I got in a bit of trouble last time for not introducing my eating companions so here’s a quick introduction to my usual eating chums: Amber, our token vegetarian (which I often conveniently forget) who blogs wonderful photos from her life over on Code for Something; Nate, cat owner and the coolest Canadian (erm… possibly only?) I know; and Laura is an Essex born music fan who blogs her favourite tracks over here http://theotherllcoolj.tumblr.com/.

As much as I want to tell you how much I loved Honey & Co, our night actually began down the road in Goodge Street bar, Reverend JW Simpson. The sister bar (and one of my favourite after work bars) to Bourne and Hollingsworth, and has a similar decor (torn wallpaper and hidden toilet door) but with a slight private members feel (booking is often required – that said on this night it was empty). It’s definitely worth a visit but I must admit I’d probably stick to the original B&H which is just a couple of minutes towards Soho. After a couple of cocktails a piece where between us we achieved our five a day (gin, whisky, vodka, champagne and more gin), we wandered down to Honey & Co.

Honey & Co is a small (20 person? Be sure to book) restaurant near Warren Street – run by  Sarit Packer (formerly Executive Head Chef at NOPI) and her husband Itamar Srulovich.

There’s only one real option for starter and that’s for the table to share the luxury mezze (this is done per person so don’t worry how many people to share it with). The star of which (if you didn’t get from the introduction) is the Kamooniya (rough chopped chicken liver – I was very happy to find a recipe for this here, might even do a blog post in the future of me trying to make it) but there wasn’t a bad nor dull moment in the mezze (although our resident vegetarian possibly wasn’t too keen on the liver).

We each selected a different main course:

Me – Lamb chops, muhamra, puy lentils and lamb’s lettuce. (my first try at muhamra, I expected a harissa type sauce what I got was more subtle in flavour and far more tasty)

Nate – Pomegranate molasses chicken, cracked wheat salad wit pistachios and barberries.

Amber – Siniya roasted cauliflower, baced with a tahini topping, pistachios pitta bread.

Laura – Prawns with winter tomatoes and urfa chilli sauce.

While none of us were losers here, I think we all agreed that Nate was the clear winner – in fact his response on finishing was that it was “the best meal since the last supper” – I should probably admit that we went around Easter and this is a very delayed blog post.

By the time we got round to selecting dessert (the course Honey & Co had become famous for) we weren’t sure it could get any better. We shared two desserts between the four us, the first was of course the cheesecake (thanks Observer Food Monthly) and the second we harrassed the nice couple on the table next to us for their favourite.

The cheesecake was everything it had been hyped up to be (another Nate quote “How does this even exist?!”), luxurious cream cheese layered on top of Kadaif pastry which gave an amazing crunch to the dessert. Our second was whipped white chocolate with olive oil and pine nuts, if this hadn’t been served next to *that* cheesecake this would have been a truly wonderful dessert but the cheesecake.

All four of us came away saying that was certainly the best meal we’ve had in 2013, I’ve recommended it to anyone who has asked me for restaurant tips in the past couple of months and none who trusted me enough to go have been disappointed.

With a conservative one bottle of wine between the four of us the entire meal came to £128 (£33 each) before service.

Honey & Co | 25a Warren Street, London W1T 5LZ | Mon – Sat (closed early on Mon) – Booking Necessary

It’s the 30th Anniversary of Hi, How Are You? and to celebrate Daniel Johnston will be returning to London and bringing a group of special guests with him including Jeffrey Lewis, Emmy The Great and Norman Blake (of Teenage Fanclub) who will perform the legendary album (I can say legendary now it’s 30 right?), followed by a greatest hits show from the man himself.

I’ve seen Daniel Johnston twice in the past 6 years, the first time was an incredibly small show at The Brixton Windmill and then slightly more recently I saw him at Union Chapel. His shows aren’t an easy watch, you can no longer separate those beautiful lyrics (albeit lofi sound) of unrequited love from the large, fragile man standing in front of you, shaking. This fragility makes his shows unbearable, intense and beautiful all at once.

If you’re not a fan I really don’t recommend going but for those who are it could be something special.

