supper club

i was really looking forward to saturday night, because my friend Mindy had invited me to join a few of her friends for...more french food! yay! i was also excited because the restaurant, la bouchee, was in south kensington and i had never been there before.

the map of south ken looked confusing online but i found the street i needed right away and even managed to give directions to a lost tourist. :-)

the food was decent, although not as good as the orrery. Mindy's friends were really nice though - always fun to meet new people! dinner wrapped around 10 and Mindy was headed to a place called supper club for someone's birthday party. she invited me to come to notting hill with her, another new neighborhood for me.

when i think of supper clubs, images of potlucks and/or themed meals come to mind. as seems to always be the case in london, my preconceived notion was WRONG! we trolled down a darkish alley to a set of large black doors, where a giant bouncer man asked if our names were on "the list". ha. luckily they were.

our first stop was the bar, where the cocktails were £9 each! good grief. i would have felt like a freakshow taking pictures but i found this one online of another supper club (it's a small chain worldwide):



pretty similar to the london one, although there was a big space in the middle of the floor for dancing. see the big white things along the walls? those are BEDS. and people were laying in them, eating and drinking. some people were even under the covers. there was a giant movie screen on the wall with video of a buck naked woman (who was painted gold) doing dance and yoga poses. the staff were wearing a mix of everything from pajamas to rocky horror picture show inspired outfits.

it was very interesting.

however, i wasn't drunk enough nor do i like hanging out in public places without shoes (can't wear shoes in the white sheets!). Mindy agreed and we decided to do a cocktail and then bounce. but then the alcohol kicked in (£9 at least buys you a double), people started dancing, and we decided to brave another round of drinks. then the waitress came around with free shots. then there were birthday shots for Mindy's friend. pretty soon, dancing seemed like a great idea! the music was actually really good - house - and it wasn't as much of a meat market as some other clubs in london.

by the time we left, the underground had long since closed and i had no idea how to get a night bus from west london back to east central. so i had to take a cab, boo. naturally i had the guy drop me on old street so i could get a kebab. i don't even want to look at my bank statement right now... :-)