Easy Does It: The Big Easy Covent Garden Review

Despite numerous recommendations, I never made it to the original branch of The Big Easy, a crab shack and BBQ purveyor on the King's Road, probably because I'm so rarely in that part of town. When I heard there was going to be a second outpost in Covent Garden, however, I couldn't wait to try it, and finally got the chance last night.

Although the original location has more of a low-key southern US crab shack feel to it, the Maiden Lane branch is a slicker operation. There are still lots of nice details in the decor, including a serious of bar-tending- and mixology-themed books and some very cool pendant lamps, but you could see the place fitting in to Manhattan as well as Baton Rouge.

We walked past the awesome bar and to our table, which was downstairs, just next to the small stage where they often have live music. The menu is huge and is filled with all of the American classics, from steaks and burgers to barbecue and, of course, the lobsters. There are also daily specials — Thursday's surf-and-turf special with a steak, half a lobster and a frozen margarita for under £20 is a real steal.

I'd like to say that I studied the menu at length, but to be honest, the girls in our group were already angling to share a bad-ass lobster, so I decided that that was the way to go — they are flown in from Nova Scotia and can be as big as ten pounds. It was £65 for a 6-pound lobster for four of us, including fries, salad and a frozen marg. The cocktail was essentially an adult Slush Puppy, although they gave the marg an extra kick with some ground peppercorns. Dangerously drinkable...

I'm still not very good at getting out all of the meat from the shell, but between the four of us, we left the poor fella pretty cleaned out. There was definitely a lot of meat in there, and it was really tasty too and served with jugs of melted butter and garlic butter. Not very healthy, but very tasty.

The boys shared a barbecue blow-out, with St Louis ribs, chicken and pulled pork, with fries, coleslaw and baked beans. I had more than enough food of my own, so I only tried a bite of the pulled pork and it was delicious.

I didn't really have room for a pudding, but I managed half of the baked cheesecake. It would have been even better if it had involved chocolate and/or peanut butter instead of sultanas, of course, but was still really good, and was served with the creamiest ice cream I've had for a long time.

The Big Easy isn't cheap cheap, but it's very good value for money, given the generous portions and the quality of the food — especially the fish and meat. The combos are particularly good value and will often give you a beer or frozen cocktail as well as a main course for between £15 and £20. They also do a few all-you-can-eat evenings, for the particularly gluttonous. The service is great and there's a really cosy but fun atmosphere. And the final advantage is that I didn't need to eat breakfast this morning!

The Big Easy Covent Garden. 12 Maiden Lane, London, WC2E 7NA (Tube: Covent Garden). Website. Twitter.

A Gift That Fits the Bill

For my birthday last year, a group of my friends bought me a six-month subscription to Not Another Bill and I couldn't have been happier. I had come across the company a number of times before, including at DesignJunction, and loved the concept but it had always felt that bit too indulgent to treat myself to a subscription so I was delighted that my friends decided to treat me instead.

The idea is simple: you (or your friends/family/loved ones) select at least three categories from a list that includes jewellery, homewares and crafts, and you will receive a surprise present in the post once per month. The gifts are always immaculately packaged, and include a personalised message that tells you a bit more about your present and the brand; sometimes you even get a discount to use on other products from the company. You can also provide details about your working schedule so they know when to dispatch the package to minimise the pain of trips to the post office.

So far, I've received five of my six gifts and I've really liked them all. They are all things I would have chosen for myself and, in fact, I did almost buy one of them — the Ham screen prints — at DesignJunction. Based on the presents I've been sent so far, it seems that my friends selected stationery, jewellery and art as my categories, which is, of course, what I would have chosen for myself.

My first gift was the Hay plissé accordion folder from one of my favourite Scandi brands. It was in a cute mint green colour and perfect for someone who likes Scandi style and organisation as much as I do!

Gift number two was a gold wishbone ring from Astrid & Miyu (astrid in Swedish and miyu in Japanese both mean 'beautiful'). I recently rediscovered a wishbone ring that my grandparents gave me when I was ten, but sadly lost it when I went bouldering, so I was really pleased to get a replacement. The ring is adjustable and super-stylish.

The third gift was the screen prints from Ham that I mentioned above. I love bunnies and I love the playful, minimalist style of these prints, so I framed two of the three in the set and hung them in the hallway of my flat.

Sticking with the arty theme, my fourth present was a small, quirkily shaped mirror from Haidée Drew. I've been wanting a small mirror for my hallway for those last-minute checks before leaving the house, and this fitted perfectly next to my blackboard. Unfortunately, it arrived a few days too late for the selfie competition my company was running!

