quiz

Like most people during this weird time, we’re trying to find ways to stay in touch and have fun with our workmates. I saw a post on Twitter from @rossbreadmore a couple of weeks ago about running a pub quiz, with a link to some instructions so I unashamedly used his format as the basis for the Inaugural Stay Inn Pub Quiz last night.

I thought it might be useful to expand on the original by Ross and post the structure and materials we used for ours.

On our What’sApp group I asked everyone to let me know their quiz names in advance, so I had a list of the names and numbers before we started. This helped me to shape some of the questions, and get the scorecard ready.

We used a Premium Zoom account which enabled people to see both eachother and the questions, which I’d prepared in a PowerPoint document. This helped a lot for the image and music rounds.

We structured 5 rounds:

Round 1: Basic general knowledge – 10 questions to get everyone warmed up.

Round 2: Location, Location, Location – we screen-grabbed 6 images of well-known locations (one was our office address) from Google Earth and asked people to guess them.

Round 3: Supermarket sweep. The teams had 3 minutes to grab 6 specified items from around the house. 3 minutes was too long, everyone was back in 2 – so you could shorten this bit.

Round 4: Quantine Partytime. We prepared 6 music intro’s – grabbed from Spotify, cut into music files and embedded into PPT – and played each 3 times in a 30 second segment.

Round 5: Playing to the Audience. I found 11 questions that covered all the areas our players were from.

We put a 5-min break in after round 3 – so people could top up their drinks and at the end of each of the first 4 rounds there was a bonus question. I’ve taken those out of the file, as they were a bit personal – but you can add in some fun ones about the host or players. You can download all of the other questions and answers.

We had really good fun, and it was something nice to look forward to. I even put some make up on for the occasion and a game of bingo is being planned too…

Enjoy quizzing 🙂

 

 

11th April 2020
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Summer fun

“Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night;
Give me my Romeo; and, when I shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night…”

It really feels like the weather has turned, and Autumn is on its way but it’s only the end of August. I’m hoping for a late surge of sunshine into September, although I’ll (hopefully) be getting my Vitamin D top-up next month with two holidays planned.

Before the weather turned though, I’ve managed to fit in some fun things this Summer. A  trip to the theatre to see Chicago, starring Martin Kemp, was probably the surprise hit. I think you can always tell a good theatre experience when you don’t notice the time to the interval or the end, or the tiny seats; and I never expected it to be so good.

We were lucky enough to be in the second row, and my 14-year old self was loving it! All the performers were brilliant, the musical raced along and all too soon it was over. I always think that I don’t really like musical theatre that much, and then love it when I’m there.

I also got to go to Secret Cinema for the first time. It’s pretty safe to give the venue away now, as the run of Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo and Juliet finished on Saturday.

Staged in Gunnersbury Park, this was the largest event that the company had put on, so it probably wasn’t very representative of many of the others before it. We were told to meet at Acton Town tube station, wearing our ‘Montague’ colours of blue and white, and themed as per the film. We also had to take with us various items, such as a mask and a peace offering.

Luckily, we had a perfect Summer evening – not too hot and sweaty and amazingly, no rain. We got there about 6.45 and having learned our Montague dance moves we wandered round, getting cocktails and food from the many bars and stalls and enjoying a gospel choir, a dance-off and a rave in a petrol station. All great fun and really well done. Then at 9 it was time to take to the picnic blankets and chill out and watch the film. I won’t give too much away, but there always seemed to be something going on and it was great fun.

I’d like to try one of the indoor events – while we were lucky with the weather, it wouldn’t have been half as fun if it had rained – there was literally no cover anywhere – and the venue did feel just a little on the too-large size for the amount of people. That said, the festival vibe was fun and you ddin’t have to queue too long for anything. It was nice to get dressed up in the theme and I’d urge anyone going to do this to get into the spirit of it, but it’s also great that it wasn’t full-on fancy dress – you can get as dressed up as you feel comfortable with.

In between the theatre and the cinema, I also went camping for the work weekend away. I really don’t like camping, and this didn’t do much to change my opinion about the tents and the nature bit, but it was fun and we did have a lovely afternoon tea and got to shoot some clay pigeons.

Roll on September, my favourite month…

 

27th August 2018
Play, Travel

Top 10 Cosmo’s of 2018…so far

Anyone who knows me knows that the Cosmopolitan is unashamedly my favourite cocktail. As we’re coming to the halfway point of the year, I’ve rounded up the best Cosmo’s from 2018 – so far. Conveniently, it makes a nice neat list of 10 – though these are in no particular order, they’re all great 🙂

Forever linked with the 90’s and Sex and the City, the Cosmo dates back much further, with its roots in a 1930’s confection featuring gin, instead of vodka. There are mentions of it in the 1970’s in America, before it was popularised by SJP and the gang. The International Bartenders Association quotes the recipe as:

  • 4 cl Citron Vodka
  • 1.5 cl Cointreau
  • 3 cl Cranberry juice
  • 1.5 cl Fresh lime juice

Shake all ingredients in cocktail shaker filled with ice. Strain into a large cocktail glass, garnish with lime slice…and voila. They also very sensibly catagorise it as an ‘All Day Cocktail‘. I’m not arguing with that!

Hakkasan, London W1

The Cosmopolitan at Hakkasan was stop-you-in-your-tracks-knock-your-socks-off-good. More than good, it was the best Cosmo I’ve had in years. A stand-out cocktail and a lovely bar to drink it at. Followed by some Michelin Starred Chinese nibbles.

Trocadero Playa, Marbella

Cocktail on the beach at sunset, perfect. Nicely balanced and a good size. Usual routine is to drop the bags off and head out for one of these on arrival.

Artesian Bar, the Langham Hotel, London W1

Well earned cocktail after a busy days shopping in London. Lovely unusual glasses. Quite red in colour but perfectly balanced.