Daniel Johnston | June 2nd | £20 – £25 | Tickets are on sale Friday 12th from The Barbican

(I cheated with the video below it’s not for Hi, How Are You? but I love it so deal with it – I’m sure he’ll play it in the greatest hits section of the show)

Tweat Up have so far actively encouraged feuds between rib joints, chilli chefs, gin brands and rum bars and they’re not done dividing London’s restaurants and bars on the battlefield, as next month they set up the ring for 10 restaurants/stalls/trucks to wrestle it out in Taco Wars.

If you haven’t been to one of these yet the deal is; buy a ticket, taste each places taco; vote which you think is the best. There’s drink (including some under the counter mescal) and vibes throughout. Ginstock was by far one of my favourite events of last year and so I can’t recommend this one enough.

The full line up is going to be confirmed next week (I wouldn’t wait for that though only 250 tickets will be released) but from the look of their Twitter we can expect at least a few of these London (and one Manc) Taco stars: Slider Bar, Buen Provecho, Luardos, Breddo’s Taco Shack, Wahaca, Luck Lust Liquor Burn, Mission Mariscos – don’t hate me if any of these aren’t on their I’m not even a messenger just an (tw)eavesdropper. Oh and Sorbitium Ices will be providing their hand made ice creams and hopefully choc ices

Make sure you’re ready to get your ticket on Thursday (11th April) at 12noon to get your ticket. Tickets are £35 a piece and include the 10 tacos and two beers/wine.

There’s no link to tickets yet so make sure you follow @Tweat_Up or us @owlondon before noon tomorrow. [probably better to follow Tweat Up - I always buy my own before retweeting :p]

TICKET LINK: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/6154380919/es2005/?rank=16

By the time I was born, Major Tom had been to the moon and back, Ziggy Stardust had already risen and fallen, The Thin White Duke had come and gone, but David Bowie was still converting fans everywhere and, even after a 10 year absence, continues to do so today with the release of his new album (Number 1 album this week in UK, beaten by Bon Jovi in the US though – not sure what that’s about).

It’s no surprise that the Victoria and Albert Museum’s exhibition on the man himself has broken records and is the fastest selling in the museum’s history. As someone who has seen it, let me tell you that it’s worth the time you may need to wait for your tickets to be fulfilled.

The exhibition is a magical exploration of a man playing with his identity in an effort to find out what makes him him and how to make the art he wants to make – something that he potentially never achieves but in an interview in the latter parts of the exhibition says he came close in the his self-reflective later years in Berlin, where he says it was “time to do what I want to do”.

One of the most striking things of the exhibition is the creative control he took on every aspect of his art; from designing album covers, conceptualising music videos and set design. It would be easy to think that he was probably pretty difficult to work with, but they were all clamouring to work with him and even those who I would consider the ultimate auteurs of their craft (Alexander McQueen for example) had the utmost respect and appreciation for his vision.

The exhibition doesn’t take you through the chronology of his life, and I’m not sure it would help at all if it did and would be far too pedestrian for someone so complex. Instead it takes you through the themes throughout his life (so-far at least), from his inspiration, his song writing processes and his stage performances. My three favourite moments of the exhibition was split up into these three themes.

The first was about pretention and how that influences you – strangely there was a point the was reminiscent of something James Murphy (who is one of my major musical heroes although in very different ways to Bowie) said, which was

“I read so much shit just because I wanted to seem cool… so if being pretentious got you to read Gravity’s Rainbow you still read Gravity’s Rainbow and as an older dude that’s part of your make up”

Bowie did something similar making sure the books he read popped out of his coat pocket but later feels it’s completely justifiable in the same way, if the pursuit of cool gets you to do something wonderful there’s certainly nothing wrong with that – or so I tell my teenage self as he readies himself to go out with Keruoac and Bukowski popping out my back pocket.

The 2nd was about The Verbaliser. This was new to me but Bowie used to use a computer programme that used to randomise phrases that he’d input and use the result as an inspiration for a song, in his words:

“[it was a way of entering] a dream state without the boredom of going to sleep all night or getting stoned out of your head”. 

