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Gaucho's

capital gains
Published in the January-March 2010 issue.

Daven Wu sets out to discover all that 
is hip and happening on London’s dining, nightclubbing and accommodation scene.


In the pantheon of super-cities, London leads the roll-call. At the astonishingly ripe old age of 2,000 years, the city is majestic, yet tremulously chic. Effortlessly, it parses the historical grandeur of its streetscape with a pulsing energy that puts cities half its age to shame.

For the millennial hipster, there’s something happening every day in London, whether it’s a towering mercury-like statue of silver spheres by Anish Kapoor at the Royal Academy, a retrospective of Rothkos at the Tate Modern, the launch of an avant-garde film festival or the opening of a flashy nightclub in Mayfair.

China Tang

Take the hotel scene: while certainly, there are still rooms to be had for those who adore their Victoriana and chintz, London also offers the very best in sleekly designed accommodation. Indeed, 10 years ago, a new wave of rigorously designed hotels led by the likes of Christina Ong and Ian Schrager washed over London. In a city where heavy brocades and patterns were de rigueur flourishes, it was a sensory shock to step into the foyer of the stark, minimalist interiors of the Metropolitan and St Martins Lane. But clearly, something took, because today, these hotels still lure a loyal following of well-heeled fashionistas and be-blinged Russian oligarchs.

Equally, a new generation of hotels has continued to fuel the thirst for well-designed rooms with just the right dose of quirky chic to keep things interesting. Leading the charge are properties such as the tiny but super-exclusive 40 WiNKS and Terence Conran’s newly minted Boundary in Shoreditch, an edgy quarter lined with photography studios and creative ateliers. With just nine rooms, Rough Luxe is exactly that – a small outfit that combines silky cotton linen with artfully peeling walls, exposed brickwork that dates back two centuries, reclaimed furniture including antique writing desks and an ever-changing modern art display.

But for a genuine taste of genteel English hospitality, 258-year-old, 32-room Taplow House, a few minutes from historic Windsor, sets the stage with a wonderful Merchant Ivory tableau of spacious rooms, vast beds dressed in the softest bed linens, green lawns, home-made scones and jams, and a terrific dining room, Berry’s, that turns out such delicacies as gambas prawns skewered with vanilla-pod sticks, and warming leek soup scented with truffle oil.

Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park

Also popular with the jet-set are the Firmdale Hotel group’s establishments, which include Haymarket Hotel and the ever-hip Number 16. Young Hollywood stars and music moguls flock to the Charlotte Street Hotel, where owner Kit Kemp has personally decorated the 52 rooms in a whimsical Bloomsbury whirl of wallpaper, plush fabrics, aged leather and Miller Harris toiletries. Downstairs, Oscar generates a lively buzz of media mavens and the creative set who, after a few gin and tonics, settle in for chef Rachel Hitchcock’s mod-English menu and perfectly grilled fish.

Speaking of which, if one ever needed a reliable barometer of a city’s au courant credentials, look to its dining scene. With such a melting pot of cultures, London’s food scene keeps getting better. For huge slabs of melt-in-the-mouth steak and the largest Argentine wine cellar outside Argentina, Gaucho’s new outpost on Charlotte Street is a sexy mix of mood lighting, furniture swathed in warmly-coloured cowhide and a killer drinks list.

Celebrity-watching is also on the menu at the ever-chic Asia de Cuba; at Sketch, where the over-the-top theatrics include London’s most talked-about washrooms; and at Sumosan, where Nicole Kidman, Alexander McQueen, Will Smith and Jade Jagger come whenever they need a fix of snap-fresh sashimi, extravagant kaiseki and delicate, innovative tuna rolls. For a touch of North Africa, Momo seduces with authentic bronzed tables, Moroccan fabric and an open kitchen that effortlessly turns out flavourful chicken tagines and fluffy couscous.

RougLuxe

Across town, Canary Wharf – once a place in which no chic Londoner worth her Blahniks would have been caught dead – is luring the famous chefs. Joining Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant by the canals is Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Italian, a cosy no-reservations nook that hooks an appreciative crowd of suits and well-heeled bankers with fresh pasta, Tuscan fennel salami and posh truffle chips.

Of course, traditional English fare – seafood pies, fish and chips and gooey trifles – gets a modern, yet respectful makeover at the likes of the high-ceilinged, light-washed Albion, and at Bob Bob Ricard, just around the corner from Carnaby Street, designed by celebrity designer David Collins to resemble the interiors of a posh diner on the Orient Express. The former establishment tempts with a jazzed-up traditional English menu of Eton mess, stunningly good pork crackle and apple sauce and, on weekends, a laidback brunch menu of eggs and hearty fry-ups, picked over by a devoted crowd of beautiful people.

