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The World Has Turned Upside Down

post #1 of 32
11/4/06 at 3:32pm
Thread Starter 
We leave for Paris in 12 days. After 6 days there, visiting E****t (banned) and the lovely Katia, it is off to London. We are staying at Claridges, the grandest hostelery in the Kingdom. I am taking my very finest finery to wear in the most elegant restaurants in town.
To find those places, I opened my 2006 "Time-Out London Eating and Drinking" guide and looked for the Mirabelle in Mayfair, since I know it has been one of London's grandest for many decades. The first sentence in the guide:
"Mirabelle would be fabulously glamorous, were it not for the dominance of male diners in suits."
?????
What would make it glamorous? What if they were wearing jeans, sweatshirts and caps? Maybe black silk t-shirts, pony-tails and earrings?
Someone explain this all to me. I must be from another century.
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post #2 of 32
11/4/06 at 3:42pm
There was a Londoner, Bouji, who posted here a few months ago who went into this. Aparently, nowdays Londoners only wear a suit and tie to dinner when it's a business function. Suits have become associated with expense-accounted City boys who tend to behave themselves like little twats and not be particularly interested in food as anything other than a show of wealth. So, combine this overall bad feeling with the fact that business dinners are anything but glamorous, and you have the reasons for Time Out's judgement.

The Time Out food guides are extraordinarily good though, I think because of both their exhaustiveness and holisitc evaluations (i.e., inclusive of both food and atmosphere, and the interplay between the two.)

And incidentally, while dining surrounded by men in suits can be most enjoyable (particularly if cigars and steaks are involved), I do agree that it's far less glamorous than being surrounded by lithe twentysomething women in Miu Miu dresses.
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post #3 of 32
11/4/06 at 6:14pm
I feel utter glamour would be achieved by men in shorts.
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post #4 of 32
11/4/06 at 9:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LabelKing
I feel utter glamour would be achieved by men in shorts.


Welcome to my world.
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post #5 of 32
11/5/06 at 12:21am
I wondered why all my stuff was on the ceiling.
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post #6 of 32
11/5/06 at 8:39am
Ken, baby, where you been the last 15 years? If the above is your reference, the dining world in London's been upside down for at least 15 years...

BTW, I had a great idea for how you can solve ernest's problems (unless you prefer him to keep them so he can stay being your schadenfreude freak show) -- can you get him on your friend Springer's show? I'm sure he'd have enough incendiary things to say and he seems pugnacious enough!
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post #7 of 32
11/5/06 at 2:55pm
Pollock-san:
Please try entering a restaurant wearing a bespoke lace jabot. That will teach you the true meaning of intolerance.
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post #8 of 32
11/5/06 at 4:04pm
Yet another indignity that must be suffered for KP who holds the ways of Western Europe in.....

Ahhh sod it. Maybe the Londoners will be so impressed with your finery that they will all revert back to their previous ways. Or maybe....

K
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post #9 of 32
11/6/06 at 2:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaga
Pollock-san:
Please try entering a restaurant wearing a bespoke lace jabot. That will teach you the true meaning of intolerance.

Kaga-san, you're priceless!
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post #10 of 32
11/6/06 at 3:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nantucket Red
Kaga-san, you're priceless!

Agreed! Kaga-san wins the "SF member that I would most like to meet" award. If you ever return to your homeland please let Nantucket Red and I know.
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post #11 of 32
11/6/06 at 10:39pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by LabelKing
I feel utter glamour would be achieved by men in shorts.

I agree. It seems the perfect place to wear shorts. From the Mirabelle's website:

"Mirabelle in London's Curzon Street has always been glamorous. This famous gastronomic address of the 1950's, that boasted a regular clientele including Princess Margaret, Princess Grace, Lord Althrop, and Liz Taylor, has been re-created, and is, once more, one of London's most sophisticated and sought after dining rooms. This is a sleek venue, where the menu is matched by a wine list of which dreams are made."
http://www.whitestarline.org.uk/Mira...Restaurant.htm
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post #12 of 32
11/7/06 at 3:13pm
Will you bring your silver wine basket? And speak French?
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post #13 of 32
11/7/06 at 3:28pm
Don't forget your baseball cap.
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post #14 of 32
11/7/06 at 4:13pm
An important milestone in customer service! The 100th anniversary of "fast food" in America! We should party in Paris or something with E****t (banned).
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post #15 of 32
11/9/06 at 8:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Edward Appleby
There was a Londoner, Bouji, who posted here a few months ago who went into this. Aparently, nowdays Londoners only wear a suit and tie to dinner when it's a business function. Suits have become associated with expense-accounted City boys who tend to behave themselves like little twats and not be particularly interested in food as anything other than a show of wealth. So, combine this overall bad feeling with the fact that business dinners are anything but glamorous, and you have the reasons for Time Out's judgement.

The Time Out food guides are extraordinarily good though, I think because of both their exhaustiveness and holisitc evaluations (i.e., inclusive of both food and atmosphere, and the interplay between the two.)

And incidentally, while dining surrounded by men in suits can be most enjoyable (particularly if cigars and steaks are involved), I do agree that it's far less glamorous than being surrounded by lithe twentysomething women in Miu Miu dresses.

Could not have said it better myself... and this just shows that KP was not paying attention the first time, because the first time I said it, I addresed my post to him.
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