The third of my favourite moments is walking into one of the final moments to be greeted by huge screens projecting live footage – I seriously recommend saving some time just to sit in this room for a while and contemplate the man after everything you’ve read, seen and heard.

David Bowie is… | V&A | 23rd March – 11 August 2013 | Tickets

For those that don’t know if you’re a card carrying member of the Mastercard Priceless brigade you can win gig tickets, get special offers on all sorts and, best of all in my opinion, go to unique events put on by Mastercard and their partners – my favourite of which are their collaborations with museums.

Anyway, on to the history lesson – did you know The Strand used to have a zoo? It was the 2nd floor above a build called the Exeter Exchange and housed lions and tigers and bears monkeys (oh my!). They also had an elephant called Chunee who they would parade down the Strand, but had to be put down (it took 152 musket balls from somerset house guards and one zoo-keepers harpoon) after he killed a zoo-keeper due to unbearable toothache (can’t tell you how many people I’ve almost killed when I’ve had toothache). Then there was Happy Jerry a Mandrill after my own heart he used to drink gin and smoke a pipe in his cage and got so famous he was invited to dinner by the king – we got to see the preserved remains of Jerry (see not-so-happy Jerry photo below).

This wasn’t even the only zoo in an unusual place in London, the Tower of London used to have one too – which was proven b the discovery of lion skulls on the site. apparently discoveries like this happen all over London, lion toe bones in Trafalgar Sq and hippo canines near Uganda House. I could keep going but it’s probably far more interesting to learn first hand, so head down to the Natural History Museum.

Get tickets to one of the Priceless nights and you can do it without all the tourists and children everywhere. You’ll even get great food and drink as well as cool facts to annoy your friends with.

Oh and of course this is how it all looked on Vine….

I’m not shy about saying Lucky Chip do my favourite burger in London (although it’s not permanent, The Bill Murray burger in all it’s crabiness is amazing!) so when those guys opened up Lucky Fried Chicken I jumped on it. The place is currently holing up in The Grafton Pub in Kentish Town (only until Saturday though so get in there quick). Kentish Town isn’t somewhere I go drinking very often, unless there’s something good on at the Forum but The Grafton’s a pretty great pub, there was someone dressed like Hunter S Thompson (and looked like he did it every day) and a man sitting at the bar with a pug – definitely my kind of place.

As is going to be customary with my recaps of restaurants and events here’s a vine of how it went down at my candle lit chicken dinner with @CWelton…

The menu is simple enough… chicken and more chicken and then if you’re lucky enough to visit them on a Wednesday (we weren’t) you can get livers and gizzards.

After much macho posturing about how much we could eat, Mr Welton and I shared a jumbo box and – this should not be taken as any comment on our blatant manliness – it was actually more than enough. The box contained 5 huge bits of chicken covered in spicy goodness – actually amazing chicken, if this is what chicken was usually like I’d possibly eat less burgers. I’ve been out of the chicken game for a while though, so just in case it was just te usual fried goodness coming back to me, I decided to ask @tdotm for his opinion and this is what he said:

“If this chicken was sex, I’d be a one minute man”

It’s not just about the chicken either the dinner rolls dunked in the mash with gravy was pretty great and the coleslaw was great. This is very much my kind of food, simple, a little seedy but absolutely tasty, especially when paired with proper beers from the Grafton’s menu.

Lucky Fried Chicken is only up to this weekend so get involved and fast. If you miss it, you can do no wrong but checking out Lucky Chips usual burger hang outs at Sebright Arms or their Slider Bar at The Player in Soho. Follow @Lucky_Chip to keep up with their Burgers of the week and follow the  @thegraftonnw5 for a good pug hosting pub.

Lucky Fried Chicken at The Grafton 20 Prince of Wales Road, London, NW5 3LG

It’s possibly the strangest super-group ever (Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, producer Nigel Godrich and Chilli Peppers’ Flea) but Atoms for Peace have just released an amazing album and a great video for first single Ingenue – that sees Thom Yorke’s unique dancing style in the hands of one of my favourite choreographers Wayne Mcgregor (Check out what he did in the Barbican’s Rain Room) and co-starring dancer Fukiko Takase.