Purobeach, Marbella

Beach club perfection – and huge too! Perfect to sip while listening to some Balearic beats and chilling out. Look at that for a holiday cocktail 🙂

Chilli Pickle, Brighton

Ordered off-menu and this wonderful restaurant made me my favourite cocktail. Lovely as a pre-curser to an Indian feast.

Charlotte St Hotel, London W1

One of London’s classic hotel bars, as expected they do an excellent Cosmo (and a great Old Fashioned too).

Mayfair Hotel, London W1

Again, excellent hotel cocktail bar – great place for meeting friends. In fact, I was having so much fun that I forgot to take a picture, so here’s one I obviously took from their website!

Nobu, London W1

These slip down incredibly well with a selection of Japanese food. Had a few more in the bar downstairs after too.

Malmaison, LondonEC1

Much better in the upstairs bar than the downstairs one, but still a good shout for a cocktail in EC1.

Iberica, London EC1

Cocktails and tapas…yum.

Any must-drink Cosmo recommendations for me?

 

 

14th May 2018
Live, Play

Oh Hai

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I wrote anything – 3 months! I’m feeling very rusty. It’s not that my ramblings cover anything particularly earth-shattering, it’s more that it is a stark reminder to myself of how long it is since I sat down with some time to spare and created something. It’s about the same amount of time since I picked up my camera, so I definitely need to get back into the habit.

There’s way too much to catch up on all in one go, so I might save the big things for posts of their own. But a whistle-stop tour of the past 3 months includes Christmas parties, Christmas lunches and a Christmas break to Marbella.

There have been some fun days and fun nights out, some cosy days and cosy nights in, my first bottomless brunch, my 4-year anniversary at work, and of course, some cocktails. There also seems to have been quite a lot of rain.

It’s been extraordinarily busy at work, but I’m hoping to get a little bit more organised and carve out some time again for doing the things I love. This quick post is dipping my toe back in, and reminding myself. It’s always easier when the weather is better, and at least coming into March we know that Spring is on the way. Just this really cold snap to get through first!

 

25th February 2018
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Boom for Real

I recently saw the ‘Boom for Real’ show at the Barbican, showcasing the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the pioneering prodigy of the 1980s downtown New York art scene. It. Is. Stunning. The first major retrospective of Basquiat’s work; featuring film, art, photography and rare pieces, this show captures the spirit of this self-taught artist, poet, DJ and musician who died, aged 27, in 1988. The show runs until end of January – you should go.

 

26th November 2017
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Hair by Sam Mcknight

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from an exhibition about hair, but I thought it might be fun to go and find out before it closed on 12 March, so I went along to Somerset House a couple of Thrusdays ago to see the Sam McKnight show.

It’s a major retrospective celebrating a 40-year career of one of fashion’s top image makers, and the first to showcase the role of the hairstylist on the catwalk and in creating iconic editoiral shoots. McKnight has worked on more Vogue covers than anyone else, styling supermodels and working with international fashion designers such as Chanel and Vivienne Westwood.

When we went it was very quiet, we were the only 2 people in the gallery and it felt like we had the place to ourselves. There are some amazing shots – Tilda Swinton, Kate Moss, Diana and all of the supermodels – and to be honest I got lost in the photographs, almost forgetting about the hair.

One thing that did amaze me though, were the shots of the models being styled backstage at the catwalk shows. It looks almost brutal – I don’t know how they put up with being pulled about by so many people!

It was a nice way to while away 45 minutes or so, and at £13 a ticket it wasn’t over-priced. And by the time we got to the bar at One Aldwych, we really felt like we deserved those cocktails!

19th March 2017
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Whirlwind November

November was a really busy month. We kicked it off staying in London at The Malmaison and going shopping at Alexander McQueen for my Birthday handbag. Even though my Birthday is in September I’ve been putting off buying a bag, worried about the cost. But I finally got frog-marched to McQueen’s in Mayfair and told I couldn’t leave until I bought something – so I bought a bag and a bracelet 🙂 It’s the most gorgeous shop, with a great selection of the collection and accessories, and we were offered a seat and a glass of champagne, which we took them up on. The bag is amazing, and even the packaging was gorgeous.

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We also went to a charity quiz night with some clients, and had lunch at Murano. I went with my mum and aunt to Harrods for a lovely pedicure and I did some planning with my new wall planner, as well as cooking and labelling a million meals for the freezer.

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We also did a small impromptu no-hen-hen do for Nikki and I went with my friend Mel to a chemo session.

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We rounded the month off with cocktails at the Mayfair Hotel and dinner with Madge’s family and I got ready to fly to Antigua for a holiday with my parents. Whirlwind November indeed, on top of a really busy time at work and continuing train nightmares. I need to slow down…and stop spending!

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1st December 2016
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The King Blues, Camden

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I first saw The King Blues at a small gig in the middle of the afternoon at Komedia in Brighton, years ago and fell in love with them then. A few years later, in November 2011 I saw them play The Roundhouse in Camden, a huge venue in comparison and just around the time ‘Punk & Poetry‘ came out. And just before they imploded and split up.

A few weeks ago we happened to be in London on a Saturday and at a bit of a loose end. I couldn’t believe my luck to find that the band were playing that night, and on their home turf in Camden. It was pretty much a no-brainer, although it was a sold out gig. We went along anyway, hoping to get in and we got lucky. It was a tiny venue, a proper pub gig where you are right up against the stage and the music feels raw and vital. It was a full house and we had a great time – The Fiddlers Elbow is a nice venue, with friendly staff and it’s easy to get a drink. Even managed to wangle a set list and it was only a 10 minute cab ride home to the Montcalm Hotel, where we stayed. Great night.

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20th November 2016