My fifth and penultimate gift was another piece of jewellery, this time a cute bracelet called 'Nine Lives' from designer Susannah Fairley. The bracelet has nine tiny gold hearts —if you like, you can make a wish against each one, and when the bracelet falls off they will come true. I hope mine won't fall off for a while, though, because I like wearing it!

I still have one gift to come and I'm thinking about extending my subscription by a few months. Not Another Bill isn't cheap (prices start at £60 for a three-month sub), but the gifts are immaculately curated and really good quality and, as I said before, I've loved every one. Compared to a beauty box subscription, say, which will set you back £12 each month and will likely be filled with samples you either don't like or won't use, Not Another Bill is much better value. It's also a great way to discover new designers. The presents you receive will often be limited-edition collaborations between the designer and Not Another Bill and if you like what you see, there are plenty of other products to explore.

If you've heard about Not Another Bill before and weren't sure whether or not to take the plunge, I'd highly recommend it, both as a gift and as a 'gift to self'.

The Caffeine Chronicles: Timberyard Review (CLOSED)

UPDATE: Sadly, Timberyard is now permanently closed. 

I've walked past Timberyard's second branch in Seven Dials (the original is in Old Street) a few times over the past few weeks but haven't had time to sample the coffee shop's wares until this afternoon. Timberyard is surprisingly big inside and there is also a downstairs seating area and a few tables outside if, on a showery day like today, you're feeling lucky.

Before you even get to the coffee part, a whole host of delicious looking brownies and other cakes are there to distract you. I thought nothing could tempt me away from a peanut butter brownie, but in the end, the coconut, chocolate and walnut blondie won me over. I didn't even get as far as the salted caramel brownie until I spotted it in my photo afterwards!

I noticed the 'Chemex for two' on the menu, but was hopeful there would be other geeky coffees on the menu for those who only needed one serving. They don't serve Aeropress or pour-over brews but they did make me a Chemex for one, so I was happy.

I grabbed a seat in the window and started working on my blondie, which was nutty, chewy and generally amazing. The waiter also brought over a large bottle of tap water, unprompted, which is always nice. They also have a few iPads available on the tables. The one next to me wasn't working, but I assume they're connected up for a spot of light browsing — another nice touch.

It has been a while since I last had a Chemex coffee and this one was pretty damn fine: dark and slightly nutty, with enough fruity acidity to break through this hazy afternoon. It's a great spot for people-watching, as the Covent Garden punters go about their days, and Timberyard is a welcome addition to a part of the West End not exactly overrun with great coffee shops.

Timberyard. 7 Upper St Martin's Lane, London, WC2H 9DL (Tube: Covent Garden or Leicester Square).

A Tangled Web

After the disappointment of Man of Steel last summer, I was just about ready for another super-hero film. Enter Marc Webb's sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man named, funnily enough, The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Actually, I say that but really, I was just about ready to see Andrew Garfield on the big screen again. In any case, I didn't enjoy TASM 2 quite as much as its predecessor, but it was still good fun.

As TASM 2 opens, we see Richard (Campbell Scott) and Mary (Embeth Davidtz) Parker dropping off their young son Peter with his aunt and uncle and then escaping on a private jet, which is promptly hijacked by an agent hired to kill them both. Richard is desperately trying to upload a file called Roosevelt and just succeeds as the plane goes down. Meanwhile, present-day Peter (Garfield) is about to graduate from high school and is enjoying photography, hanging out with his girlfriend Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) and — ya know — keeping the streets of New York safe from crime as his spider-charged alter-ego.

Peter's life isn't quite so simple, however, and his key challenges are established early in the film: finding out what really happened to his parents and trying to be happy with Gwen while knowing that having her in his life puts her in jeopardy, given his double life. In addition, Peter is back in touch with his childhood friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan). Harry's father Norman (Chris Cooper), founder of Oscorp — Richard Parker's erstwhile employers — has just died, having informed Harry that the first symptoms of a horrible, fatal genetic disease are likely to start emerging in Harry. Peter wants to help, but may not be able to provide Harry with what he wants.

Those are Peter's missions, but Spider-Man has problems of his own. Not everyone is happy with his brand of vigilante justice, for one thing. And for another, Max Dillon, a lonely and disgruntled Oscorp employee (Jamie Foxx), develops an unhealthy infatuation with everyone's favourite web-slinging super-hero after Spider-Man saves him, which proves problematic after Dillon's accidental encounter with a tank of electric eels leaves him hungrier for power than ever.

