Dillinger's/Sapphire Lounge (Liverpool)

1920s Afternoon Tea

Many moons ago I watched the movie Public Enemies with Johnny Depp because I literally devour any film set in the '20s, '30s or '40s, and I fell in LOVE with Marion Cotillard's wardrobe amongst other things. The glitz and glamour and gangsters (and gin) of the depression era always appeal to me, so you can imagine how crazed I was when I discovered a bar called 'Dillingers' serving afternoon tea in sumptuous Art Deco surroundings,. However, this little jewel is NOT in London...it's in my beloved home town of Liverpool. This is wonderful news for Liverpool but really annoying for me having relocated to London 6 years ago... Anyway, it was a perfect excuse for a working holiday so I scheduled it into my diary and off I went.

The first thing that struck me was the fantastic music which was nearly era perfect (it was a mix of '30s and '40s tunes but that's fine - I was just relieved it wasn't something like Justin Bieber, whos fans I had to spend all weekend running from as his entourage was in my hotel). The decor was spectacular with the signature clean Art Deco lines, tiffany style lamps and fixtures, and sumptuous sofas, but the added flat screens with moving flame images all along one wall were unusual and gave the bar real warmth.

Then the waitress came to take our drinks order and she was dressed in '20s gangster's moll garb so by now we were really feeling like we'd gone back in time.

We opted (appropriately) for hooch to start and my other half was pleased to see they had 'proper' cocktails on the menu - real depression era concoctions of gin and bourbon and more gin. I went for a boring Prosecco (I'm not sure why now!) but ther was plenty of time for cocktails afterwards too.

They arrived quickly, and not long after we also had a pretty afternoon tea stand with all the usual suspects - finger sandwiches, scones and mini patisserie and Art Deco plates

The sandwiches were delicious and included salmon, which I think is an indication of a good quality afternoon tea, as well as egg, cucumber and cream cheese. I think Mr Carla would've liked some meat in there though.... The scones were moist and there was plenty of clotted cream (my pet hate is having to thinly scrape cream onto scones: I want DOLLOPS of the stuff) and individual jam pots so no fighting over that either.

The cakes included mini versions of lemon curd, chocolate sponge, apple pie and walnut cake and by the end of it we were really stuffed. However, I just had to try the namesake's cocktail on the menu 'Dillinger's Punch' which was a teapot and 2 tea-cups so I ordered that as a digestif. I was so pleased when it came in one of these pretty Hendricks Tea Sets!

It was so delicious! I won't tell you what was in it - you'll just have to go there and see for yourself and believe me you should go. The thing I forget (living in London) is that you CAN get a very good afternoon tea for under £20 and you can get a good cocktail for around £5 so it was a really lovely afternoon that cost me hardly anything and I'd definitely recommend it.

The tea is served in The Sapphire Loung which is the upstairs part of the bar and this is the website for all information: http://www.ludusbar.co.uk/

Downstairs in true speakeasy style (behind a bookshelf) is a hidden doorway into Dillingers which can also be hired for your own events and the best website for that is here: http://www.sapphirelounge.co.uk/dillingers/ so be sure to check them out. the staff were attentive, the food and drinks were fabulous, the prices were great and I could have literally stayed for hours xox

 

"Sip"-tease rating *****
Pa"Tease"erie Rating ****
Boudoir or Boring Rating*****
Cheap or Chic Rating *****

(This is one of my Highest rated teas ever! )

Afternoon Tea Review

'The Reform Social and Grill' at The Mandeville Hotel

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…and for me that means several things: The Rockabilly Christmas album, the movie ‘Elf’, food and booze - and not much else until January.
Given that my whole reason for setting up this blog is to review afternoon tea, I thought it was about time I headed off for a ‘festive’ themed one so I could do the job properly (like I needed an excuse to munch mini mince pies and quaff mulled wine…) Also, in the name of proper scientific testing I had a ‘control’ to measure against (remember that from GCSE science?) which means I went for a ‘festive’ tea at a place I’d already been to so I could compare. I take it dead seriously, me.

So I headed to The Reform Grill and Social @ The Mandeville Hotel with my long suffering other half who is continually forced to imbibe champers and eat mini fondant fancies in my serious quest to impart knowledge of afternoon teas to the public. I opted for this one in particular as they had a free unlimited champagne offer with the festive tea, which is the same reason we went the first time back in September.

