Calling all UK and visiting forumites...

Gauging interest in a London-based tasting (or anywhere we can get enough of us together).

Any takers?

BirDungy,

I am always interested!

Glennk is in town for another year, and I am sure he would be interested. I'm not sure when Longboarder is planning in his next trip over, but we could try to plan it around that.

Do you every check out wine-pages? There are loads of offlines in and around London all the time. It is a pretty active forum. You should check it out.

BirD, if you offlined here you could take in a hockey game? Or would you rather wait until May so that you can pay off your wine debts at the same time?

Birdungy and BobbyC - Glad I looked here. I will be in London at the end of February. Most likely, Feb. 27 (maybe the entire weekend). Let me know what you are thinking and I will confirm my travel by the end of next week.

Longboarder,

Sounds good. Lets see what we can rustle up. I have heard that a good steakhouse in the city is allowing £5 corkage for January. Let me see if there is anyway they can extend it for us.

I suppose we can make the theme big reds! Anyway that would be dependent on the restaurant. I will start thinking about it. Glad to hear you're back in town soon.

hi guys

Let me know prospective dates. I think I have something booked on the 27th but can probably get out of it. Happy to do restaurant or go back to Cork and Bottle in Covent Garden.

I know you guys are planning for something end of February, but my wife and I are in London April 5 - 11. I'd be thrilled to meet some of you!

I should be in town at that time. Let me know if you need help planning anything Bobby.

Should we settle on a date first.

Longboarder, let us know when your dates firm up. Looks BirDungy may have plans on the 27th that he may or may not be able to get out of.

If we can plan around that for now, lets try to. If it turns out that night is the only suitable night we can see if BirD can possibly change his plans.

As far as restaurants go, I wouldn't mind doing a restaurant somewhere different from the Crusted Pipe, which I think is what you are referring to BirD.

How about St. Johns?

hey Bobby

I think I can ditch my plans on the 27th (wife will be p'd with me).

I definitely meant the Crusted Pipe - memory fades but the pain still lingers...

The St John would be great - we would need to lob a call in to make it work though and promise to buy something good from their list for them to accommodate us all on a byo basis.

BirD

Looks like I am in town on the 27th and again on March 2nd. Either would work for me. Birdungy, if the Monday evening helps with the wife then we can go with that.

quote:

Originally posted by StarV100:
I know you guys are planning for something end of February, but my wife and I are in London April 5 - 11. I'd be thrilled to meet some of you!

As of right now, I’m scheduled to travel for work during that time but my work schedule changes a lot. My schedule should be firmed up in March so I would know better then, but would like it get together if it works out. Let me know if you need any London advice in the mean time.

quote:

Originally posted by Longboarder:
Looks like I am in town on the 27th and again on March 2nd. Either would work for me. Birdungy, if the Monday evening helps with the wife then we can go with that.

Either works for me..

Hi all

I am thinking Mon 2nd March would be best - got too much crap last night for not being 'there' with Mrs B.

So, 2nd March. Who's in?

A London OffLine...
I would be quite available Thursdays thru Saturday eves.

keep posting

Amp

Just bothered to read posting above...I'll look into Monday eve...are we talking West End here?

quote:

Originally posted by Ampuis:
are we talking West End here?

I’m in South Ken, but I work from home when I’m not traveling so I’m pretty flexible as to where. St. John would be cool with me. There is also a Tapas place by me that is really good and has a private room that I never see used. I’ll inquire as to what the minimums are, corkage, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by StarV100:
I know you guys are planning for something end of February, but my wife and I are in London April 5 - 11. I'd be thrilled to meet some of you!

I'm sure we can sort something out StarV100! Let us know when it gets closer.

Glenn, Tapas might be a nice idea. Why don't you let us know what you find out about corkage.

So lets focus on March 2nd. St. Johns allow corkage, so there is no need to worry about buying anything off of their list. Corkage has gone up to £15 from £10, but the food is good and a relaxed environment for an offline. I will make a reservation for 6. If we get more interest, we can perhaps upgrade to the private room. I will check if it is available that night.

Ampuis, I hope you can make it. St. Johns is in the Smithfields part of the city. Smithfields Market is very close to it which is the large market area for butchers. Its on St. Johns street and closest tube is Farringdon. Heres a link:

http://www.stjohnrestaurant.com/home/

This is firming up nicely!

So at the moment we are:

Longboarder
Bobbyc
GlennK
BirDungy
Ampuis-maybe

At the moment we are thinking about St. John but that may change dependent on what Glenn finds about tapas place.

What do people think about theme?

Talked to the tapas place and they are closing for a month for renovations so they are out. St. John sounds good to me…

quote:

There is also a Tapas place by me that is really good and has a private room that I never see used.

Here's a story that you might find interesting. When I was in London in 2005 it turned out that Seaquam was going to be there at the same time, so we arranged for a quick offline one evening. I searched online for an affordable BYO place and found few, so we settled on a tapas place in South Kensington, even though he was on the other side of Hyde Park and I was in High Holborn. I went a day or two early to check the place out, and I expect it is the same place as you mention above. It wasn't open that early so I ate in a very cheap roast chicken joint nearby that also allowed BYO. But I digress....

The date that Seaquam and I were to offline? July 7, 2005. Needless to say, we didn't....

Small world B-man, my wife and I were in London on vacation the week before the bombings. We left the last Saturday in June of 2005.

I can see how that would derail your offline plans a bit. Must have been very surreal being here during that tragedy..

I guess I can assume we are now a go for Monday, March 2nd?

Yes, we are booked.

7:00pm at http://www.stjohnrestaurant.com/home/

There are two branches of this restaurant, one in Smithfields and one in Spitalfields. We are booked at the Smithfields restaurant on St. John Street.

Corkage is £15/bottle.

We have a table booked for 6 but we can expand if there is more interest. At present we have 4 confirmed and one possible.

Attendees:

Longboarder-confirmed
BirDungy-confirmed
Glennk-confirmed
Bobbyc-confirmed
Ampuis-maybe

Still wondering if anyone has any ideas for theme?

quote:

Originally posted by bobbyc:
Still wondering if anyone has any ideas for theme?

Thanks for booking Bobby! I have yet to dine at St. John, what do you think would pair best with the food? Looking at the menu online it looks like its traditional British cuisine, heavy on pork and lamb. Old world theme, Bordeaux or Rhone?