This time the evening was held on 3rd November at Soho Grind on Beak Street; a relaxed expresso/cocktail bar that wonderfully combines the two. This was the first time I had been to the bar. According to its website the first ‘Grind’ was founded in Shoreditch and it has recently opened up a third one in Holborn.

Upon arrival we were greeted with a dainty glass of prosecco by the lovely Rebecca Felgate fromOfficial Theatre (who, may I add, was sporting a lovely sequin number). Whilst we mingled with familiar and new faces, we were offered boards of meat, cheese and nuts. The manchego cheese and radishes went down a treat!

We then wandered downstairs to the basement where Adam from Soho Grind led a cocktail demonstration.

Afterwards we were split into four teams to participate in a little friendly coffee-based cocktail competition. Here’s the table of alcohol we had to work with.

With a matter of minutes to ‘shake’ something together, I can’t remember all the ingredients that my team used. It definitely had an almond liqueur in it though, as well as a large chunk of orange for garnish.

I think my team’s cocktail looked as good as well as it tasted, but maybe I am bias as we did end up in fourth place aka last.

However we didn’t walk away empty handed. We were still awarded a bag full of coffee beans for our efforts – and, yes, we did make those obvious jokes that we would later be ‘grinding’ all night.
 

A big thank you to Official Theatre and SeatPlan who both sponsored the event. James White fromSeatPlan, who has recently launched a new website, gave us a little introduction about the company. SeatPlan offers detailed reviews and photos from seats in theatres across London – a genius initiative which has certainly got my support. If I had used this site in the past before booking my theatre tickets I might have avoided ending up with those ‘Balcony’ seats with extremely restricted views on a number of occasions. The site also encourages theatregoers to submit their reviews and photos, with many rewards on offer. For example during the month of November, the best review will receive £100 in theatre ticket vouchers.
 

The night ended with a performance by singer and songwriter Bity Booker, who was simply adorable. She played us four acoustic folk songs on her guitar – and a few of us were even lucky enough to accompany her with some bell ringing. You can listen to a selection of songs from her album on the website here: http://bitybooker.bandcamp.com/.

Overall it was a fantastic Monday night (undoubtedly, better than your average) and it was so nice to chat with so many with the same interests as me. I hope to see you all at the next upcoming #LDNTheatreBloggers events. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @TheatreBlogUK to keep up to date with our latest theatre news and events.