As with Webb's first Spider-Man film, TASM 2 is too long, and the sequel also suffers from too many baddies. Maybe I'm slightly biased, because I'm much more interested in Peter Parker and the story of his parents than I am in Spider-Man. There are nice scenes between Peter and Gwen (Garfield and Stone are a real-life couple and the chemistry is definitely there) and a few moments where Peter makes progress in unravelling the mystery of his father, but otherwise the film felt like a game of whack-a-mole. Foxx and especially DeHaan put in good performances, but most of the other cast members, including Sally Field (Aunt May) and Paul Giamatti (identikit Russian baddie), don't have a lot to do.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is an entertaining and action-packed film but lacks some of the emotional core of its predecessor. Good, clean Bank Holiday-weekend fun, but nothing outstanding. Oh, and I saw the film in 2D and felt it was visually very impressive, so I'm not sure it would be worth paying extra to see it in 3D — unless it meant that Andrew Garfield came to sit next to you.

The Caffeine Chronicles: Cafe Viva Review (CLOSED)

UPDATE: Cafe Viva is now permanently closed.

I had hoped to spend this sunny Easter Saturday in Brighton, but my plans were foiled by the ever useless BT Openreach failing to turn up promptly to fix my internets — or, indeed, at all. Although there wasn't time for me to head to the south coast, I could at least venture further into South London, more specifically to Cafe Viva, an independent coffee shop near Rye Lane.

The Caffeine Chronicles: Hej Coffee Review (CLOSED)

UPDATE: Sadly, Hej Coffee is now permanently closed.

The London Marathon meant that while I wasn't exactly trapped south of the river yesterday, but it was definitely easier to stay on the right side of the Thames. Luckily, it was a beautiful sunny day and I had a new purveyor of coffee to visit: Hej Coffee in Bermondsey Square. Hej, which, of course, is the Swedish for "hello" first appeared on my radar last September, when they ran a coffee cart on the square during the Bermondsey Street Festival, as Fika & Folly, their former identity.

Now, Hej's coffee shop and barista training academy is finally open in the green building in the corner of Bermondsey Square near Tower Bridge Road. Excluding Monmouth's Maltby Street outpost, Hej is now my closest independent coffee shop and it's a welcome new addition to Bermondsey.

Inside, the café is light and airy, and it's impossible to ignore the Scandi touches in the décor, including the moose on the wall, which has been upcycled from an old tractor. The big windows let in a lot of light and offer a gorgeous few of the blossom-filled trees in the churchyard and even of the Gherkin.

Hej are starting to serve food but it was a little early for lunch so I just ordered a macchiato and one of the "everything" cookies, which involved chocolate chips, pretzel, marshmallow, peanuts and all sorts of other goodies. The salted caramel blondies also looked amazing.

Although my macchiato was a little wet for a "dry" mac, the coffee was really good — smooth and rich. They get their beans from Sweden, naturligtvis, and they have the most beautiful purple espresso machine. I'd love to see an Aeropress or pourover on the menu too, but for now I'm more than happy with the macchiato. Oh, and it goes without saying that the cookie was awesome. The sweet treats are all around £2 and my skinny mac was £2.10.

Hej Coffee. 1 Bermondsey Square, London, SE1 3UN (Tube: Bermondsey or Borough). Website. Twitter.

99 Bottles of Beer

It was my friend's birthday at the weekend and he organised a trip to the Meantime Brewery, just down the river in Greenwich. I've never been much of a beer drinker but the former tourist information officer in me is a sucker for a good tour, so of course I went along.

Although Meantime's Old Brewery, which serves food and — funnily enough — beer, is in the town centre, the brewery and visitor centre is a short walk towards North Greenwich. We rocked up just before noon and were taken upstairs to the tasting room, whose walls were lined with hundreds of beer bottles and pint glasses.

I had assumed that we would do the tour first and then the tasting, but instead we were introduced to our guide for the tasting and took a seat. Now, anyone expecting a more traditional approach to a beer tasting would probably be a little disappointed because our guide took a more hands-on approach. Quite literally, in fact. The ratio of facts about brewing and Meantime's history to jokes, banter and innuendo was probably about 30:70, but it was all good fun.

