Hawksmoor & the Neko Case Concert

Actual date of this event: 24 May

Our friend's Liz and Greg were in town from Aberdeen for a Neko Case concert, and Luke and I were excited to go meet them in the city for dinner. I had spent all of Friday doing research on Shoreditch because that is where we were going to be. If you don't do research in a big city like this, you will end up being clueless as to where to go for a drink.

A while ago, I created a Google Map of London for Luke and I to use on the weekends. If you look at the map below, all of those little martini glasses are places to go in Shoreditch for drinks. Plenty of good options! But there are also plenty of bad options which is the purpose of my map. I also pin things for us to do and see so while we are walking around London, we know what to look for. Such as in Soho, there are apparently nose sculptures on buildings. If you find them all, the myth is that you will have a lifetime of wealth. Who's up for a scavenger hunt?!?!

The weather really wasn't very nice. It had been raining all day, and it was forecasted to rain that evening as well. The trains were all out of whack and delayed, but somehow, Luke and I arrived at the restaurant on time. We ate dinner at Hawksmoor on Commercial Street, which is a steak restaurant. I had ordered a special gin drink, and the waitress came back and said, I quote, "we are not making that drink today." Uuummmmmmm, what? Lame excuse that completely doesn't make sense. Whatevs, she suggested another which was very tasty, so I guess she earned her point back. Hawksmoor was one of those steak places where you choose what size steak you want and pay by the gram. So Luke and I shared a steak and some sides. The fillet (in Britain, they say "fill-it" not "fill-ay") was amazing and had a terrific crust to it! (Andy, don't worry, I still LOVE your steak too!) We all enjoyed our meal, but Liz and Greg needed to go to the Neko Case concert.

Cocktail menu at Hawksmoor

Luckily, when we left, it wasn't raining. But it was still light outside at 8:30. I am still getting used to the increasing amount of daylight we get daily as we get closer to the summer solstice... which reminds me that in less than a month the days will begin getting shorter and I don't like to think of what comes from that. ANYWAY... We headed to the concert venue, Village Underground, which is a warehouse that has old tube trains on top.

Source of photo

Luke and I were able to find some pricey tickets (which I'd like to forget about) from a man outside, so we were able to attend the concert as well. The inside was full of people in black because that's what EVERYONE in London wears. I feel like a box of crayons when I walk on the streets, with my colored shirt and blonde hair. Anyway, the inside of the venue looked like an old tube or train station, but I have not found anything online that says it was.

We enjoyed the concert and enjoyed drinking some canned beer haha! We did not however enjoy the menopause jokes Neko Case and her back up vocalist kept making. Afterward, I used my Google Map to find us a pub nearby. I chose The Book Club but when we got there there was a line at the door, and ain't nobody got time fo dat! So we moved on to the next location of The Bricklayer's Arms which was a good spot for one drink. After that one drink, we were all dunzo for the night. It was around 11:30, and Luke and I still had about 45 minutes before we would reach the door to our flat. Seriously, it sounds long, but it really isn't too bad. We walked to the Old Street station, and I did my best to make sure Liz and Greg knew their route to their hotel before we split off.

We had a late night, but a fun night. Glad we got to have a night of fun with them while they were in London!

RANDOM FACT:
Each cocktail on the Hawksmoor menu has a bit of history to it. The drink I had at Hawksmoor was a Marmalade Cocktail (Gin, Campari, Lemon Juice, Orange Bitters & English Marmalade). The description for my drink was: "Harry Craddock, who ran the Savoy’s American Bar in its 1920s heyday, thought it ‘a great necessity of the age’ to develop effective Anti-Fogmatics and recommended that they be drunk ‘before 11am, or whenever steam and energy are needed’. This, and the two that follow, are based on his earnest endeavours."