Pizza Express Live - Coming to High Holborn Soon

Imagine a Friday or Saturday evening - you want to go to your local Pizza Express for pizza and a few drinks, listen to the background music and then either go on somewhere else or make your way home.  What if that could change?

Let me start by telling you about the pizza making evening I was invited to at Pizza Express at the High Holborn branch.  Easy to reach from the Central Line Underground Station, a few hundred metres from the entrance (99 High Holborn actually). This branch has recently undergone a refurbishment and the downstairs has had a complete makeover including comfortable upholstered seating and bespoke artwork - keep reading to find out all about that.

Most branches of Pizza Express offer pizza making parties especially popular with children but also great for office team building, hen parties and in this case a group of bloggers. I recently wrote about my granddaughter's birthday party at a Pizza Express - you can read it by clicking here.

It's always fun when you are with a group of bloggers - as food is put on the table all the phones and cameras come out and no one touches anything until we have all taken our photos.

There were ten of us and after a few glasses of Prosecco, olives and the famous pizza dough balls

we put on our aprons and seriously stylish hats and started to learn the basics of pizza making.

Let the pizza making begin!

Ready to do the toppings.

Now to bake

and finally eat our creations.

After our creations were made and eaten we went downstairs to see the new venture! It's called Pizza Express Live.

This is the latest one in a series of innovative space changes in the Pizza Express family.  The Pizza Express Live Holborn will open early September.  You will be able to book a table for a great night of comedy live and a great selection of live music acts (in fact every kind of music except jazz as this is the specialty of Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho) and once seated at your table the full Pizza Express menu and drinks menu will be available so you can sit back and enjoy the evening.

Sit around the stage

or take a table, enjoy the entertainment, food and your companion(s) company.

The bar is fully stocked

The sound system is state of the art producing a crisp and clear sound to ensure you don't miss a beat or a joke!

I will certainly be taking Mr R to Central London as soon as we know the list of performers and can book tickets.  What could be better than entertainment, pizza and prosecco?  Will you give it a try?

I was a guest of Pizza Express and was not required to write a positive report of my evening.  As usual all opinions are my own as well as photographs.  No photographs may be reproduced in any way without my express written permission.

How to make the perfect Mojito at The Snug Bar St Albans

Following our recent review meal at The Snug Bar in St Albans, Mr R and I were invited back, this time for a Cocktail Masterclass.

After assembling we met Ryan our Bar Teacher for the evening, firstly giving us a lesson in pouring. Pour too much and you are giving away your profits - pour too little and you are cheating the customer. We were all very adept (or lucky) and picked up the 'Pour', graduating from water to the real thing.

First up we split into two groups of three and were shown how to make the perfect Mojito. I love Mojito so was in my element making this cocktail. It's all about the mixture, the muddling of the mint, the ice, the rum and the shake!!

 

 

After learning how to pour without measuring and how to make the classic Mojito we sat down to a selection of the fabulous and delicious snacks The Snug have to offer.

We went on to make another cocktail using Jack Daniels called A Cherry Jack due to the inclusion of Maraschino cherry juice. This was a bit on the sweet side but considering I don't really drink Jack Daniels it was really nice!

The next cocktail was an 'Old Fashioned'.

As we were doing all this behind the bar and it was open to the public we were getting some funny looks! I didn't really like this one and gave it to a customer waiting at the bar to get served.  Her face when given a free cocktail was lovely.

The Snug Bar in St Albans runs the Cocktail Masterclasses at various times throughout the year and they are perfect for corporate events, hen and stag nights and just a fun adult family evening.

Many thanks to The Snug Bar St Albans for inviting Mr R and myself to have an evening of fun, food and cocktails!  All opinions and photos are as usual my own.