We got to try third-pint samples of five different beers. I took a few sips of each and I can safely say that they all tasted like beer and thus I didn't like them. I could taste the differences between them, but there wasn't any one that I liked more than the others. My friends were pleased to drink my leftovers, especially the birthday boy who, along with the two stags present in other groups, was offered a full pint in addition to the samples. I did quite like the different malts that were on the table for us to taste. I tried my best to get my money's worth!

After the tasting, we went with our second guide down into the factory, after a brief health and safety warning ("if you see a dripping liquid, don't touch it and lick your finger" — yes, apparently people do need to be told this) where we found out a lot more about the brewing process.

My favourite part was the packaging and labelling at the end, although sadly, we didn't get to label our own bottle. The tour lasted about 2h30 and costs £15 (including the beer samples), which I think is good value. You can book tours here.

Afterwards, we walked back into Greenwich for — you guessed it! — more beer at the Old Brewery. I just had a fishfinger burger, which was really tasty. The sun was shining and it was a lovely afternoon.

Then we caught the Thames Clipper back down to London Bridge to continue the birthday festivities. By then, the weather was starting to turn, but I always like travelling by boat and it was nice to pass through Bermondsey and under Tower Bridge.

Meantime Brewery & Visitor Centre. Lawrence Trading Estate, Blackwall Lane, London, SE10 0AR (Tube: North Greenwich). Website.

"It's About Concrete"

I will watch just about any Tom Hardy film (ah hem, This Means War) — even a film about concrete that takes place almost exclusively in a car on the M6. Yes, really. I went to a preview screening of Locke last night and had time for only a cursory glance at IMDb, which somehow gave me the impression that it was some sort of crime thriller. The director's name — Steven Knight — should have given me a clue; Knight is best known for writing Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises. Suffice to say, Locke isn't a crime thriller, but it's the kind of film that is most effective when you know very little about it, so although I won't spoil much, look away now if you want to watch the film fresh.

As Locke opens, a man gets into his car and heads for the motorway. Via an almost constant stream of phone calls to his BMW-integrated mobile, we learn that he is a successful construction manager named Ivan Locke and that he is driving from Birmingham to London to be present at the birth of his child. The complication is that the baby's mother, Bethan (Olivia Colman), is not his wife. This decision will have ramifications for all aspects of Ivan's life — his job, his life with his wife Katrina (Ruth Wilson) and sons, and his demons with his now-dead father.

But Ivan remains calm, offering rational instructions to Bethan, and to his colleagues: his deputy, Donal (Andrew "Moriarty" Scott), and his boss Gareth (Ben "House of Cards" Daniels). Ivan is supposed to be preparing for and overseeing a big concrete "pour" on one of their big building projects, which will take place in the early hours of the morning. If it goes wrong, it will cost the company hundreds of millions, and both Donal and Gareth are baffled by the reckless behaviour of Ivan, who is normally a model employee.

Ivan's "practical next steps" don't go down so well with Bethan, however. Funnily enough, women in labour don't like to be told things like: "That's a question you're asking because of the pain or something. How could I love you?" When Ivan is forced to break the news about Bethan and the baby to Katrina, she isn't too pleased either and somehow the fact that Bethan is "quite old. She's 43 or something" doesn't help. Ivan is blunt, honest and rational, but so driven by the goal of fixing all of the problems that have suddenly arisen in his life, that he lacks the social intelligence to help Bethan and Katrina, even if it means telling a white lie or two. He keeps driving, though, addressing, at several points, the ghost of his father. It is at these moments that Hardy's thick Welsh accent verges on hammy.

He also seems to have a cold and is clearly exhausted and distracted, taking his eye off the road to think or to look up a phone number to give to Donal to help to save the pour. Given the busy motorway, the viewer is left on edge, convinced that disaster will strike — with so many fires for Ivan to fight, how can it not? Really, though, he just drives towards the inevitable, trying to do the right thing in a bad situation and not to make the same mistakes as his father. Ivan's surname is hardly coincidental, of course, even if this isn't a film about 17th century philosophers. I also noticed that the beginning of his registration plate read "ADIO" — a corruption of addio or adios (the Italian and Spanish for "farewell"), perhaps?

Locke is only 85 minutes long and it takes place in real time, which leaves you feeling that you've just braved the M6 yourself. It's interesting because a lot happens and nothing happens, depending on how you look at it; some may find it unsatisfying, but I enjoyed it; as much as you can enjoy the snapshot of a man in crisis, anyway.

