70th Birthday meal - Lowlander

The Lowlander, Drury Lane, London. Saturday 12-November-2020.

The primary driver for our visit to London was to have a birthday celebration for those that were unable to make it out to Italy so we decided to make a long weekend of it.

Since we were in London on a Saturday there had to be a parkrun. Amongst other fun challenges we are currently doing the Pirates challenge: Seven Seas and an Arrgh! - you have to do seven parkruns beginning with the letter C and one beginning with the letter R. 

Also Mary is playing catch up because she started parkrun later than I did so Clapham Common it had to be.

The next few parkruns are already scheduled to ensure we complete the challenge by Christmas ending up running at Carlisle in full pirate regalia just purchased from the fancy dress shop at Clapham Junction on Friday. We are not mad!

The birthday celebrations were in Lowlander, a Belgian bar and restaurant in Drury Lane. We had booked the mezzanine so that we would have our own separate space. We were hoping to be around 20 but had a few last-minute dropouts due to illness and transport issues however that did not deter us from having a good time and fulfilling the corporate mission "to eat, drink and have a good time". It was great to catch up with friends not seen for a while and we ended up being there for five hours!

Eventually we had to leave as they needed to clear and clean ready for an evening booking so a smaller group of us adjourned round the corner to the Princess Louise in Holborn for another beer, non-Belgian variety. The interior of the pub had changed considerably since I was there last. According to our friend Tony, it had been bought by Sam Smith's Brewery who used the original Victorian plans to re-create the interior as it had been before the previous owners ripped it all out. They have done a grand job of restoration.

We then headed back to Fulham intending to get a light snack for an evening meal but there was not much to choose from in the area. We had already eaten in the Italian the night before. We decided to try the Fulham Kitchen across the road which turned out to be a Serbian café who were able to feed us a plate of charcuterie and a generous grilled goats' cheese salad. Mary tried a couple of Serbian Chardonnays and passed them as perfectly acceptable. The lads on the next table were enjoying some kind of digestive. When I enquired it turned out to be some kind of apricot flavoured rocket fuel so we had to join in and give it a try. I thought it was alright.

And so to bed.