I was chatting to friends the other day, and they were saying how every so often they love reading back on my old blog posts as a way of remembering the fun things we’ve done together over the years, and that they’re really grateful that I’ve actually written it all up and we have all these incredible memories and photos to look back at. I admitted that I do the same, although I’m not sure I should admit that I read back on my own blog posts – it just sounds rather self-indulgent. However it did make me realise that I miss writing up small little blog posts about things that at the time don’t seem important or particularly blog-worthy, but actually are nice just for me and my friends, even if a wider audience isn’t as interested. I guess at the end of the day that’s why I started this blog in the first place, almost ten years ago!
So this year I’m going to make more of a conscious effort to write about the smaller moments again. Those brunches and lunches, afternoons in galleries or picnicking in the park. Starting with this post, a girlie brunch with my best friend at the Double Standard at The Standard Hotel in Kings Cross. After the end of lockdown we were desperate for a girls brunch just the two of us, with plenty of cocktails and food. I’ve really cut down on my drinking since the first lockdown started last year, and I just fancied an afternoon with my bestie drinking as many cocktails as I liked and seeing where the afternoon/evening took us! And that’s exactly what we did…
We chose Double Standard at The Standard because they do a bottomless prosecco brunch. We were also missing American vibes and food after our big US roadtrip was cancelled last May. Although we actually didn’t end up doing the bottomless brunch because we wanted cocktails, so we ended up spending far more than if we’d just done the bottomless option. Oops. It was 100% worth it though, as the cocktails were amazing, and for a few short hours we felt as though we were actually on holiday. Imagine! An actual holiday, overseas, with Pina Coladas! We can dream.
First of all though, we loved the seventies vibe of The Standard. It felt far too cool for us, but we really enjoyed it and the cocktails made us forget that we weren’t cool enough to be there. We’d really wanted to sit outside on their beautiful terrace, but sadly it was miserable weather (classic English summer), so we sat inside where there was an epic shag wall!
Food-wise, I chose the delicious pancakes with banana and berry compote, and CMK chose the burger (it wasn’t much to look at, but she said it was amazing). We then also had a portion of chips to share…but ended up getting a second portion because one just wasn’t enough. They were very good chips!
Cocktails-wise, we had many, many of them. The Sparkling Colada’s were our favourites, so we ordered a few of these. Then we also tried the Porn Star slushie, which was also excellent. Suitably inebriated we then met our friends at Home House for a few more drinks to celebrate Ilayda’s 30th birthday, before moving on to the Royal Automobile Club for dinner and champagne.
Needless to say, I went back to not drinking alcohol the day after. But for that one little, joyous afternoon, it was totally worth breaking my no/low alcohol rule.
If you’re looking for a painfully cool brunch spot with the perfect ambience, brilliant cocktails and proper comfort food, look no further! And if you do fancy the bottomless option, it’s just £20pp for 2-hours of unlimited prosecco or Bloody Mary’s.
Catherine Lux is a veteran travel blogger by night and the Head of SEO at Havas Media Group by day. Originally from Surrey, she spent four years living in Australia (2007-2009, and 2016-2018), and now lives in London. An ex-party girl sometimes prone to relapses, she loves nothing more than sharing her fine dining and luxury travel experiences with her loyal readers.
