Hanging with the fash pack, visiting the Boutique Bar Show and judging at 69 Colebrooke Row

Things we’re looking forward to this week…

We’re starting off with the fash pack, looking ahead to the trends for spring/summer 2012. After all the air kissing and mooching around, we reckon we’ll have earned a couple of cocktails. Thank heavens Good Godfrey’s is just down the road – we’ll be making a beeline for its Silk Touch, on the menu for London Fashion Week until the end of September…

We’ve got a bone to pick with the Boutique Bar Show; it’s put together such a good programme of talks and events that we’ll be there on Tuesday and Wednesday. How could you possibly choose to visit on one pithy day when there’s the Luxardo Maraschino Competition; Through The Ages with The Savoy; The Four C’s of Cognac with Dave Broom and Tristan Stephenson; The Flor De Cana Punch Competition, and The Journey of Artemisia with Ago Perrone, Giuseppe Gallo, Jared Brown, Anistatia Miller? And that’s just on Tuesday.

Wednesday is another full-to-bursting schedule with a fab round-up of events including the CASK UK Roadshow Cocktail Competition; Esoteric Cocktail Ingredients with Tony Conigliaro; Presenting Your Drink with The Nightjar Team; The Great Southern Shake Off with Brugal Rum, plus The DNA of the Cocktail with Andy Campana and Michael Butt. All this together with the best new drinks around including ish gin, Gin Mare, Crystal Head vodka, Merlet Liqueurs and Ocho tequila. One for anyone in the industry or those who simply appreciate the crafting of a bloody good drink.

Which leads us nicely on to Thursday and part two of the CASK UK Roadshow competition. We’ll be guest judges at the second leg of the London heat taking place at 69 Colebrooke Row. Whoever gets through will complete the six winning bartenders from Brighton, Manchester, Edinburgh and Leeds going through to the grand final hosted by Merlet & Fils in Cognac in November.

Later that day we’ll be calling in at 45 Park Lane before heading off to the launch of Roux at The Pembury where we’re looking forward to trying the three-course drinks menu, together with specially devised tasting canapes from Mr Roux Jnr. himself.

And then we’re locking ourselves away for a week putting the finishing touches to our new magazine. Sign up now to get your copy as soon as it launches on October 7th….

Words to the wise

History and great drinks combine at Through The Ages, the one-off, eagerly anticipated event at the Boutique Bar Show. The Savoy team, headed by Daniel Baernreuther will talk about the hotel’s fascinating past, starting from its beginnings in 1905 with the first and only female head bartender Ada Coleman, through to its new incarnation with our favourite award-winning head bartender, Erik Lorincz.

There are drinks too – classic recipes from the archives and, wait for it, the opportunity to try a Daiquiri made up with a bottle of Bacardi from the 1930s. It takes place on Tuesday 20 September, from 11.45am-1pm, but get there early as it’s free and sure to be over subscribed.

45 Park Lane, W1K 1PN. T: 020 7493 4545. 45parklane.com
Boutique Bar Show( 11am-5.30pm 20 & 21 September) Lindley Hall, 80 Vincent Square, SW1P 2PE. Register for free here
Good Godfrey’s, The Waldorf Hilton, Aldwych, WC2B 4DD. T: 020 7836 2400. waldorfhilton.co.uk
Roux at The Pembury, 11 Great George Street, SW1P 3AD. T: 020 7334 3737. rouxatparliamentsquare.co.uk