And now the full band have announced three dates at The Roundhouse – I’m predicting this may very well be one of the gigs of the year.

Tickets go on pre-sale from here at 9am Wednesday 6th or on general sale on the 8th.

Atoms for Peace | 24th – 26th July | The Roundhouse

Last night, if the sign is to believed, I was not at The Rotary Bar and Diner and you are not reading this. Of course, in reality I was there – it’s just in testing phase and should not be judged as if it was open – just watch me!

Rotary Bar and Diner (and the bar underneath) is the new joint from Jonathan Downey, owner of Milk & Honey, The Player, Danger of Death and also the man behind Tweat Up’s wonderful food stand offs (Chill Stand Off/Ribstock) and booze showdowns (Ginstock/Rumstock). Rotary takes the place that was left by the demise of Meter, just a one minute walk from Old Street station. Here’s a 6 second clip of this entire post if you’re feeling lazy (I talk too much and I love Vine).

Dinner with @_amber and @joreason at @rotarybardiner vine.co/v/bgYQL9AaHDw

— Rob Driscoll (@Drisk) February 26, 2013

The space itself was larger than I had expected and a little more open – think this had a little to do with the other associated bars generally being quite dimly lit. It was a nice atmosphere with large shared tables and furniture that looked like it may have been found in a storage cupboard from the 60′s, I of course mean this as a compliment, the place looked great and had the vibe (I should be more careful using that word, vibes has a very particularly meaning with the guys and it’s not that) that I had come to expect from Tweat Up and pulled in the nice decor items and style of the Rushmore bars.

I’m a little sad to say that we were a little unadventurous with our drink choices – two of us stuck to the Camden Pale ale (£5 a pop) while the other had a glass of rose (£4), being a Tuesday night we obviously thought the pint cocktails should be left alone. As we looked through the menu I got a pretty intense fear as I remembered Amber was a vegetarian and I had invited her along to a pretty meat heavy place – turns out she was prepared though and was more than happy with the veg bun (roast field mushrooms, Somerset brie, crispy onions and slaw), while Jo and I opted for the Fried Chicken Roll, oh and some extra chicken wings for me.

I’m absolutely no fan of mushrooms but Amber’s veg bun looked pretty great and on the merit of said mushrooms it apparently tasted great too. My Fried Chicken Roll was actually pretty damn good, I’m not a big chicken burger as I hate it when it’s too dry but this was greaty just moist enough and with all the extras cheese, lettuce, red onions and house sauce, it had an amazing combination of flavours. The sticky sauce I had the wings with was great, I often find the sauces too sweet but this one had a nice balance… half way through my wings I started to loose steam (no cocktails and not stuffing myself? I must have been a little sick) and quickly turned to my dripping fries which I decided to try with slightly too much of The Rib Man’s Holy Fuck Sauce (I was never very good at reading labels). All in all a great main course.

I then had to turn to my other stomach and bully the girls into ordering dessert with me. Whenever I see choc ices on the menu I have some nostalgiac instinct to order them, but the thought that these Sorbitium Choc Ices might bring back memories of my childhood of scoffing chocolate covered icecream was slight erroneous. We had one bourbon caramel and one blood orange choc ice (apparently blood orange was a new flavour) both were great but possibly a bad combination on my part the flavour of the blood orange was lovely and subtle while with the bourbon and caramel, the caramel was such an overriding flavour it kind of detracted from the subtler flavours – including the bourbon. We also ordered the salted milk chocolate pudding cup – this thing was amazing and with the extra texture from the sprinkles (salted caramel peanuts in our case) it couldn’t have been any better. I’m not often a dessert guy but it stole the meal for me.

It was a great, easy and relaxed meal – and with one drink each it would have (normally speaking – not preview prices) come to around £50 for the three of us. I really enjoyed my dinner here, the staff were all lovely despite some hiccups (but it’s a preview night so disregard that – this is the point of a preview week) – it definitely needs a second visit once it’s actually open, especially as Yum Bun, one of my all time favourite street food vendors, will be selling their delicious buns in the space next to the bar.