It’s a really nicely decorated place (as you can see from the above pics) – it’s new so it’s squeaky clean and it’s in a good location so no complaints there. Another bonus is that they offer two different afternoon teas: for the ladies they have a ‘Vintage afternoon tea’ but there is also a ‘Gentlemen’s Afternoon Tea’ and when we first went there the gents was better and I was jealous! Instead of finger sandwiches, the gents get a piece of pork pie, a mini burger and steak and snails on a bruschetta! 

In comparison, the lady gets 4 finger sandwiches. Sorry but this is one occasion where 4 fingers will not fill the hole (ahem...) Also, the sandwiches aren’t even good. They’ve obviously been made ahead so they’re crispy on the outside where they're getting stale, and there's not much filling inside at all.

You can therefore imagine how happy Mr Carla was when he saw that the special ‘festive’ afternoon tea was being offered alongside the usual Gents menu. I didn’t learn from my September mistake and went for the ladies festive this time (in the name of research…) but he stuck with his tried and tested favourite.

We got drinks to begin with (an Old Fashioned for the man and a mulled wine for the lady) which is great. You can’t go wrong with mulled wine, or mulled anything for that matter. We also got a glass of champagne straight away too, which was nice.

And we received our tea as well (they have an extensive list to choose from.) I went for their own Mandeville blend but my man likes their black tea with vanilla and they’re both delicious. There was an awful lot to drink at once though!
I was excited for them to bring out the food and when they did the Gents looked amazing but the ladies was still a bit pitiful. So this time I thought I’d ask if I can have extra sandwiches after I'd finished mine in about 1 minute flat and they said it would cost extra!! Now in some places its free to have extra sandwiches (for example, in Volupte Lounge they’re very generous) so paying £3 for that pitiful array is not good news. However the issue was compounded when I was told that if I wanted to purchase the Gent’s platter (of pork pie, burger, steak, snails etc) it would cost £4. That’s a great price and makes the £3 sarnies seem yet more ridiculous. I don't know what they're thinking! I would have been tempted to do that but of course we had scones and cakes to get through so I just waited for Mr Carla to devour his delicious platter and readied myself for the sweet part.

The cranberry scones were really nice, the jam came in individual little jars and the clotted cream was delicious!! And there was enough for two scones each. (There's nothing worse than having to spread microscopically thin layers of anything onto dry scones...)

Also the cakes were nice and they did fit the festive theme: there was a mini mince pie, dundee christmas cake and an almond crumble. However I have had incredible cakes before so really I just weighed up the pros an cons of the whole meal when reviewing this. For example it says on the menu "dark chocolate yule log" so I was expecting a mini log on the plate. But it actually seemed to be a piece of mini yule log so I felt that was a bit misleading...
However, given that we had 4 glasses of champagne in total (it may have been prosecco but it was really nice and I'm happy with either) as well as the cocktail I'd say this is definitely one to go for when they have the unlimited champagne offer on. The link to it is here and it runs until 23rd of Jan on Friday, Saturday and Sunday http://www.afternoontea.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1399&Itemid=1 
It's a great place to head to after your Christmas shopping and I would suggest that if you go for the Ladies tea (which is the festive one) then ask if you can pay £1 extra to get the mens platter for your savoury portion so you can get the festive treats :) xxx
"Sip"-tease rating *****
Pa"Tease"erie Rating ***
Boudoir or Boring Rating****
Cheap or Chic Rating ** (or **** with champagne offer)
PS - I will be posting all afternoon tea offers on here in the future so subscribe for quick updates!!