And with such a large Chinese expatriate community, Chinese cuisine headlines any gourmet tour of the English capital. To start, Min Jiang boasts a panoramic view of Kensington Gardens that is every bit as lush as its dumplings and glossy red Beijing duck; while David Tang’s luxe China Tang at the Dorchester impresses with a finely wrought Cantonese menu of delicate dim sum. Meanwhile, at Bam-Bou, a four-storey Georgian townhouse in the heart of heaving Charlotte Street, has been converted into an Indo-Chinese pleasure dome serving up crisp-fried fish draped in tart dressing and creamy Cambodian curries.

Sketch

And this past summer, Freggo, London’s first Argentine ice-cream bar, proved to be a big hit for its exotic flavours, including Malbec and berries.

Palm Court at the venerable Langham hotel has been a staple of London’s high society since 1865. Recently, it emerged from a multi-million-pound makeover, its sleek new décor the perfect counterfoil to its towering afternoon-tea trays of cucumber sandwiches, mini-pastries and delicate little cakes. But for the sheer star power of its high-voltage creative clientele, it’s difficult to pass up tea in the high-romance excess that is The Wolseley, a favoured watering hole of the city’s fashionistas and media power brokers.

If afternoon tea is synonymous with London, its vast collection of nightclubs, bars and pubs practically define the city. In summer, the sidewalks of England’s capital spill over with punters throwing back a pint or two, while in winter, everyone retreats into the cosy warmth; and if there happens to be a dance floor nearby, so much the better.

Taplow House

Tucked away in a nondescript side-street in up-and-coming Bethnal Green is Bistroteque, an intimate, raw industrial space that serves up great mod-Brit food upstairs while mixing up fierce cocktails in the downstairs bar, along with a very popular drag show on the weekends.

Happily for party fiends, London has had a slew of new openings over the last few months. Among them is the very sexy 69 Colebrooke Row, an intimate bar in trendy Islington that specialises in sinfully good cocktails by mixologist Tony Conigliaro. Also just opened is Groovy Wonderland, a ’70s-style nightclub that is pulsing with energy and everything its retro name suggests: glitter, loud retro music and old-fashioned cocktails such as Long Island Iced Teas and Tequila Sunrises served in half-melons and pineapples.

Also new and shaking up the London night scene is The Supper Club, the latest outpost of the original Supperclub in Amsterdam: the British incarnation is wowing the smart set with its trademark blend of hip-grinding music, quirky floorshows and dining while reclining on white-on-white day beds.

And if you’re heading to Paris on the Eurostar from newly renovated St Pancras International station, be sure to arrive early and head to the blue-leather-boothed and brassy St Pancras Grand Restaurant and Oyster Bar on the mezzanine level for a sip of icy champagne and slippery oysters. C’est la vie, indeed.

When the hard partying, shopping and dining is done, take time out for some pampering. Here, London comes into its own with a phonebook full of spas and beauty salons. British A-listers and visiting celebrities flock to Linda Meredith whenever they need a collagen facial or a luxurious glycolic fruit peel. Meanwhile, the newly minted Ministry of Waxing has already attracted a rush of Condé Nast editors and Amy Sacco (of Bungalow 8 fame) with its offbeat menu of wild-berry chocolate wax Brazilians and Boyzilians. At the ever lush The Spa at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, relaxation is helped along by a new range of traditional Chinese medicine therapies with soothing oils specially blended by Aromatherapy Associates.

In the end, the quip that there just aren’t enough hours in the day might well have been coined for London. At any time of the day or night in just about every corner of this vast city, something is happening; a new discovery is waiting to be made alongside old favourites. In that sense, the city’s charm is as enduring as its long history. And that – even for the fleeting visitor on the briefest of visits – is good to know. •

Photography courtesy of restaurants and hotels.


TRAVEL FACTS

where to eat
where to party
  • Bistroteque, 27 Wadeson Street, 
phone +44 20 8983 7900 or visit www.bistrotheque.com
  • Groovy Wonderland, 19 Dering Street, phone +44 20 7493 1003.
  • Oscar Bar, 15-17 Charlotte Street, phone +44 20 7806 2000.
  • St Pancras Grand, Upper Concourse, 
St Pancras International, Euston Road, phone +44 20 7870 9900 or visit www.stpancras.com
  • 69 Colebrooke Row, 69 Colebrooke Row, phone +44 7540 528593 or visit www.69colebrookerow.com
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