First time I visited the Ivy, was a night to remember. I made a reservation approx. 2 weeks before the weekend trip with my friend, and the only time we could have was Sunday night at 22 o'clock. Funny.
Well we had a rich weekend full of adventures. The first evening I slipped on our hotel stairs, and really hurt my bum. The right side was as blue as a blueberry, and it hurt. Can't let that slow down a weekend in London, just have to obtain the right medication. My friend really wanted to see a football game, I was up for it too, with max. budget of 30£ a ticket. It seemed to be difficult to obtain tickets in Soho, the guys at Soccer corner on Carnaby street were willing to sell us tickets for 35£ a piece. I was not willing to pay so much, and my friend was a bit upset because of that, though he admitted it is a steep price(That was a time when Pound was still strong).
Weekend went further, I think we visited the Comedy Store on saturday night, before meeting up with an old colleague for drinks at the Atlantic Bar. That was a pretty nice bar, of course, it no longer exists either. The whole building has been in renovation for over 3 years now, I've noticed. We wanted to carry on the evening together with my colleague's group to Chinawhite, one of the hippest clubs at the time, but since we were on a student budget, entrance fee of 20£ each seemed also too steep, especially since we still wanted to drink a lot too, and I persume the drinks would have set us back another 20£ each, or at least close.
So sadly we had to re-think our position in London night life, can't remember what happened next, but probably nothing worth remembering. That is often the problem in big cities, you have to have a clear plan for the night, if you don't, you will have to compromise. And if your plan falls apart, because of transportation problems, or face control, you will have to compromise again, and you will find yourself in an off-license kebab place to spend the rest of the evening.
Finally we got to Sunday night, a bit hung over, tired but with a sufficient appetite left. We arrived to the Ivy, and were seated just by the entrance, probably the worst seats in the house, but what can you do? We had a nice dinner, as a starter I had some Asian soup, main course I can't remember, BUT while I was downing my cappuccino cremé Brûlée, a goddess stepped from one of the booths, namely Claudia Schiffer. That was the first time I've seen her, or as my friend put it, she saw us ;) In my mind, she has always been the number one of the super models.
Well, we didn't end up to any wild party together with her, but I have to say even when the Ivy didn't really care if we were their guests or not, Claudia made it all worthwhile. And while our bill amounted to 35£ each, funnily enough exactly the same amount the football game would have set us back, my friend admitted that seeing Claudia was enough to compensate for the Saturday's loss.