 

'The Park Lounge' at The Milestone Hotel, Kensington
Despite the fact that we just had a heatwave, we have crossed the threshold into September and that means it's Autumn. Does anyone else remember years ago we'd be getting ready for our new school term and purchasing new tights and jumpers and a 'big coat'? As the years have passed it's like the seasons are getting later and now September is fairly summery for us. Even most of winter is quite mild until we get to Jan and Feb and freeze our asses off... Oh, bring back cold September mornings with the smell of burning leaves in the air and chestnuts underfoot!
Anyway, musing aside, I absolutely LOVE Autumn - it's my favourite time of year. All the great things happen: Halloween, Bonfire Night, My Birthday (to name a few. E-mail me for details of the latter...) and of course you can mull cider and wine so you have a great excuse to drink all day, especially if you're at a market or in the park.
I've decided to start reviewing some great autumnal places to fit in with the time of year and I recently went to The Milestone Hotel, basically because in the pics on the web it looked like Sherlock Holmes' drawing room, or a place where Oscar Wilde may have sipped champagne and dreamed up 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'

You can see what I mean: rows of books, soft lighting, velvet and giant paintings - The Milestone really didn't disappoint. The only thing is that photographs of places tend to make us imagine there are blanks to be filled in with our minds so I pictured this room with its grandiose decor as much larger than it was. It was gorgeous but it's really only the size of someone's lounge in their house.

That's quite nice though - it's not a negative. Less space = less people and noise (yes - I am an old person and I want to be able to hear my conversations...) so me and my guest (the lovely Amanda Sutton from Amanda's autopsies who I met during Taxidermy and Tea, see here for that review and her details http://afternoon-tease.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/taxidermy-and-tea.html) thoroughly enjoyed it.
The problem with reviewing tea for a magazine or similar publication is they treat you really well because they know who you are. Amanda and I were treated like royalty with a free full afternoon tea as well as champagne. The food was truly delicious with the typical finger sandwiches: smoked salmon, egg and watercress and ham and mustard to name a few. However there were a couple of very strange circular chicken mayonnaise sandwiches that had been rolled in chopped almonds that neither of us particularly liked (you can see them in the pic). Perhaps if they were Coronation Chicken circles the almonds would make sense, but with only mayo the combination was a bit strange.
The cakes were gorgeous but I think it's fairly difficult to go wrong with any kind of cake! We kept ourselves busy with mini eclairs, Black Forest cupcakes, almond financiers and coffee macaroons etc, and the room was very silent for that little episode...

Despite it being gorgeous it was also filling, so we had to ask for a doggy bag to take the rest of the cakes home. The Milestone provide you with a little carrying box plus handles so you can take them home in a dainty little case - however, I totally forgot to bring ours with me so that was a little fail right there :(

All in all it was a lovely ambient place to have a civilised afternoon tea with beautiful decor, gentle piano music drifting in from the conservatory and very helpful staff and I certainly want to go again and take tea in the conservatory itself (it has a totally different feel to the Lounge and would be lovely after a shopping trip with the girls):

http://www.milestonehotel.com/bar-and-dining/afternoon-tea

Head to the conservatory if you want to extend your summer but if you want to speed up the cosiness of autumn then do what I did and go to the Park Lounge xox


"Time for Tease" at Volupte Lounge, Norwich Street

http://www.timefortease.co.uk/

Perhaps I'm kinky or perhaps I just like value for money, but if I can have a cuppa and baps at the same time then I certainly won't say no. My penchant for a bit of titillation with my tea, and nipples with my nibbles, is fairly well known since I dreamed up the concept for this blog a couple of years ago: I wanted a nice tongue-in-cheek way to review afternoon tea, a supposedly innocent past-time that has its fair share of double-entendres (finger sandwiches anyone..?)
When I later discovered that someone had actually created afternoon tea which involved burlesque, it's safe to say I'd be there with knobs on - or tassels - I'm not fussed.
The day finally arrived and I crossed Volupte Lounge's dim threshold into a world of fabulous wallpaper, beautiful crockery and pin up pictures, and left the busy Jubilee streets behind.

It absolutely did not disappoint - it was everything I hoped it would be. From the moment we sat down at our table we were treated like Royalty (how apt) and offered a glass of bubbly. We then had plenty of time to peruse the menu of tea and tea based cocktails which are served in large or small teapots (This, I really like, as it means you can be an absolute booze-hound and no-one can tell...because the tea cocktails are actually HOT!)

  
As soon as we had chosen our delicious cocktails (and stipulated that although my companion was a vegetarian, I was happy to eat anything put in front of me) we were served a gorgeous array of finger sandwiches to nibble on almost immediately. I was pleased to discover that my favourite Coronation Chicken was on the menu, and happily not just for the Jubilee! (I was also given extra Coronation Chicken sandwiches as they are my favourite and for this reason alone I was ready to marry the waitress.)

