Trip Report: London

[StevieG]

Long London Story Short

Played poker at the Vic and at Gutshot, craps at the Sportsman. Wished the Vic looked like the Sportsman, but will definitely go back anyway given the chance.

Enjoyed just about all meals, including great meal at Pied à Terre and chance meal at Med Kitchen in Covent Garden after seeing Tom Stoppard play, "Rock and Roll".


London Long Story

Goals

This was a business trip, and not an easy one at that, so the travel goals were modest and focused on night time: One Indian meal, one traditional English pub dinner, and one high end restaurant. Play pot limit Omaha someplace.

Along with me for the trip was co-worker B Dub, a great travel companion also into gambling, good food, and tasty beverages.


Night 1 - Welcome to Charlotte Street

After half a day's work, we consulted a map and headed to Charlotte Street in Bloomsbury for drinks and dinner because it was close and there was a "high end dining" candidate there, Pied à Terre.

Turned out Charlotte Street was bumpin'. There were a lot of restaurants and pubs, and since it was walking distance from the hotel, it became the go to spot for the week. During the course of the week, we saw parked on the street a Maserati, a Lamborghini, and two Ferraris.

Dinner was decent Indian food at a place called Goa, enjoyed at an outdoor table.


Night 2 - Gamble at the Sportsman and the Vic

We got done with work at a decent hour and B Dub is up for gambling. We took the tube over to Marble Arch, walking distance to Sportsman casino and the Vic. On the tube, we saw ads for Guys and Dolls featuring Patrick Swayze. Patrick Swayze. I thought this would be fantastic, B Dub did not.

Once out of the tube, we found a pub, where we ate, drank, and watched Arsenal at Dinamo Zagreb in the first leg of a Champions League qualifying match. Since my wife is from Zagreb, I was rooting for Dinamo. Dinamo hung on well in the first half, but Arsenal put three past through Fabregas (twice) and van Persie. Pretty goals, especially the first two.

I had the fish and chips, somewhat disappointing as the batter was not crisp all over, and the chips also seemed sub-par. B Dub did much better with a minced meat pie and mushy peas. The beef was tender, savory, and the pie crust flaky and rich with butter. Also, the ordinary bitter on tap
was hand pulled and marvelous. We stayed for a third round despite wanting to go gamble and Arsenal clearly running away with the game.

First we went to the Sportsman. The place was gorgeous inside, with warm wood trim and golden lighting hues. Felt very clubby inside. Combined with the dress code, it made for real atmosphere. I wish more casinos looked like this in the U.S. There was no poker being spread, though (tourneys Mon and Fri bring in crowds). Still managed to lose £50 there playing craps. (Only single odds available).

Then off to the to the Vic (Web site has annoying use of popups). Definitely not as refined looking as the Sportsman, but much larger. More importantly, there is plenty of action in the poker room.

B Dub went off to play blackjack, and I got on the list for Pot Limit Omaha and sat in on the pot limit Hold 'Em game. I play limit hold 'em almost exclusively, so I asjusted to this game by playing tight and trying to observe the play closely.

The game was fun, featuring a good amount of banter. Typical exchange between thing middle aged Asian man and old grumpy Englishman in a tweed jacket:

Thin man: (sits down)

Grumpy Tweed: I don't trust anyone sitting down after midnight. Only vampires come out after midnight.

Thin man: You want to check my reflection? Let's go find a mirror.


They called my name for PLO. I was enjoying the other players at the table, was growing comfortable with the structure, and was considering staying put. But I had to go. London - PLO at the Vic! Travel imperative.

I made one mistake early on. Action came to me in the big blind in seat 1. The dealer says "any raise?" But all I process is "raise" and I mistakenly fold to the non existant raise from seat 9.

Everyone noticed of course, but only one commented after the hand. It might have given me a table image as clueless newb, though. After minding my own business, I get involved in a few pots with strong hands and take them down, to the suprise of the opponents.

Finished up £250. Would have been more, but a woman who flopped a boat with her pocket queens baited me in to chasing my flush and then raising the river. Still, not bad.

B Dub also won at blackjack, so overall a good night.


Night 3 - Haute Cuisine

Work was not going very well. We started to consider moving our flights from Friday to Saturday.

