Bistrotheque's Studio East

"...with their brilliant young chef Tom Collins, Bistrotheque attracts everyone from Kate Moss to the art dealer Jay Jopling and remains a hub of the East End scene"

New York Times

East End eatery Bistrotheque to open a temporary dining room perched above Westfield's Stratford City 1.9m square foot Olympic site

From 16th June 2010 for a three week period 2000 guests will experience London's most exclusive rooftop experience with breathtaking views across the new Olympic Stadium and Zaha Hadid's 2012 Aquatic Centre.

With the freshest ingredients being craned in daily, Bistrotheque's purpose-built dining room, a staggering 34 metres above ground on top of Westfield Stratford City will enjoy 360 degree views of London's key landmarks including Canary Wharf, Crystal Palace, the Post Office Tower and the Gherkin.

"Bistrotheque represents an East End institution and we are very excited to be working with them at Westfield Stratford City; the perfect synergy for the innovation and inexperience for which Bistrotheque is renowned." 

Michael Gutman the Managing Director of Westfield UK/Europe

"When Westfield approached us to do something on the roof of their still-being-built development, we instinctively felt the structure should be built from everyday materials found around the site, be very design-led to match up to the stunning, truly iconic views.  This is the Rolls Royce of pop-ups."

Pablo Flack Co-Owner of Bistrotheque

"We wanted to create a buzzy supper club style dining room where all our guests can share the same food, the same views and be part of the same experience."

David Waddington, Co-Owner of Bistrotheque

The menu for Studio East dining is a group of dishes best enjoyed sharing.  Full of fresh, modern, clean flavours, steamed sea bass, poached chicken, asparagus, broad beans and samphire all feature, making the most of the best summer ingredients available and capturing all that's great about summer dining."

Tom Collins, Head Chef of Bistrotheque

To celebrate East London's creative spirit, Westfield Stratford City has launched Studio East giving the next generation of innovative talent access to the industry's leading lights; a cultural commitee chaired by retail guru Mary Portas will award bursaries through four main areas - Tracey Emin for Art, Roland Mourret for fashion, Tom Dixon for Product Design and Erin O'Connor for Environment.

About Bistrotheque

Pablo Flack and David Waddington took 6,500 square feet of derelict sweat shop tucked away in a cobbled back street somewhere between Bethnal Green and Hackney and turned it into Bistrotheque.  Opening in 2004 to a packed house of local reprobates, fashion's high flyers, the art world's cognoscenti and the occasional aristocrat, an East End institution was born. Under chef Tom Collins, the kitchen serves a menu inspired by French bistro classics.

The Reindeer

FLASH @ The Royal Academy

Flack and Waddington have also produced three phenomenally successful temporary restaurants, kick starting a trend and introducing the UK to the term 'pop-up.'  In December 2006 The Reindeer opened it's doors on Brick Lane for twenty three days during which time 13,000 people flooded into the Narnia-esque, snow, forest and log cabin filled dining room.  In the adjacent theatre Kiki and Herb, Mika, The Tiger Lillies and Janet Street Porter held the stage for 14,000 theatre goers.  November 2008 saw Flash open to similar numbers at the Royal Academy of Arts in Mayfair and last year Patron sponsored Patron Silver Reindeer.

"[Flack and Waddington] reinvented eating out to suit the style and energy of a new generation of cool kids"

Sunday Times Style

I will be reviewing Studio East on Monday 14th July.  Can't wait!

Studio East

16th June - 4th July 2010

Lunch 12pm - 4pm

Dinner 7pm - 11pm

www.studioeastdining.com

www.bistrotheque.com

London Fields

"Lady in the yellow dress - London Fields"

Photography by Emily at London Zest

Obviously I'm biased because I live right by it but I was pleased to see the piece below in Grazia about London Fields.  Admittedly a poor chap was shot on the previous Saturday afternoon, accidentally caught in a "postcode wars" shoot-out between a group of teenagers last week and most thankfully it wasn't fatal.  I know people will think this article is ill-timed but I think it was meant to be positive and understandably has received mixed reactions.  

Grazia were covering it from a fashion point of view and pointed out that last week's events don't seem to have deterred anyone from spending a lazy day in the sun.

To read 'London Fields - The Coolest Park in London' click HERE

To read my piece 'I love Dalston' click HERE

Back to the Phuture with Mark Jones

My good friend Wall of Sound boss Mark Jones presents the next show in his series on Eighties music -Back to the Phuture on BBC Radio 6 tonight.  Previous guests have included Human League's Phil Oakey, Steve Strange, La Roux, Heaven 17, August Darnell from Kid Creole and the Coconuts and Gary Numan.

Electronic music guru Mark turns his attention to synth pop in this latest show, playing classic tracks from Depeche Mode, Soft Cell and John Foxx alongside future synth stars Fenech Soler and Delphic.  Tonight he's joined by Andy McClusky and Paul Humphries of seminal electro group OMD, who had a string of hits in the Eighties that included Enola Gay and Electricity.  Mark talks to them about their rise to fame, the impact their music had on the charts and what inspired them to get involved with electric instruments.