The tea cocktail arrived in delicate matching china pots and we got down to the business of diving straight in.
Nibbling and sipping aside, we were able to have some time to chat (with mouths fairly full) before being pleasantly interrupted by the compere, the fantastic Ophelia Bitz, who regaled us with songs and jokes to warm us up. I have to say I was feeling pretty warmed up by the time the first burlesque artist came on, but that may have had a lot to do with the Gunfire (Lapsang Souchong and Rum) too....
After the first couple of acts, yet more delicate china arrived, this time a cake stand with scones and patisserie:

When I first saw it I did think it looked a little bit sparse compared to other selections I've had, but sometimes quality is more important than quantity. The little brownies were a divine gooey chocolatey mouthful, and the lemon posset with passion fruit was just tart enough to counteract any sickliness brought on by the copious amounts of booze and sugar. And realistically, we'd had so many nice sandwiches that any more cake would've killed us off.
Further welcome interruptions included more Ophelia Bitz, more acts (I won't put their pics on as it would spoil the surprise) and also some nipple tassels for sale courtesy of Rae Jenkin. My budget won't stretch to nipple tassels and pasties at the moment (there's another naughty joke: pasties and pastries...) but I took a card to browse the on-line selection. If I can get some of the cupcake pasties one day I'll know if finally 'made it' in the world of cake ;)
We really could've stayed there a lot longer - the decor was gorgeous and decadent and even the toilets were glamorous:

The music was great and the ambience was fantastic. It was with a fairly reluctant heavy gait that we ascended back into the bright London day around 2 hours after we'd arrived. I think next time I'll just head into the fabulous little upstairs bar and while the night away.
And there will be a next time for certain, for me and my companion who's already planning on bringing friends. 
Not only do the acts rotate so you will see different artists during different sittings, meaning you can keep returning and never get bored, but Volupte also host silent film in their Cine Illumine on the first Sunday of every month! I knew that afternoon tea and tease would be a match made in heaven and I can't wait to see if their Silent film and supper club is just as good.

http://www.volupte-lounge.com/

"Sip"-Tease Rating: *****
Pa"Tease"erie Rating: ****

Boudoir or Boring? rating: *****

Service with a Smile Rating: *****

Cheap or Chic? Rating: ***

Volupteas are on Saturdays and Sundays from 2:30pm - see website for more details,
Until next time....xox

"Taxidermy and Tea" Bethnal Green
If some unfortunate person wired themselves up to my brain and intrepidly explored it's recesses (a bit like a Bear Grylls version of 'The Cell') they would encounter some very particular themes. I'm fairly convinced somebody did indeed do this and was inspired to create the following: "Taxidermy and Tea"!! And as well as doing exactly what it says on the tin and providing tea and taxidermy, the event also included some of my other favourite things, such as 'tease in the form of Burlesque act Coco Deville and an Alice In Wonderland/Heston Blumenthal food mash-up courtesy of Animal Vegetable Mineral. I honestly don't know where to start...

My friend and I arrived fairly early which gave us carte blanche to dig into the amazing Mad Hatter's style spread before anyone else had a chance! The first thing we did was try the inhalable cakes which were vanilla or toffee apple flavour helium gas in colourful balloons - of course they came with the added surprise of making us sound like chipmunks which we hadn't anticipated, and made me laugh and snort the lovely 'Teapigs' tea out of my nose when Debbie started talking like Alvin.
Also available were scones, jammy dodgers, iced mushrooms that tasted like crispy cinnamon biscuits and marzipan bumblebees. I dug in to some of the savoury sandwiches first: perfect ham and mustard, buttery cheese and cucumber and spicy egg mayonnaise, before devouring the sweets.

There was a chocolate tower which needed to be smashed with a mallet, candy floss trees containing the best candy-floss I've EVER tasted and also little chocolate and beetroot mousses with chocolate 'soil' crumbs and mint leaves that made them look like little potted plants. And even though the food did taste amazing, half the fun came from putting things in your mouth that you weren't quite sure about...were the mini ice cream cones going to be sweet or savoury? Did the marzipan bees contain real honey..or real bee?! It was all so Willy Wonka - it was amazing!
After we'd filled our bellies we waddled off like Augustus Gloop and took a seat in front of the shabby heart-shaped stage to await the amazing Amanda...

