Some of us (Leo, me, blech, Mark, Leon, muttley, neko, hatter, Jon, Jeannie, James from perlmonks, um, think that was it apart from the two random girls that hatter brought) went to the Glasshouse Stores last night, as mooted in http://london.pm.org/pipermail/london.pm/Week-of-Mon-20020429/019965.html
Beer: Jon noted that there were no hand-pulled beers. Boo. Food: Quite a wide choice, including four main-course veggie options (veggie chilli; yorkshire pudding with chickpeas, spinach and mushrooms; veggie sausages and mash; and "Thai vegetable schnitzel", whatever that is). These were all about GBP6; there were also specials for about a quid cheaper. Alas, the food was not universally considered good. The veggie chilli wasn't bad at all, but the garlic bread it came with was really odd and vinegary. blech had pie, which he thought was fine IIRC. Leon and Leo didn't like their dinners. Leo's was really rather stingy, a small pile of potato and sausage slices and the rest of the plate filled up with sweetcorn and grey canned peas. But better than the CoY, I think, in general. The cellar bar is bookable in whole or in part, given a deposit of GBP50. The deposit is returned "if you spent enough"; we have to ask the manager what "enough" is, apparently. The bartender didn't think we'd get the whole bar for only 50-60 people (although she's not seen how much we can drink en masse), but we would get "the big bit", which she thought would seat 45, but I think would seat more like 35--40. If we booked only half of the bar, the other half would be open to the public, so we could overspill if we wanted to. Even if we did get the whole bar, we would have to split up a little. ASCII plan time. -------------------------------------------------------- | | | |toilets| | | | large seating area | | | with small tables | | | and small armchairs | |-------| an an ickle sofa or two | |stairs | | | | | |-------|---------service--------------------- | | | | | | | | | | | BAR | | | | | | | | | | | |-----------------service--------------------- |---------- | | | seating where | | we | | area |--------| sat | | | stairs | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------- Something like that, anyway. Not necessarily to scale. Photos: http://husk.org/pics/?browse=glasshouse_stores_2002-05-21 As for disabled access, the staircase is wide and has a double handrail, and there are both men's and women's toilets on the same level as the cellar bar. Centralness: a minute's walk from Piccadilly Circus tube. What did I forget? Kake
