Boulder to London

Yesterday I was quietly settling in for a nap on the couch, trying to mind my own business when Melisse exclaims, ‘Let’s go check out some pubs around Angel!’.  I mumbled back, ‘The football match is on in an hour and I need to take a nap first’.  She wasn’t impressed and persisted a bit with, ‘Come on, it’s beer’….well, she had a point… say I’m easy, but I was sold.  I mustered the energy required to put on my shoes and grab my coat (it was pouring out) and we headed down to the bus stop to catch the 73 down to Angel.

Apparently Melisse had spent the past hour or so checking out new pubs in the area  online in preparation for G.R. and Samantha’s visit next month.  She had a list of about 10 pubs she wanted to check out and she had me tagging along as her companion.  We started by walking south and east to a cozy little pub called the ‘The Charles Lamb‘.  The place was quiet and comfortable and had very friendly staff.  We were there in the early afternoon and most tables were full with couples chatting over a pint or a glass of wine.  I had an Oktoberfest beer and Melisse had a glass of red wine.  The round was a bit pricey at 10 quid, but overall not bad.  Since the place was a bit quiet and the rain had paused for a moment, we headed up the road to check out the next place on her list.

The next place was called ‘The Lexington‘ and was supposed to be an American styled music venue / bar.  It looked pretty cool, but was absolutely empty so we walked on by.  We found ourselves a way up the road at a place called ‘The Compass‘ which was a newly opened place on Chapel Street.  It too was very quiet in the early afternoon, which we figured was due to the fact that it might be more of an eatery than a place to hang out for drinks.  It was also still early, but the staff was very friendly so we decided to stay for a drink to warm up a bit.  The round was about 7 quid which was a good value for London.  Since we were the only people in there, we made our way up the road through Chapel Street market which we had never seen before and popped into a place called ‘Round Midnight’ which was once again an American themed music venue.  One of the fliers on the table was advertising play with the band night, where you could bring your instrument and play a few songs with the house band.  I’d never heard of such a thing, but it sounded interesting.  We ordered a round of drinks and found a table in the corner to sit back and check out the place.  For whatever reason, the place had a disproportionate number of women.  Most of the tables had 2 or 3 ladies talking to each other over drinks.  I’m not sure what made this place particularly female friendly, but they were doing something to draw the crowd.  It might just be that they were directly across the road from the shopping center and the women were in taking a break from an afternoon of retail therapy.  Whatever the case, we had a drink and moved on up the road.

Up the road a little ways, we found an absolutely fabulous place called ‘The Angelic‘.  The place was full of people all chatting, laughing and enjoying a good time.  We were lucky enough to land a place on a comfortable couch and ended up staying for a couple of rounds.  The architecture of the main bar area was beautiful with large windows, high ceilings and an old wood floor.  The real treat of the place though was the restrooms, which were found at the bottom of this cool metal spiral stair case in an area constructed of brick and accented with classical styled fountains.  A round of drinks was around 7 quid and the food looked great although we didn’t stay and order any.  We have however tried to book a table for New Year’s Eve and we’re waiting to hear back!

By this time, we were ready to get some food in our bellies.  It was still a bit early for dinner, but close enough that it wasn’t completely awkward ordering dinner.  We headed back up the road through Chapel Street Market to an Indian place called ‘Spices‘.  We were amongst the first tables of the evening, but the owner came out to speak with us and share some of his recommendations from the menu.  We ended up with some samosas to start with followed by a mildly spicy chicken and vegetable dish.  The food was fabulous and the service was great.  I highly recommend it.