What then ensued was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative session with Amanda as she 'taxidermied' a rabbit before our very eyes! The process was done in two stages with the skinning occuring for the first hour. It was very interactive, and the audience were able to shout out questions to Amanda and join in the discussion as she worked. Even better, we had a break in the middle which allowed us to re-fill on tea (or at the bar if we preferred) and shove more sweets into our eager mouths. (For an audience like us, it wasn't as if the taxidermy put us off the ham sandwiches - if anything, I really wanted a nice rabbit stew...)
Then, as we digested a bit we were regaled by the fantastic burlesque performer Coco Deville and her Alice In Wonderland inspired act. See here for a snippet:

Part two of T&T consisted of the 'stuffing' part of the taxidermy, again with step-by-step instructions and Amanda's fantastic stories and patter with the audience. The only problem is she was so good she made it look too easy and I have a feeling lots of people will try their hand at this in their kitchens at home, much to their 'other halfs' horror!
After the session we had a lovely chat with Amanda who I'd like to work with in future on various projects, and I couldn't help but wonder if taxidermy may overcome things such as knitting and crochet as a 'group' activity. Why go to Knat and Natter or Stitch and Bitch when you could take part in a Gut and Gossip session, or go to Stuff and Nonsense?! There's definitely a market for it ;) And living in a London flat where pets aren't allowed, I certainly think I've found a loophole...

All in all, the perfect way for me to spend a Saturday - it had absolutely everything...nearly... The only thing it was missing was Bear Grylls :( 
Until next time...xox
http://www.amandasautopsies.com/
http://www.avmcuriosities.com/ (Animal Vegetable Mineral)
http://www.therobincollective.co.uk/ (Experimental Pop-Up Events)
http://www.coco-deville.com/

"Lost Society" 1920's afternoon tea (@Blind Tiger)

http://www.blindtigerlondon.co.uk/

Finally Easter arrived which meant I could go back to my usual creamy, meaty, chocolatey eating habits. Don't get me wrong - I have nothing against vegetarians or vegans and I absolutely love things like Quorn and tofu, but life for me is certainly about choice and balance so it was nice to be able to treat myself after a good internal spring clean...!
So I did it in style at "Lost Society" in South London, a little gem of a place that I annoyingly never knew about when I lived down that way.

For everyone who thinks that you can only find decent places to eat, drink and be merry North of the river then think again: South London has some brilliant places which aren't as full of hipsters and aren't as expensive so it's well worth taking a trip to the deep, dark South...

The decor at Lost Society is really luxurious and vintage with a theme that relies heavily on Prohibition. Cocktails are served in teapots and there are lists of pre- and post-prohibition drinks on the menu, and the music I'm happy to say was also of the right era.

The food itself was amazing! One of the best teas I've ever had. To begin with we were given a complimentary Bellini which was beautiful and felt considerably naughty at 3pm on a Sunday...

Then the sandwiches came and they were to die for. As the meat-eater to my vegetarian companion, it was left to me to devour the little open sandwiches with Coronation chicken, salmon and cream cheese and gorgeous beef and horseradish that was just the right shade of pink in the middle. My friend had the cheese and the egg ones which I'm told were delicious. We both washed them down with the Bellinis while our English Breakfast tea was brewing beside us. (I always go for English Breakfast as that is a staple I can compare across the board. But this tea menu was really interesting and provided by Tea Pigs - it even included a 'popcorn' tea which I'd love to try next time.)

The 'Vintage Tea Party' Book - By Angel Adoree

On the way to a 1926 night at Troxy :)

What an absolutely beautiful book to own! I do love my Kindle as I'm an avid reader and it's easier for me to use that to carry the 10 books I can read in a week - but there is nothing better than holding a gorgeous book like this in your hands and going over its pages time and time again, in a big comfy chair.
And the best thing about it is it's not just a 'cook-book' but also has tips on how to source vintage china, make decorations and even get the perfect vintage look for your tea party. But because of the large range of subjects it covers, I was surprised at how sophisticated the recipes are. This is a 'grown-ups' cook book which includes dishes like smoked salmon souffle and brie & walnut savoury scones. It even includes so many things I've never even heard of...and I've been to a lot of tea parties! Coddled eggs, aspics...the list goes on.

