The Ivy Restaurant in St Johns Wood, London

 There's the famous Ivy restaurant in central London, very expensive and hard to book. Then, there's the Ivy Restaurant in St John's Wood, NW London. Famous locally.

A favourite of my family. They went there to celebrate an anniversary. the restaurant can supply fancy desserts. No age restriction. They welcome children and toddlers.

The Ivy Restaurant, St John's Wood, London. Photo from Sharot family. Copyright.

In addition to the two in London, you will find Ivy restaurants in ABCD and M - Los Angeles, Birmingham, Cambridge, Manchester. There are many more spinoffs, some restaurants for fine dining and others called brasseries and cafes with slightly different branding.

Historic Pictures

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ivy_(UK)#:~:text=Since%202014%20the%20company

https://the-ivy.co.uk/

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Wine shows for the trade and public

A Riesling show in London was open to trade in the day (Monday 16 May) and then to the public in the evening for a charge. I wasn't able to attend but a friend of mine went and told me about it. I asked if there were any sweet wines.
http://www.winesofgermany.co.uk/blog/german-grape-time-london-embraces-31-days-of-riesling-by-lopa-1
A Cava tasting was open to the public in the evening. at the wonderful Oxo building by the riverside.

After a wine tasting where do you go to eat?

Oxo Tower
My family once held a joint birthday meal at the smarter of the two restaurants, fulfilling my dream.  (Years ago somebody had said they might take me there but never did.
We wanted a window seat for this special occasion and eventually got moved when a table became free. You get wonderful photos. If your camera is able to take in dark lighting and get distant shots even better.

Oxo Tower For Birthdays
The Brasserie is slightly cheaper. If you arrive at the tower and they don't have your booking you may have gone up in the nearest lift to the entrance where you arrived and emerged at  the wrong restaurant.

Time
Allow extra time.  Five minutes goes as until you've got to the front of the queue. You, wait five minutes whilst you say you have a booking and they can't find it. They or you realise you must have booked the other restaurant. Another five minutes to gather your group, one from the toilets, another wandering around taking photos, reclaim coats. Then five minutes to get directions and find your way to the other restaurant and queue up again.

By now your fifteen minute window for arrival to claim your booking is is danger of being recorded as a no-show and allocated to other hopefuls. Or your window table, requested and confirmed, has been given to another group. By now  you have changed restaurants once and tables twice, so the desert with the candles  been forgotten or gone to the wrong people or sent back.

Birthdays
The Oxo Towers great for a well-organised group enjoying a birthday. If you have been to a wine tasting and you are a solo diner looking for something quick and cheap before catching the train home, head towards a station and you might pass several Indian restaurants.

Alternative Restaurants
If you are a fitness freak, you might think it's a good idea to walk off all the calories from that wine, even if you were spitting, to clear your head, to get the energy to travel home.

With luck your phone will send you some advertisements for restaurants nearby and offers. My friend was sent an ad for a Portuguese restaurant in a large hotel and was able to order one main course, which he declared delicious, before catching the train home.

Business Opportunities
Some of the people at trade shows are looking for distributors so your wine won't appear in the shops until a distributor is found. If you are in the trade and entrepreneurial, or run any kind of business, or have an extended family in business, people who are looking for idea for a new business, or a second business on the side can find opportunities.

Mixers and Tourism
If you are not into alcohol, there's usually something else on show, such as an olive oil, a low alcohol wine, a mixer or syrup, wine holidays, wine tours for tourists, either on show in a leaflet, or information available if you ask.If the sponsors include something not wine related, such as an airline or tourist board, you may be able to make useful contacts with them.

Tutored Tastings
If you are in the business and want to be admitted to the tutored tastings run by the Masters of Wine, arrive early, when the doors open, to be first on the list.

Wine drinking, like trying new foods, is a voyage of discovery.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, author and speaker.

French words of the day: clafoutis; gauche;

clafouti - Fruit tart
gauche - left, as in rive gauche - left bank of the river; left-handed, clumsy physically or verbally

For example, I am too gauche to make a fruit tart
or
I am not too gauche to present a fine fruit tart, or clafouti, at a grand occasion.

brasserie - originally a brewery, serving food, now a cheap restaurant, often a grill
force majeur - looks like major force doesn't it! Act of god. Irresistible force. Event you cannot anticipate nor avoid.
renaissance - rebirth - a period of new art
tisane - aromatic/herb-flavoured tea
julienne - strips of carrot or other food chopped the size of half a finger with a square cross-section
chiffonard - wafer thin, like chiffon, finely cut leaf vegetables used as a decoration
jardiniere - from the garden (j a r d i n - sorry to split the word up but spell checker keeps turning it into garden) - garnish of mixed vegetables, or a pot stand
macédoine - from Macedonia, like the people from their, a mixture or medley of fruits and/or vegetables
paysanne - peasant style, farmer's style, country style, simple style, diced vegetables, simple sauce
sangfroid - literally cold blood - sang is blood, froid like freezing is cold, calm, unflappable