Anchor & Hope for Summer

Just because Spring has been around for a while now and we are looking ahead to summer, I can't help but picture myself sprawled on the deck of a megayacht, tanning my pasty bum and toasting my rosy cheeks under the hot sun of the Grecian paradise. Add to that, a sailor hat, some boyish boat shoes, a pair of dark blue high-waisted shorts, a striped blue & white marine shirt and a marine salute, and I'll look like a million sailor bucks. Argh. I'm not kidding though, that is my idea of the summer picture perfect outfit- in a picture perfect setting. But now that I'm dreaming, I might as well add that I've had my eye set on some cute Anchor accessories that would compliment this picture perfect outfit most wonderfully.

Tatty Devine, Monmouth Street, Covent Garden

Tatty Devine's Covent Garden boutique has me all giggly with summer love and I am super excited about gifting myself with a couple of these lovely neck and ear treats. For only £12-£40 a pop, these playful accessories make for an easy breezy summer lovin' look. 

Anchor & Chain Necklace, £12

Not surprisingly, the matching anchor earrings and seagull necklace are quite sweet as well, and though I wouldn't recommend wearing both accessories at once, they are a couple of head-turners themselves.

Anchor Earrings, £15 Seagull Necklace, £39

Wrap something cute and frilly like this crown or ice lolly around your neck and you'll earn yourself a free drink at the pub.

Crown Necklace, £24

Ice Lolly Necklace, £25

Also, in line with the upcoming Sex & The City 2 Movie release, Tatty Devine has decided to put all of their name necklaces on sale for £22, giving you the green light to go wild when designing your own name necklace. Remember the Carrie necklace? Today is the last day (til 5pm) for you to buy and save so do check out their website or pop 'round their store on Monmouth Street to design and order a Carrie necklace of your own!

Name Necklaces, now £22 (usually £27.50)

Now's your chance to be quirky with your accessories. Summertime has left the docks early and is taking you on a long and happy journey to a land where plastic name necklaces and thunderbolt earrings are cool. So don't be shy: sail away!

Charlotte G.'s Fave London Hotel (in the movie...)

Charlotte Gainsbourg, the epitome of Frenchness, style and elegance, stars in this sweet, fun and totally adorable film called "Ma Femme Est Une Actrice," which her husband Yvan Attal not only directed but also starred in. If you haven't seen it yet, rent it on your next trip to the video store. It is really lovely. 

The reason I'm bringing it up is not only because I own it and cherish it as one of my all-time favourite movies to watch on a lazy, pajama, ice-cream eating Friday night, but because I recently had the pleasure of watching it again. In the film, Charlotte's character is an actress, filming a movie in London and is shot at several occasions leaving and entering the charming Covent Garden Hotel. Looking at the movie with my new LondonZest magnifying glass, I realized that the hotel was located on Monmouth Street, my favourite street in Covent Garden (where you can also find the delicious Monmouth Coffee Company!) and that I had to go give it special visit. Cozy, homey, full of character and with a splash of Frenchness, the hotel represents everything I love about English-flare design: it is both discrete and colourful, elegant and playful, and bubbly and whimsical. The hotel rooms are dressed with boudoir wallpaper and dotted with attentive decorative details, giving each of them a special jewelry box feel reminiscent of the sexy neo-burlesque era. It is not as girly as it sounds, so boys, you'll feel equally comfortable there.

                 The Covent Garden Hotel, Monmouth Street

Now I know many of you Londoners aren't really looking for hotel recommendations, given the fact that you live here, but it might be a good idea for you to take notes in the event that friends or family come to visit and need a nice place to spend some good relaxing times. For all you other loyal LondonZesties who live outside of London, make sure you save this little hotel treasure in your guidebook for your next trip to London.

I should also point out that the Brasserie Max, as yummy as it is, also mixes themes of country and urban chic, borrowing the design patterns of the rooms upstairs, and mixing stripes and florals to make for a perfect breakfast, dinner or work lunch setting. The fare is delightfully simple, offering everything from fresh salads and oysters, to farm chicken and Diver caught scallops (um, cool, really!?). This is another Covent Garden gem. So what are you waiting for? Go fish!


        The Brasserie Max at The Covent Garden Hotel, Monmouth Street

Salad Bar Magic in Covent Garden

There is one thing I have been missing here in London and that is a decent salad bar. New York, for example, is spoiled with them. If you're walking around midtown, you see them left and right. Not only the cheap delis offer them, but you can find them at places like Chop't, Tossed, Cosi or Cafe Europa etc. They are certainly not a luxury over there. And for some reason, London has not reached that point yet. When I worked in Midtown, I used to start jiggling in my office chair, counting the minutes til I could run downstairs to my usual salad place. This was the typical drill: pick a meat/protein: $2, pick a cheese: $1.75, pick a fancy veggie (avocado, asparagus): $2,00, then just add on at your leisure. Your salad would cost at most $8.50...$10 if you were really hungry. I miss that so much! Now I may not  be working here, but I've had my fair share of lunches outside of home. London just doesn't have them! And I have no idea why. Maybe the salad bar culture hasn't arrived yet on this side of the Atlantic...or maybe there are a couple, haphazardly sprinkled around town, and if there are a few, the costs certainly reflect that lack of demand. One thing is for sure though, the salad bar culture has definitely not colonized this town like it has New York.

Occasionally, I find myself in Covent Garden for the lunch hour. Covent Garden is so underrated. You just have to know it to like it. There is this one salad place that you just have to check out. It's called Kastner & Ovens. It is tucked away somewhere between Floral Street and Long Acre, and because there is no sitting area, it is best to take it away and back to the office or to pick a sunny day to go sit in a neighboring park and enjoy its pure deliciousness. They offer some wonderful salads and hot meals, from grilled aubergine and zucchini and feta, to chili con carne and beef stroganoff, which appear to be coming straight out of  a cookbook or your grandmother's kitchen. It certainly is no New York salad bar with salad bar prices, but it is worth your while if you're around the hood.

                               Kastner & Ovens in Covent Garden

                                                                    

     

Don't go home or back to the office without making a detour via the adorable Monmouth Street, where you can grab the best coffee in town at Monmouth Coffee Company (you can also find it at Borough Market).


                            The Monmouth Coffee Company