What To Do This Weekend 12.09.20

What To Do This Weekend 12.09.20

Wondering how to spend this Saturday and Sunday? Here’s our What To Do This Weekend roundup…
Photography: SPRING

ENJOY A SPOT OF AL FRESCO DINING HERE: Tapas Brindisa Shoreditch

This Saturday, Tapas Brindisa will reopen the doors to its east London restaurant and Andalusian-style terrace. The restaurant will kick-off its opening weekend by serving an authentic Spanish spin on bottomless brunch, with paella feasts and unlimited cava and sangria. Priced at £35 per person, Brindisa’s paella brunch will be available on Saturdays and Sundays, 12-4pm, with advance bookings mandatory. Later on, the restaurant’s dinner menu will celebrate the rich culinary diversity of regional Spain, with a focus on tapas and small dishes, as well as paellas and rice plates from Valencia and Alicante. The restaurant also backs onto a heated terrace – allowing for al fresco dining at any time of year – with the bar offering a view of the kitchen while diners work their way through a Spanish-leaning drinks list. Even better, Brindisa plans to extend the Eat Out To Help Out offer to the end of September, also including Thursdays – guests just need to quote ‘Comemos’ when booking.

152 Curtain Road, Hackney, EC2A 3AT

Visit Brindisa.com

GO ON A CULINARY JOURNEY HERE: Coupette

On Thursday, cocktail bar Coupette will unveil a new menu documenting the journey of the bar’s tight-knit team through Bethnal Green, as they tell their tales through cocktails, illustration and film. ‘Urban Legends & Their Uprising Tales’ will be a six-chapter menu that is both an exploration into the darker side of east London and a tale of wits, innovation and teamwork winning against all odds. Led by bar manager Andrei Marcu, the new menu is billed as a collaborative effort, with every member of the team contributing to the development of the 24 cocktails. Meanwhile, the bar’s award-winning signature serves will continue to sit alongside the newly devised concoctions – all of which are true to Coupette’s understated, unpretentious style. 

423 Bethnal Green Road, Bethnal Green, E2 0AN

Visit Coupette.co.uk

RELIVE THE BEST OF LONDON’S WEST END HERE: Cinema On The Piazza

This weekend, Covent Garden will launch a new cinema experience in its iconic piazza. Cinema on the Piazza will transform the historic area into a free open-air cinema showing two films a day – a matinee and an evening screening. The three-day programme will allow audiences to experience some of the Royal Opera House’s most popular performances just a stone’s throw from the world-renowned venue, including Swan Lake, Alice in Wonderland and La Bohème. There will also be afternoon matinee performances suitable for everyone with The Greatest Showman, Back to the Future and Mrs Doubtfire all scheduled. Tickets to the event are complimentary and can be booked online – although a donation to support the Royal Opera House is encouraged. Tickets include a seat on a director’s chair for everyone to watch the performances, while some of Covent Garden’s best-known restaurants will be taking online orders for collection on the evening, including fish and chips from The Oystermen, pizza from Buns & Buns or bacon scones from Frenchie. There will also be an open-air bar offering cocktails and snacks throughout each performance too, as well as al fresco dining options at SushiSamba, The Ivy Market Grill and Petersham Nurseries’ La Goccia. 

Visit CoventGarden.London

The Ivy Café, Marylebone
The Ivy Café, Marylebone
Openaire Float In Cinema
Openaire Float In Cinema
The Lying Life Of Adults By Elena Ferrante
The Lying Life Of Adults By Elena Ferrante

DELVE INTO THIS HIGHLY ANTICIPATED RELEASE: The Lying Life Of Adults by Elena Ferrante

Giovanna’s pretty face has changed: it’s turning into the face of an ugly, spiteful adolescent. But is she seeing things as they really are? Which mirror must she look in to find herself and save herself? She is searching for a new face in two kindred cities that fear and detest one another: the Naples of the heights, which assumes a mask of refinement, and the Naples of the depths, which professes to be a place of excess and vulgarity. She moves between these two cities, disoriented by the fact that, whether high or low, the city seems to offer no answer and no escape. A powerful novel set in a divided Naples by Elena Ferrante (the best-selling author of My Brilliant Friend) this new story follows the fortunes of an adolescent girl through changing family dynamics and growing self-realisation. Critics are calling it “a pitch-perfect dissection of Italian family life and the follies of youth”.

Available here

ENJOY A ROYAL-INSPIRED COCKTAIL MENU HERE: Ivy Café x Marylebone Gin

Just a short walk away from The Ivy Café Marylebone lies The Queen Mary’s Rose Garden. Gifted to HRH Queen Mary by her husband King George V in 1932, the garden contains over 12,000 rose bushes. In honour of this, The Ivy Café Marylebone has created a beautiful floral installation to adorn the entrance of its brasserie, as well as four limited-edition cocktails created in collaboration with Marylebone Gin. Designed by the in-house bar team, the cocktails include: a Royal Rose Fizz made with Marylebone London dry gin, crème de rose liqueur and prosecco, finished with a cloud of candy floss; a Sanguine Spritz made with Marylebone orange and geranium gin, Cointreau blood orange liqueur and a touch of lime juice topped with Fever-Tree Italian blood orange soda; a Strawberry Southsider made with Marylebone London Dry Gin infused with fresh mint, lime juice and strawberry purée, and finished with Fever-Tree Mexican lime and yuzu soda; and, finally, a Garden Negroni made with Marylebone orange and geranium gin, stirred with Aperol and lillet blanc for a light, fresh and floral pour.