Knight's film a tense thriller, but not a typical thriller; it is tautly plotted and with a masterful performance from Hardy, who manages to portray Ivan as both frustrating in his determination to be truthful and logical, and yet still somehow sympathetic. And Hardy has to be good, really, because the other cast members are heard and not seen. Wilson and especially Colman do a good job as Ivan's women, though, and Scott is fun as Ivan's beleaguered underling.

London Coffee Festival 2014

I missed last year's London Coffee Festival as I was getting closer to the source in Costa Rica, so I was very much looking forward to the 2014 LCF, especially after a small taster at SPIN x LCF. I booked a ticket in today's brunch session (10 am to 1 pm), which turned out to be a good call, given the length of the queue outside The Old Truman Brewery for the 1 pm session.

I didn't have much time to read up on the event and much as I like tasting coffee from new cafés or roasters, I was wondering if I would reach caffeine saturation too quickly and run out of things to do. I shouldn't have worried because the LCF was very interactive, with plenty to hold the interest of the discerning coffee drinker. I paid £18.75 for my ticket, which included the booking fee, a copy of the 2014 edition of the London Coffee Guide, a goodie-filled LCF tote bag, and a donation to clean-water charities, and most of the stands were offering free samples — in exchange for a voluntary donation to charity.

While I got my bearings, I stopped by La Cimbali for a macchiato. They have some seriously stylish coffee kit, including a grinder with a bluetooth connection to the espresso machine, for optimum coffee geekery.

I then made my way to the Volcano Coffee Works stand. Volcano is based in south-east London (yay!) and they supply my office local, Drink, Shop & Dash, with their excellent coffee. At the LCF, Volcano were letting people have a go at making their own drink. It's been a long time since I last made a macchiato on a professional machine, and the espresso machines at the sandwich shop I worked in back in the early 2000s was nowhere near as nice as the beautiful, shiny Rocket machine I got to play with today. I think I did a decent job (you can see it brewing in the second photo below), although my macchiato art needs a lot of practice.

As I headed out from the "Hyde Park" section to "Soho," the offer of a "coffee slammer" stopped me in my tracks (I think the La Marzocco crew were behind this). This was awesome: chopped hazelnuts replaced the salt lick, then a quick shot of espresso, followed by a spoonful of chocolate-hazelnut spread. Delicious. A raspberry and popping candy version was also available.

There was a lot of cool merchandise for sale, including limited-edition glass versions of the KeepCup. Even though I have way too many coffee receptacles, I was tempted by the pink one, but they didn't have it in the small size.

Make Decent Coffee were also demonstrating and selling cool coffee kit, including the V60 dripper and the Aeropress. I am thinking of buying a dripper at some point, but I think the Kalita Wave is the most stylish version and no one at the LCF seemed to be selling it. Phew, say my Aeropresses!

Union Hand-Roasted Coffee organised a number of activities. First, I tried my hand at the timed coffee-tasting competition, where you got to try four sets of three coffees, identifying the odd one out each time. Unfortunately, I had already had quite a lot of coffee when I started and I don't think my palate was at its best. It was good fun though. Later, I listened to one of their roasters talk about the art and science of coffee roasting, which was a geekier version of the demonstration I got at the coffee plantation I visited in Costa Rica.

The Make Decent Coffee folks encouraged me to stop by the Orang Utan Coffee stand. I tried a sample of their Sumatran coffee, which was very good: light, floral and refreshing (perfect for an afternoon pick-me-up). The Orang Utan Coffee Project is dedicated to helping Sumatran farmers manage coffee plantations that produce great coffee without destroying the rainforests in which orang utans make their home. It's great to know that as well as drinking a good cup of coffee, you are supporting a worthwhile sustainability initiative. I would have bought some beans but have a surfeit at home; they will be selling them online from the end of this month, though.

The finals of the UK Barista Championship were taking place today and I stopped by to watch one of the finalists, Estelle Bright, as she produced the required drinks — four espressos, four cappuccinos and four espresso-based speciality drinks — in under 15 minutes. It was really impressive to watch her work calmly under pressure, even with a big audience, and talking through what she was doing. And bonus points for coordinating the cups with her hair!

Finally, I took a look at the Coffee Art Project, where various coffee-themed pieces of art were on display. This piece reminded me of my desk at work on many an under-caffeinated morning.

The LCF was a great way to spend a morning. I learned a lot and got to try some great coffees, and to sample chocolates and various other coffee-associated products. I would definitely recommend next year's event to any coffee aficionado or anyone who wants to learn a little more about their favourite caffeinated beverage. If you can get to one of the morning sessions, it will probably be slightly less busy and easier to navigate.