http://vintagepatisserie.co.uk/ 

Now I'm half Irish and half Gypsy, so I thought I was aware of every possible excuse to drink during the day...champagne breakfast, bloody mary, mulled cider etc. But even I haven't heard of "Athol Brose" - a delicious combination of cream, honey, whiskey and oats to be downed with your bacon and eggs. That's next on my list to try :)
Continuing the boozy theme, there is a gorgeous selection of tea cocktails such as a 'Tea-quila Sunrise' and a 'Tea-tini'. So who thought tea parties were twee and boring?? Of course there are also some amazing recipes for sweet treats but I don't want to spoil the surprise - go and get the book!

 http://angeladoree.co.uk/ 

Angel herself is an amazing woman - you may remember her from Dragons Den (watch here):

Crimson Heart Film Club
There is a book called 'Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe' which I did a fairly scathing review of a long time ago - it was full of schmaltz and one dimensional characters that were bordering on being fairly racist stereotypes... Needless to say I got asked to take the review down. Good. I know where I'd rather be....in the real world:

Of all the places I've had afternoon tea in London, this has become a firm favourite and I definitely consider myself a Crimson Heart Groupie. Not only are the food and drinks fantastic, the staff friendly and the atmosphere as cosy as your nan's slippers, the place is just bang on trend and full of ideas. On any given day you may find yourself visiting a pop-up flower stall in their back garden, playing retro boardgames, watching a band or attending a book club. I was there for the recent monthly film club and had an absolute blast. For the entry fee of just £5, I was plied with food and drink, I got to enjoy Weird Science in surroundings just as comfortable as if I was at home and I met some more great people.

I was on the winning team for the quiz afterwards, so I got to choose the film for next month...I'm not telling you what it is, you'll have to come and see! Also, head there this Thursday at 6pm for the clothes swap party - the Crimson Heart Swap-o-Rama! Go to http://www.facebook.com/crimsonheartshoreditch for details xx

Tophams? I'd rather top myself....

So January is the month after we've all overdone it at Christmas: spent too much money, eaten too much food, drank too much booze...and now we're all paying for it. So to be honest, the last thing my wallet or my waistline needed right now was another afternoon tea. However, this one was already paid for as I'd already bought a Groupon voucher for it before Christmas. And in all honesty, the tea itself wasn't so much the focus as a good gossip with a mate and a day out of the house during this austere month.
I wouldn't have chosen the venue myself. Tophams is a hotel in Belgravia that has just undergone a 2 year refurbishment, and although it was very nicely done that was the problem really - it was just, well, nice. It was far too homogenous for me as the decor was 'neutral' and me and my friend were very un-neutral so we really stood out. And that was before we'd started talking...

The place was completely chocka as it was predictably full of people taking advantage of the Groupon offer, so I was glad I'd booked us in late in the day so we'd gradually see people leave.
We started with a pink champagne and at £26 for two champagne afternoon teas I feel I can't complain too much about the wait between the bubbly and the actual tea itself, especially as the staff were rushed off their feet. But when it did come it was a lovely selection of finger sandwiches and scones, as well as many little mini cakes. 

The problem was the cakes were all different and there was no duplication: queue much diplomatic discussion about who was going to get the cheesecake with the cherries in and who would get plain, who'd have the little choccy cake and who'd have 'vanilla' (I got that and it was even worse...lemon!) Then most importantly, who was going to have the cake that looked exactly like a little nipple..!

All in all it was OK, but it was my friend's first Afternoon Tea experience and I really wished I'd been able to take her somewhere a bit more subvert or full of character. Some of the old dears in their practically had a coronary at our conversation, and the most interesting thing I'm sure happened there all day was when I got up to go powder my nose and Heather had to pull me back as I had a MASSIVE split up the back of my skirt that I had no idea about. (I'm sure that must have happened when I was beating up a man in it 2 weeks ago but honestly, he deserved it...)

So, the proof is in the (chocolate) pudding....afternoon tea is what YOU make it, and this time all the glamour and drama came from us :)

"Sip"-Tease Rating: **

Pa"Tease"erie Rating: **

Boudoir or Boring? Rating: *

Service with (Nothing But a) Smile Rating: **

Cheap or Chic? Rating: **

Until next time...xox