96 Marylebone Lane, Marylebone, W1U 2QA

Visit TheIvyCafeMarylebone.com

ENJOY A CLASSIC MOVIE AND ICE CREAM HERE: Openaire Float-In Cinema 

The Openaire Float-In Cinema by Häagen-Dazs in London is the UK’s first cinematic experience by boat. Following the first ‘cinema on water’ in Paris earlier this year, the new concept will run for the month of September. A fleet of 16 eco-boats will provide seating for up to 128 people at the outdoor cinematic experience on Regent’s Canal, with guests able to captain their self-drive vessel around Little Venice before mooring at Merchant Square to watch the film. A giant video screen facing the water will show blockbuster hits such as Titanic and A Star Is Born, while high quality audio will be supplied via sanitised wireless headphones to ensure an uninterrupted experience. Audience members can also tuck into some of the most popular flavours of Häagen-Dazs ice cream, while those who haven’t found their sea legs yet can take a seat in one of dozens of socially spaced deckchairs along the towpath. Popcorn and snacks will be available for punters to order via a dedicated app and delivered straight to their boat or deckchair, while award-winning pasta chef RaviOllie will set up a pop-up kitchen on the water’s edge to offer freshly cooked Italian food.

Paddington Basin Canal, Paddingdon, W2 1AS

Visit Openaire.co.uk

SUPPORT LONDON’S HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY HERE: Cocktails In The City

Having been forced to postpone its April event, this beloved cocktail festival is back for an autumnal reboot – and will be bigger and bolder than ever. This weekend, the cocktail festival will host an al fresco summer garden party as part of its ‘community spirit edition’ in London’s Bedford Gardens, featuring some of the city’s best bars that have now reopened. Expect cocktails from the likes of the London Cocktail Club, Mr Fogg’s and 8 & Boston, live music from Nightjar and The Piano Works, tasting sessions, cocktail making classes, and tasty street food. All profits from tickets will be donated to The Drinks Trust, a charitable organisation that has supported thousands of hospitality workers affected by closures caused by lockdown. The new socially distanced event will be operating at less than 50% capacity, with tickets costing just £15. 

Bedford Square, Fitzrovia, WC1B 3ES

Visit CocktailsInTheCity.com

Brasserie Of Light
Brasserie Of Light

Ben Carpenter

Spring
Spring

REVISIT THIS CONTEMPORARY LONDON EATERY: Spring, Somerset House

Skye Gyngell will re-open the doors to Spring, her bright and spacious restaurant located in the new wing of Somerset House, this Thursday. Open in the evenings only, Skye and her team will be serving up elegant, seasonally driven dishes, as well as bringing back the popular scratch menu, which uses waste produce that is often overlooked. Meanwhile, the rest of the re-opening menu will celebrate late summer’s finest ingredients. Starters include sweetcorn soup with pickled cucumber, green chilli and flowering coriander; courgettes and clams with chilli, marjoram and fino; and peppers with goats’ curd and Umbrian lentils. Then, pick from mains including fillet of beef with porcini peara, Jerusalem artichokes and spinach; grilled lobster with Heckfield home farm butter, garlic and soft herbs, and matchstick potatoes; or onion and slow-cooked chard galette with berkswell cheese. Finish off with dessert – we hear the bitter chocolate cake with Armagnac caramel cream and prunes is a must-order. 

Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA

Visit SpringRestaurant.co.uk

RELAX WITH THIS CBD INFUSED COCKTAIL MENU: Brasserie of Light

Brasserie of Light, located in Selfridges, has launched a CBD based cocktail menu, allowing Londoners to experience this fashionable and exciting ingredient in a new way this September. Throughout the month, guests can enjoy three limited-edition cocktail combinations infused with MEDA CBD. Studied for its potential role in easing mind and body, CBD provides a natural alternative for pain and anxiety. Each cocktail will feature the CBD ingredient in an innovative and fresh way. The Glow features a refreshing blend of gin mare, elderflower, lime, biotin and olive leaf CBD. The Recovery features a delicious mix of Havana Club seven-year-old rum, orange, pineapple, turmeric and ginger CBD and finally, and The Espresso Medatini provides a twist on the familiar tipple, as Absolut Elyx vodka is infused with CBD, served up with cold brew coffee, maple syrup and tonka bean.

400 Oxford Street, Marylebone, W1A 1AB

Visit Brasserie-Of-Light.co.uk

QUESTION EVERYTHING WITH THIS NEW DOCUMENTARY: The Social Dilemma

Released this week, The Social Dilemma is a new documentary on Netflix exploring the pros and cons of the social media-driven world we now find ourselves living in. Never before have a handful of tech designers had such control over the way billions of us think, act and live. In this ground-breaking film, Silicon Valley insiders reveal how social media platforms are reprogramming society by exposing what goes on, on the other side of your screen. At once both insightful and terrifying, you’ll be left wondering how you ever lived without social media – and whether you should continue to.

Available to watch on Neflix.com

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