After dinner we took a sneak peek at The Rotary Room – the private members bar underneath, which is hidden behind a door that says ‘do not enter’ (or something similar) and then leads you down an outdoor fire escape and into the basement. The Rotary Room was far more what I expected, dimly lit, 60′s furnishings – I’m pretty obsessed with the light fixtures and the tiled tables. For Rushmore members this is a nice addition much larger than Brick Lane’s danger of death while mimicking the fun secrecy of it all. At this point I switched to a Negroni, while the girls drank rose. It was a little quieter than I would have liked down there (again it’s a preview night so shouldn’t judge on that) but definitely nice to have an area around old street you can have a drink in the calm and comfort. Oh and for the guys – the toilet offers a slightly different experience to the outer decor, worth a warning.

In 2011, Inc (then known as Teen Inc) dropped a three track EP, conveniently titled 3, that the Guardian praised highly by saying “If Prince put this out, it would be hailed as a return to form.” While Pitchfork despaired at Prince fans not being able to create appropriate homage. My opinion on 3 lies somewhere in between the two. What I think we can all agree though is that with their new album, No World, Inc have certainly found their own voice – incorporating a very modern sounding R&B (think How to Dress Well and The xx) with their continued homage to the R&B of the 80s.

It’s still early in the year but I’m pretty sure this album is going to end up on my albums of the year come December, definitely one to keep an eye out for.

Inc are playing at Shoreditch venue, Concrete on April 11th. Tickets are on sale now through Resident Advisor and are £10.

Inc: The Place on Nowness.com.

“Have I ever told you about my friend Teresa, she’s popped up a couple of my posts… she sent me a picture of a *ahem* cupcake for a post last week and she also came up with the idea of creating fish tank shorts, which I can’t remember why I mentioned (I was probably drunk). Well, she often finds herself in all sorts of weird and wonderful events. Her latest was a Conchita Perez show for London Fashion Week and offered to write her first ever blog post about it (sadly no fish tank shorts were present in the show).” – Drisk

As someone who wears trusty Clarks shoes and who wouldn’t recognise a fashion trend if it did the Harlem Shake in front of me, I’m probably not the best person to review a fashion show. However, the opportunity to see a well- respected designer showcase her latest work at an underground cat walk, seemed a pretty good way to spend my Friday.

Fashion designer Conchita Perez has worked with the likes of Alexander McQueen and often collaborates with Paloma Faith on outfits for her tours. Her clothes take inspiration from different eras and are known for their tailoring and hand couture. Working alongside such greats she has obviously picked up a thing or two about creating powerful performances to showcase her pieces.

As I walked down the dark, foreboding street in Tower Hill, wearily avoiding the token drunkards and discarded mattress I realised this would be no Project Runway. Upon entering the dark cavernous space with residue ridden walls, the deep rich bass from the sound system reverberated through me, engulfing my ears with the most hypnotic sound, think Tron legacy but darker and deeper (music was composed and produced by Dom Bouffard) The scene had been set and I was compelled.

The fluorescent lights along the runway flickered on one by one in an eerie fashion making way for an onslaught of models. I was memorised at their ungainly and slightly alien like strut up the catwalk in time with the pulsating music. The clothes featured severely but graceful cut jackets and softer draped fabrics with the occasional bare- behind thrown in just to add that extra bit of edge I’m sure.

Clearly my preconceptions of fashion shows had been wrong, there is more to them than clothes, it’s largely down to the drama, the music, the exclusivity and the location combining to stimulate your senses, which in turn create the talkability factor which had me raving about it to friends and colleagues and here, my first blog post.

In fact, so enamoured was I that I’m dangerously close to buying one of those bare butt dresses and looking for some bad ass bass and subwoofers. (I’m kidding about the bare butt dresses… I think). Hats off to Conchita Perez for creating a completely all- consuming experience that made a fashion novice like me take notice.

You can follow Teresa on Twitter here

Header image taken from Dom Bouffard’s Tumblr