On any given weekend, there’s going to be a lot of time spent at one of our houses eating half kilo bags of tortilla chips in loungewear, but when we do leave the house, these are the things we like to do:
Friday
We often work at home but there comes a point when you realise you’ve been in the same building for an entire week, and then it’s time to get out before you completely forget how to interact with other human beings. When that moment arrives, we hop on our bikes and cycle to Creperie du Monde, below (51 Chatsworth Road London E5 0LH, 020 8525 5735, creperiedumonde.co.uk), to camp out, caffeinate, and get stuff done. The coffee is really good and they do fantastic crepes and super thin omelettes - we love the ‘Maria’ omelette, which has mushrooms, spinach and pumpkin seeds, and the ‘Brunch Favourite’ crepe, with smoked salmon, asparagus and hollandaise.
Once work is done, it’s time to hit the bar. We’re not really cocktail drinkers but we’ve been totally seduced by the frozen hibiscus margaritas at Rita’s Bar and Dining (175 Mare St London E8 3RH, 020 3096 1530, ritasbaranddining.com), they’re sharp and refreshing, like a tequila-laden, very grown up slush puppy, and – good news – they’ll be serving them up with some proper tasty food at our talks with H by Harris and Dean Chalkley on August 3
We love Vietnamese food, so we might dive in for a cheap bite at one of Mare Street’s many Vietnamese restaurants. It’s tough to pick one, but recently we’ve been going to Hai Ha (206 Mare St London E8 3RD, 020 8985 5388, haihaonline.co.uk); their Som Tam (green papaya and prawn) salad and veg and tofu pho is delicious.
Early on in our friendship, a key bonding moment was discovering that we share a love of really hard, heavy dance music. We firmly believe that a good dance is essential to our psychological and physical wellbeing, so chances are we’ll be scouting around for a rave – unless it’s a Fashion Sunday weekend, in which case we’ll be staying in with a takeaway and our laptops. Party!
TheYard: JP Hion
One-off warehouse parties aside, there’s always good stuff going on at our friends Oval Space (29-32 The Oval London E2 9DT, 020 7183 4422, ovalspace.co.uk,). The venue is amazing and it’s a really sound crowd. If we’re willing to commit to pushing through until the first tube, Corsica Studios (4/5 Elephant Rd, London SE17 1LB, 020 7703 4760, corsicastudios.com), has two rooms, very heavy music and feels reassuringly dark and grimy. Much closer to home, The Yard, above, in Hackney Wick (Unit 2A Queen’s Yard , London E9 5EN, theyardtheatre.co.uk) puts on some really interesting experimental nights in a cosy, low-key venue that’s open as a theatre most of the week. It also closes at a more sleep-friendly 3am, so you’re slightly less likely to KO the rest of your weekend on night one.
Saturday
Assuming we haven’t crawled into bed at 8am, we like to get up and cycle into Shoreditch to do a class at Frame (29 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EY, 020 7033 1855, moveyourframe.com,) they have a packed lineup of intense but fun workouts ranging from 30mins to over an hour and you can pay as you go, meaning you don’t get into that gym membership guilt spiral when you can’t find the time for it.
After that, so we go to refuel just around the corner to Forge & Co, above (154-158 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6HU, forgeandco.co.uk) Forge feels like someone’s beautiful New York loft apartment circa 1991 and we can while away a good few hours lounging on the sofas, and their hearty salads make perfect post workout food. If there’s work to do, we’ll head to Ace Hotel, below 100 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6JQ, 020 7613 9800, acehotel.com/London): their café area is perfectly set up for laptop nomads like us, with shared desk space and wifi, and they make a mean flat white.
Then it’s time for some wandering and looking at nice things. If we’re around Dalston/Stoke Newington, we’ll dip into one or both of the Pelicans & Parrots stores, below (81 Stoke Newington Rd, London N16 8AD, 020 7249 917, pelicansandparrots.com) to eye up the beautiful vintage clothing and furniture.
If we’re more central, we love Darkroom (52 Lamb's Conduit St, London WC1N 3LL, 020 7831 7244, darkroomlondon.com,).
It’s like looking inside our own minds: all geometric shapes and clean lines, stark monochrome and primary colours – and they stock loads of the jewellery designers we’ve had at Fashion Sunday.
Pelicans and Parrots
When the weather’s nice, it’s hard to beat Broadway Market. Having both spent an unlikely amount of time in Belgium, we’ve got a soft spot for Belgian beer specialist The Dove (24/28 Broadway Market London E8 4QJ, 0207 275 7617, dovepubs.com), which has outdoor seating and an enormous list of Belgian and world beers on draught and on tap. We recommend a bottle of Tripel Karmeliet – but be warned, at 8.4% you’ll have to pace yourself.
If we’re feeling lazier, we’ll go to our newly-renovated local, The Adam and Eve (155 Homerton High St, London E9 6AS, 020 8985 1494, adamandevepub.com,). They do a Bloody Mary for £3 during happy hour and there’s amazing fresh food straight from the farm by The Cornwall Project.
Sunday
If it’s a Fashion Sunday, above, we’re up bright and early to get everything ready at Oval Space – setting up our custom made scaffolding rails, sorting the flowers, music, bar and furniture and finally welcoming all our designers and having a good catch up before the doors open at noon.
If it’s not a Fashion Sunday, we’ll head around the corner to Chatsworth Road Market (Chatsworth Road, London E5, chatsworthroade5.co.uk). There are loads of great stalls, but we usually make a beeline for Black and White Coffee Co for their mean iced coffees and Don Arancini for moreish risotto balls.
For dinner, is there anything more comforting than pasta on a Sunday night? We usually go around the corner to Venerdi (9 Chatsworth Rd, London E5 0LH, 020 8533 1902, venerdi.co.uk) for their linguine ‘Maria’ with king prawns, tomato, white wine and cream, which is the perfect way to round off the weekend.
Tiffany Alwis and Sonia Williams own and run Fashion Sunday (thisisfashionsunday.com,) and the label Hellespont (hllspnt.com) together.
Fashion Sunday is a carefully curated retail space bringing together a unique edit of London-based labels at the forefront of women’s and men’s ready-to-wear and accessories. In collaboration with culture journal Let’s Be Brief,
Their next event, on August 3
Rita’s will be on the patio serving food and frozen margaritas. Doors open at noon and the talks run from 1.30 – 3.30.
Tickets £10, or free entry after the talks.
Founded by Tiffany Alwis in 2012, Hellespont is a sports luxe label designed and manufactured in London. Unisex bomber jackets with fine fabrics and unexpected textural details make up the first collection.