Dinner at Pied à Terre. The restaurant has two Michelin stars, and the prices to match. The food was very good, though. The highlight for me was the apetizer of foie gras in a balsamic sauce with caramel foam (!) along with a spicy carrot puree. That was indulgent and an incredible mix of flavors.

Another highlight was the amuse bouche, which was really a full course in itself since it consisted of a whole plate of hors d'oeuvre sized meats and fish. B Dub does not really go for seafood, so I swapped a mushroom for his seared tuna and salmon sashimi. I won.

Dessert was also notable. I had the trio of a sesame seed nougat (the nougat was a square of lychee gelatin - the combination was delicious), pistachio ice cream, and apricot tuile (a cookie). B Dub had the caramelized apples with walnuts and cinnamon ice cream. Sort of a deconstructed apple pie.

When we rolled out of there we were sated but not quite done, so we walked up Charlotte street a bit to a small pub.

Glad we did. After placing our orders, an older gent with combed back grey hair and a khaki suit eyed us up in our dark suits. "American? Where from?"

We told him the DC area.

"Ah...are you with the company?"

Nice. With that, he went off drunkenly about nothing really, but it was entertaining anyway. Since he also had a habit of grabbing your arm or shoulder to emphasize a point, or patting you on the back, B Dub marked him as an old queer.

Naturally then, the young tall guy at the bar who kept making unsolicited sarcastic remarks about anything the old guy says became, in our view, his jilted young lover.

There was no need to invent a backstory for the bartender, who shared with us his story of leaving Ireland to do theatre workin New York, only to come back to London to do more of the same. He was also razzing the old guy, but as a bartender would a regular.

Also in attendance was a woman at the bar whose dress was threatening to slip past her breasts. It actually did happen and she flashed us some nipple, which was icing on the cake for a great pub stop.

Observation - drunk Brits are fun.



Day 4 - Terrorist Plot

We woke up to news that MI5 had shut down a plot to blow
up as many as ten planes.

Now our plans to change flights from Friday to Saturday were more like a necessity. In our favor was that our flight was from Gatwick, not Heathrow.

Work went really late, and we leave around 10:00. We asked a concierge for a recommendation for something this late, maybe a Chinese place, and he suggests Shanghai Blues.

Shanghai Blues was a nice place, high quality food and an upscale atmoshere. To me the highlight was the rib appetizer, flavored strongly with ginger and star anise.


Night 5 - Roka Run-In and Gutshot

Wrapped up work for the week, made arrangements to fly out Sunday.

We go to Charlotte Street again for dinner. This time we pick Roka. The Japanese food is very good, but it is Tapas style, and so the plates are very small. It would have been good of the server to tell us that. Plus the server is slow.

Roka has an open kitchen, and a long bar going around it that affords a view of the people making food while we wait for ours. During this wait, I watched a guy a the other end of the bar stand and appear to spit on his buddy, who laughs.

I asked B Dub if he saw what I just saw, and he thought so.

"I'm going to go ask him," I said. Maybe he's drunk, but whatever.

So I walked over. "Excuse me, did you just spit on him?"

At this point, the guy turned around and grabs me by the arm.

Oops.

Not only was he way more drunk than I thought, he was also angry. Imagine someone who looks like Alton Brown, except instead of talking about 5 ways to make guacamole, he asks "Who the [censored] are you?" 5 times in a row with increasing menace.

I managed to extricate myself, with the help of Evil Alton's spit victim friend, and go back to my seat.

A hostess came to see me "Would you like me to have the manager talk to him again?" she asked. Uh....

Observation - most drunk Brits are fun.

After dinner, we grabbed some much needed beer at the same pub from Night 2, but not one bare nipple to be seen. Then we tried Sportsman again. On the way, I mentioned the Gutshot to B Dub, but warned him that there will be no blackjack. He was up for trying after playing some blackjack.

The Sportsman tournament was still going, as was a cash game. £250 minimum buy in with £5 blinds. I would not be comfortable with that and so I played craps instead. Found out that they would not comp my cocktail (not enough play, I suppose). Booked a small win, so did B Dub, and we headed out to the Gutshot.

