Our friends in London

Last week we paid a whistle-stop visit to London on Fountain of Youth business. The streets were quiet and shining, the weather was great and we had an amazing time and made many new friends.

This is what we did:

We stayed at the new Ace Hotel on Shoreditch High Street. The Ace team will always be close to our hearts and this is a beautiful addition to their stable. We particularly fell in love with their juice bar, Lovage.

We had a wonderful evening at the new Rita’s in Hackney. They’ve just re-opened their restaurant, this time in their own space. It’s a delightful, delicate and tranquil space, full of charm and warmth, despite being sparsely (but thoughtfully) decorated. The food the kitchen puts out is delicious – it’s food to eat with your hands and to lick your fingers clean afterwards. It’s more sophisticated than the high-quality fast food of Rita’s previous incarnation, and with an unexpected Chinese twist when we were there. You really have to pay them a visit.

We drank tequila in the Alibi, an underground bar & music venue in Dalston. The words ‘dive bar’ came to mind, of course in the best possible way. Deano told us he had just repainted the space… but to us, it looked like the paint had been there for years. We guess it’s just that kind of place. And, like all bars and clubs in London, you don’t leave having passively smoked 5 packets of fags because it’s banned. London is so far ahead of Berlin on this.

We had a fantastic dinner at Brunswick House with the warm, open and generous Jackson Boxer and his brother Frank, who is behind Frank’s Café, the highly popular bar on top of a car park in Peckham. Brunswick House is drop-dead beautiful but very welcoming at the same time and it’s set inside an antique gallery in Vauxhall and is full of chandeliers, old prints and other knickknacks, but the atmosphere is as stuffy as you could imagine. The food is simple but grown-up, fresh, mouth-watering and gorgeous to look at. The artichoke soup was off the scale.

We had Pizza at Voodoo Rays, for us the very best Pizza in London. These guys take their pies very seriously with so much work going into creating their recipes. The space is cool and relaxed and we were delighted to discover that this is a Pizzeria with a night club attached on the floor below: the Dance Tunnel. Our asses shook to the beat as we munched on our slices and sipped the frozen Champagne slushies. A special shout out to Ella and Dan who took care of us so well that night. The Voodoo Ray crew are coming to stay with us in Berlin in February so if you bump into a group of blokes in Berghain smelling faintly of pizza, say hi because they’re all adorable.

We said hello to Magnus and Sam in Tuckshop. This is a jewel of a place; a small, simple but super-stylish cafe with a photo studio attached, hidden away in a side street in Shoreditch. These guys are doing great things, not just in Tuckshop, but all around. And we were happy to find out that coincidental connections already exist between us… Magnus is a friend of Ruth, who works in our restaurant and studio, and not only that, the other business Tuckshop shares it’s space with is Massow Design who make the Hemmesphere lamps we put in our lofts!

We had surprising, original and explosive cakes from Violet Cakes, a bakery run by Claire Ptak in East London.

We got to know James from Peckham Springs, a pop-up bar in Peckham that will soon be opening permanently. We didn’t get to see his bar this time, but next time we’re in town, we’ll be stopping by.

Davide, the bar manager showed us around the amazing new Edition Hotel, just North of Oxford Street. Definitely, a place to enjoy the luxurious things in life, and the lobby and restaurant are absolute show-stoppers! The basement club looked great fun too.

We saw some sculptures from Oliver Laric in Seventeen on Kingsland Rd.

We had great coffee and avocado sandwiches with the guys in Fabrica.

We loved the light, fresh and zingy Peruvian food in the new restaurant Andina on Redchurch St.

Most of these places stock our Fountain of Youth. We’re exceedingly honoured and happy to be associated with such great people doing so many wonderful things.

We’ll be back soon for sure!!