Take to the Streets with Voltaire this Spring at Crowne Plaza London City

Voltaire Champagne & Cocktail bar, nestled in the vaults of the Crowne Plaza London City (across from Blackfriars Station in London) celebrated two special associations recently with a lavish launch for media, journalists and bloggers.

First of all the bar is working closely with three pop up restaurants over the next three months; Bill or Beak, The Cheese Truck and Randy’s Wing Bar.  Each one of these pop ups will take over a part of Voltaire’s kitchen Wednesday to Friday evenings (5:30pm – 10:00pm) for about a month and produce a small range of their signature food for customers of the bar.

The Cheese Truck, known for their meltingly gooey toasties served from their bright yellow food truck, will be in residence 25 March – 10 April 2015. Using artisan cheese and local free-range produce they will feature Classic Keen’s cheddar, Ogleshield and mixed onion; Cropwell Bishop Stilton, sweet cure bacon and pear chutney; Rosary goat’s cheese, honey, walnuts with rosemary butter and Queso Chihuahua cheese, choritzo and rocket.

Bill or Beak will serve fully loaded burgers 15 April – 22 May 2015. The burgers will be filled with either duck (bill) or chicken (beak) and topped with unusual sauces and served in a toasted brioche bun.

Bill: shredded duck and pork, topped with spring onions, coriander, mint and a Vietnamese dressing with tempura shallots.

Beak: grilled, corn-fed chicken drizzled with Caeser dressing topped with tempura capers, rosemary croutons and fresh Parmesan.

Sides of fries topped with hoisin, pickled cucumber mayo and finished with chicken scratchings.

Randy’s Wing Bar is a wonderful addition to the London street food scene with American style chicken wings will be at Voltaire 6 May – 22 May 2015.

Buffalo wings with blue cheese and celery; Asian wings sprinkled with crushed fried peanuts and toasted sesame seeds as well as Buffalo shrimp with a lemon and dill dip.

The Voltaire bar is cosy and comfortable and as well as ample seating inside also has a smoking passage and several little alcoves built into the wall which have recently been decorated with a whiskey theme by Glen Fiddich. You can book these alcoves if you want a cosy and private seating place, they are heated and tables have room for a large ice bucket should you have champagne or white wine to keep cool!

The second collaboration is with The Amy WinehouseFoundation, run by Amy’s father, singer and band leader, Mitch Winehouse. 

The foundation works closely with young people who are trying to recover from drug and alcohol addictions. The three paintings of Amy in the background of the photo will be auctioned at a gala event at The Savoy to raise funds for the foundation.

Everyone had a great time listening to some wonderful jazz music, drinking prosecco and eating the plentiful street food.  If you are in London pop into Voltaire’s Champagne & Cocktail Bar especially during their Tastes Of The Street this Spring promotion Wednesday – Friday evenings, 25 March – 22 May (5:30 pm – 10:00 pm).

I was an invited guest to the Tastes of Street Food launch. I was not required to write a positive review.  As usual all opinions and photos are my own.

Crowne Plaza London City - Dicinnove Restaurant Review

I like popping into London with Mr R for some quiet 'us' time.  We were invited to try the Crowne Plaza London City across from Blackfriars Station. Inside the hotel there are two top class restaurants, Chinese Cricket Club and across the entrance hall the Italian restaurant Diciannove19 the heart and soul of Italian cuisine.

It was the Diciannove we were dining in on this occasion.

Our Hostess, Danielle asked if we wanted time between courses to relax which was exactly what we wanted.  I also asked for Danielle's recommendations and put our meal in her hands.
While we read the menu we had a huge and beautiful wooden bread bowl to nibble on and which would go really well with our starter.  The different breads are made in their own kitchens daily.

We started with a sharing platter - Il Supremo which can be ordered to serve 1-2, 3-4 or 4-6 people.

I really like the new trend in sharing platters.  Ours had loads of goodies such as Fried Calamari, fried zucchini, proscuitto toscano, fennel salami, mortadella di bologna, parmegiano reggiano, mozzarella cheese and pickles.

We then had a pasta course.  I had the Tagliatelle al Ragu, a sauce of slow cooked beef and pork chunks so tender they were just falling apart in a tomato based sauce full of flavour and fresh herbs.

Mr R had the Spaghettini All'astice - pasta with a fresh lobster, pigato (a wine made from the white pigato grape), thyme and fresh tomato sauce.

At this point we should have stopped but Danielle wanted us to try the main courses.  I ordered the Pesce Spada, a char-grilled swordfish steak with cherry tomatoes and rocket salad.  I put the slice of lemon in view for the photo to give an impression of the size of the swordfish.  It was HUGE but perfectly cooked, medium rare and so much taste.  I must admit I struggled to finish it but persevered!

Mr R ordered the Fegato dei Vitello a calves liver with a sauteed spinach, raising, pine kernels and balsamic reduction.  The Italians cook calves liver to perfection, tender and without a strong 'liver' taste, subtle and tasty.  Mr R always orders calves liver in an Italian restaurant and this one certainly did not disappoint!

I do like to order a dessert but I am afraid we were so full there was no way we could eat another mouthful.  The temptation to order the Tiramisu was great but I had to say no.  I would like to pop in for coffee and pudding some other time when I could do it justice and really enjoy it.

A Grappa Ian Italian liqueur made from grapes) and a coffee and we were ready to wend our way home. Our train home to St Albans stopped right across the street at Blackfriars station. This was one occasion I wished we had booked a room in the hotel so we could just float upstairs to sleep!

I was a guest of Crowne Plaza London City and was not required to write a positive review.  As usual all opinions and photos are my own.