The final hour of the show features a very special guest mix from hot new producer Grum (aka Graeme Shepherd) who set the blogs alight last year with his tune Heartbeats and his album of the same name.  Grum fuses the sounds of Eighties keyboards with twenty first century electro.  Check it out tonight.

Back to the Phuture

BBC Radio 6

Monday 31st May

9pm-12pm

www.backtothephuture.net

www.bbc.co.uk

RIP Dennis Hopper

"I should have been dead ten times over.  I've thought about that a lot.  I believe in miracles and it's an absolute miracle I've been around this long.  Like all artists I want to cheat death a little and contribute something to the next generation"

Dennis Hopper

1936-2010

Iconic actor, film director, artist and Hollywood wild man Dennis Hopper died today after a long battle with cancer.

His memorable career included early roles in Rebel Without A Cause with James Dean, who was a close friend and the classic western True Grit with John Wayne.  Later films included the hugely successesful collaboration with Peter Fonda, Easy Rider where they played two drug dealing hippies on a road trip across America.  In 1979 he gave an amazing performance as a drugged out journalist in the Vietman War epic Apocalypse Now, most of the cast were method acting throughout the making of the movie. He received high praise from the critics in Rumblefish and was unforgettable in David Lynch's Blue Velvet telling Lynch "I am Frank."

Five times married, once to Michelle Phillips from The Mama's and the Papa's.  The marriage lasted only eight days, when asked about it, Hopper famously joked "the first seven were pretty good."

We look like each other...

Photography by Ellen von Unwerth

Nadja Auermann

Photography by Phil Poynter

Isabella Blow

Photography by Derek Ridgers

Boy George

Douglas Booth

Michelle Pfeiffer

Louise Brooks

Photography by Steven Meisel

Isabella Blow

Photography by Steven Meisel

Kristen McMenamy

Photography by Andy Warhol

Liza Minnelli

Audrey Hepburn

A letter from Frank Sinatra

Love it!!  Well said, Frank.

Seven quotes for a Thursday afternoon - Part thirty

"I didn't have any confidence in my beauty when I was young.

I felt like a character actress, and I still do"

Meryl Streep

(b. 1949)

"People think that if you look fairly reasonable, you can't possibly act, and as I only care about acting, I think beauty can be a great handicap"

Vivien Leigh

(1913-1967)

Vanessa Paradis and Karl.  Photography by Karl Lagerfeld

"Beauty is submitted to the taste of time, so a beautiful woman from the Belle Epoch is not exactly the perfect beauty of today, so beauty is something that changes with time"

Karl Lagerfeld

(b. 1933)

"There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion"

Sir Francis Bacon

(1561-1626)

"Taking joy in living is a woman's best cosmetic"

Rosalind Russell

(1907-1976)

"It is amazing how complete the delusion is that beauty is goodness"

Leo Tolstoy

(1828-1910)

"I am a thing of beauty!"

Frank Sinatra

(1915-1998)

Seven quotes for a Thursday afternoon is a weekly series to read party thirty one click here

Mulberry's New York Glastonbury party

Mulberry was so taken with Vanessa Dearden's new book - Glastonbury - Another Stage - that they sponsored it's publication.  The book celebrating 40 years of Glastonbury is a selection of portraits of festival goers, artists and performers combined with stunning scenic shots.  Mulberry will be exhibiting shots from the book in it's Bond Street and Madison Avenue shops and is available to buy in store.  Here are some of the images

Lily Allen

Dame Shirley Bassey in a personalised welly

Great outfit!

To celebrate the launch of the book Mulberry's Creative Director Emma Hill held a Glastonbury themed party complete with tents and multi-coloured bales of straw at the fabulous Milk Studios in New York.

Guests were served a mini festival themed menu of mini Angus beef sliders with cheddar cheese, fish and chips, falafel pittas and mini Nutella and banana crepes.  They drank 'Mulberry Festival' cocktails and Doc's apple cider and Mulberry Bellini's.

Sadly I couldn't go to the party as it was in NY but my good friend at Mulberry sent me some pictures to show you.  

Mulberry's Emma Hill with photographer Venetia Dearden

Chanel Iman looking fabulous in Mulberry

Lakshmi Menon - Love her electric blue shirt and boots!

Agyness Deyn sporting a new blonde crop

Olivia Palermo wearing Mulberry

Alek Wek showing off her amazing legs!

I love Leigh Lezark's outfit

Sky Murphy, Venetia Durden and Jackson Scott

Who performed on the roof, their duo is called Manos di Dios

Then Kelis performed a set

And she did Milkshake!!  Sigh...

See more of the book at

www.mulberry.com/peacelovemud