Gutshot looked like an Internet cafe on top with a frat-house hold 'em tournament in the basement.

There was a self-dealt pot limit hold 'em game with a min/maxbuy in of £25. Except for the self dealing part, this was perfect for B Dub, so we get into the game.

People were great, we had a good time, B Dub got comfortable. There was one player who was somewhat TAG, but his playing hand selection was poor. There was one that played so tight it was easy to stay clear of them. The rest of the table was loose passive.

I won £12, B Dub dropped a few pounds.

We left around 4AM.



Bonus Night 6

We had no plans for that night, so we did some browsing. I found Stringfellows (NSFW) and B Dub found Roast.

Neither one of us felt like paying the equivalent of close to US$40 for an air dance, and we both liked the idea of eating well again after Roka's disappointment Friday night.

Unfortunately I swapped the addresses, so ended up walking around theatre district looking for Roast. We realized what happened and made the most of it by seeing Tom Stoppard's "Rock and Roll". Very good, Brian Cox (Stryker from X-Men 2) was excellent in the play. John Cusack in attendance in audience provided a celebrity sighting for the week.

Then we had dinner close by at some place on same street at Med Kitchen. Surprisingly good. I had sea bass with snap peas and other greens, and panna cotta for dessert.

Went back to Sportsman. There was just something about that lounge atmosphere, wagering with well dressed people, that kept drawing us in. Yes, it was -EV, but it felt like living right. So I lost money at craps, B Dub lost in blackjack. We called it a night, and basically a trip.


Day 7

Train to Gatwick and B Dub wanted to practice a little hold 'em. So I busted out the Dal Negros and we played some, using a combination of Yankee and Brit coins for chips, coppers are 1, silvers are 5.

This was great, and highly amusing, until at one point the train was stopped and B Dub looks up at me and says "Gatwick!" We hustled out in time. I grabbed the cards but leave the change behind.

Airport was a mess, but everyone was resigned to accept it, so mood stayed good.

Traditional English breakfast. I will never really like baked beans with breakfast, but I scarfed them down anyway.

Flight was uneventful. Amazing how fast a plane boards when no one is allowed to bring carry-on luggage. Well almost no one. Never has it been easier to spot the Air Marshalls, and never have I been happier to see them on board.

The airline allowed us to bring on books bought after going through security. So I was able to read most of Mezrich's "Busting Vegas." You can read my review here.

It felt good to come back home safely.

[Vavavoom]

Nice Report...

Roka has always been pretty good on the food when I've been there....

As for stringfellows - Over-rated.....You should have gone to Secrets - the girls get naughty a lot quicker in there...

Still, sounds like you enjoyed London...

Vava

[diebitter]

Where's Secrets Vava.


My old haunts were The Cat's Whiskers in Streatham, and up west it was Bananas on Wardour street (long gone), Samanthas and sometimes Whisky-A-Go-Go, La Beat Route, and v. occasionally the Empire Leicester Square (so bad it's good).


Oh, and the all-night Northern Soul raves at the 100 club before all-nighters were even remotely common.

[StevieG]

[ QUOTE ]

Roka has always been pretty good on the food when I've been there....

As for stringfellows - Over-rated.....You should have gone to Secrets - the girls get naughty a lot quicker in there...

Still, sounds like you enjoyed London...


[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, despite work not going so well, and the anxiety from the terrorist threat, it was an enjoyable stay.

Two clarifications:

* I thought the food at Roka was quite good. The service was disappointing. I would give Roka a second shot.

* We did not actually go to Stringfellows (or any other strip club). From what I read online, mileage is not great. That's not worth GB£20 compared to what I can easily get here in the states for US$20. However, feel free to PM me about Secrets to change my mind for the next London visit [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Cheers,
SG

[Vavavoom]

There are several Secrets :

The ones I have found the best are in Euston and St Katherines Dock...

The problem with them is that @ £20 a dance its not worth it....unless you take the hr long option for £250 ? That sometimes is worth its wait in gold...

Ultimately, it depends what you want out of it....Most of them are willing to sleep with you for money....I got chatted up by one last week....and she gave me her number etc (Mind you that was @ Majingos in Canary Wharf)

Vava