#american prep

[anokiestateofmind]

A Good Christmas Boy

[inher30suk]

I went clubbing recently.  Twice.  This is noteworthy trust me, the last time I went clubbing was when I was young and foolish enough to think that one should only leave the house for a night out at 11pm and not the target time to be home so as to not ‘waste the weekend sleeping’.   And I could usually follow that up with a shift at my weekend job without even blinking an eye.  Even the thought now has me breaking out into a cold sweat.

So imagine my delight when I walk into the underground vaults of Earlham Street Clubhouse, where beats from my university days are pumping, there are some episodes of Fresh Prince of Bel Air running on the screens and Lady Loves Cake greets me by waving a juicy cocktail menu at me.

All my favourites were there – Sweet Valley High, Rolling with the Homies, She’s all that and the Milky Bar Kid.  It was a challenge choosing what to have and I kept wavering between wanting a Sweet Valley High purely for the name or La Vida Loca – a spicy concoction of mango, chilli and ginger ale.   I chose well and it was spicy and had a little kick to it, but not oversweet like too many cocktails can be.  So far so good, thirst sated, we move onto the Pizza options.

These are equally hard to choose from, boasting names like Super Mario, Happy Gilmore and Vincent Vega.  But as soon as we saw the Ross & Rachel, we were sold.  Not only could we order something called Ross & Rachel (Cue happy dorky grins from both of us) but we could also share the two we liked the sound of!

It was pretty dark, tables lit by a flickering tealight so excuse the limited photos – the humble iphone isn’t up to the challenge of decent photography in the dark.

But then we dig into the pizzas and all thoughts of poor photography are pushed to one side – we’ve chosen a combo of the Vincent Vega and Happy Gilmore and these are both of a cut above what I had expected – Sourdough base, just the right amount of sauce and fresh ingredients doing the heavy lifting.  Despite how tasty they are, we only barely make it to the end of our pizza extravaganza – come hungry if you’re coming to share one of these bad boys!

Dessert is courtesy of Rinkoff Bakery – specialising in the Crodough, a cross between a Doughnut and Croissant, a trend of mixing up nuttiness sweeping the nation.  Ours is a medley of nerds, marshmallow fluff and love hearts and it is sweet and rich and if that’s a pretty poor explanation, well then it tastes exactly how you’d imagine the marriage between a croissant and doughnut to taste.

Crodough and cocktails

Crodough

Rinkoff Crodoughs

I appreciated it for it’s novelty value, but it’s probably not something I’d order again, I found it too dense for my liking and in my view, best appreciated in small doses, so I’m glad we shared.

But for everything else, I am back.  Not least because I can relive my youth with fun songs (the Lady and I are crooning to Usher towards the end – the effect of a cocktail too many I suspect) and pizzas that hit the spot.

Earlham Street Clubhouse, Sweet Valley High meets Ross and Rachel I went clubbing recently.  Twice.  This is noteworthy trust me, the last time I went clubbing was when I was young and foolish enough to think that one should only 

[sweeter-than]

Mona Johannesson models a wool fisherman's jacket in the English countryside for J. Crew, March 2013.

[sweeter-than]

Edita Vilkeviciute in a marine-themed editorial for Vogue Paris, May 2013. White button-down, navy cotton shorts with rope belt, wind-blown curls. Very 1987.

[skiprep]

An extremely well written article about where we came from. Worth a read and a share.

[tipsybroker]

     A favorite of Tipsy Broker's Fashion Watch list these guys are worth checking out