Fran

I think we both awoke with slightly sore heads, concluding that we had lost track of how much wine was being poured last night but it was a lovely evening and seemed to fly by.  After we had showered, Phil made a lovely breakfast of avocado on sourdough and some - very strong - coffee.  We spent a couple of hours eating breakfast and chatting before we headed back to the station. 

We had prepared ourselves to go straight to the Fran Lebowitz event from Chingford but, by leaving at 11:30am, we had sufficient time to get home, dump the bags, freshen-up and get back into central London in time to get to the theatre.  The opportunity to have another wash and change shoes was welcomed when feeling a big hungover.  We were back in plenty of time to take our seats at The Palladium and it was better to be unencumbered with bags.  We also both opted for soft drinks. We’d booked seats in the aisle, in the stalls, so they gave us a great view of the two chairs and lectern that would be used during the afternoon. 

I was unsure what to expect from the ‘in conversation’ event. Like a lot of the audience, we first came across Fran Lebowitz in the Netflix documentary, directed by her friend Martin Scorsese, Pretend It’s A City.  She has been described as “unapologetically opinionated” which hides the fact that opinion is expressed with no-nonsense humour. The first half of the event was ‘in conversation’ with a journalist and the second was taking audience questions.  The first half seemed a bit stilted - but the humour and laughs were still there - but the second half warmed up well even though I felt many of the questions were bland and simplistic.  Fran Lebowitz  is a super-smart commentator and asking or her favourite music seems a banal question.  Of course, it’s easy to say that the I didn’t ask one.  But, one of the reasons I don’t ask questions at events like this, is that I can never come up with something that I think of as worthy of asking.  Perhaps, this was the best we could get.   There were mo microphones in the audience which allowed people to just try and shout out questions.  It certainly saves time by not waiting for people to scurry around with a microphone but the time is lost by people have to constantly repeat the question so they are properly heard on stage.

Afterwards, we grabbed a coffee in the pavement cafe at Brasserie Zedell. We sat inside near the little serving-bar. There was a lot of work just to serve a few drinks to some tables. It’s not clear if it was understaffed or inefficient. We, however, turned out to be lucky, as we were sat so close to the bar our service was great.

Then there was a short walk to Mr White’s restaurant on Leicester Square. I was using a voucher that Mum & Dad had bought. I never quite know how restaurants feel about customers using these vouchers. Ours was a two-course, with a drink, offer. We did add a desert to it. We are pleased to see that service was applied to the whole bill (including the voucher value) as it really stood out as excellent. I think the review I wrote for the voucher site sums it up,

I used the voucher on a Sunday evening.  The available menu to voucher holders is the set menu (not the full menu).which includes a good range of favourites. Both of our starters were ample (Avocado Caesar Salad and Porcini Aranci; both delicious).  We opted for the pizzas which were plate-sized and full of flavour (we opted for the Pepperoni Piccante and Badda Bing - which were both spicy). The drinks menu available as part of the voucher was limited but a good selection of cocktails are available.  The service was excellent: attentive and fast which really stood out in comparison with some restaurants I have recently visited. I thought the whole experience was good value and will consider going back again.