The Burger Bulletin: Shake Shack Covent Garden

Since July 4th, when I was forced to watch Shake Shack's London launch party through a lovely white picket fence, I've had serious burger envy. Specifically, Shack Burger envy. My curiosity was also piqued by the series of reviews in the UK press of the new Shake Shack and its more commercialised cousin Five Guys, which also opened its first London branch last week, particularly the Grauniad, which, presumably in an attempt to be controversial, gave Shake Shack and Five Guys a combined total of 3/5, compared to, say, Patty & Bun's 4.5/5.

Shake Shack, Covent Garden

Queuing in the sunshine

After a long day in the office yesterday, the sun was still shining, so I commandeered The Bro and we went down  to Shake Shack's home in the Covent Garden Piazza. At 6.30 pm, there was a fairly big queue, but unlike Meat Liquor et al., Shake Shack is on the faster side of fast food, so we were eating within about 20 minutes of joining the queue. 

In the Madison Square Park branch, you can join a separate line if you just want a shake or fries and this is also the plan for Covent Garden, but at the moment, there is just one-queue-fits-all. You order at the counter and are then give a buzzer that vibrates when your order is ready. When The Bro went round to pick up our food from the side window, though, they decided it was too heavy for him to manage so they carried it back to our table. It doesn't seem like the best system, but they'll figure it out.

Ready to order 

We both ordered Shack Burgers (single for me, double for The Bro): a cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato and Shack Sauce. The tomato was fresh (and not an end bit) and unlike the Grauniad, I quite liked my soft almost sweet bun. The main attraction is the burger, though, and the burgers are good. We weren't asked how we would like them cooked and I forgot to ask, but I would say that they came as a juicy medium, which suited me fine. And I love the Shack Sauce too. In sum, the burger was a lot like the ones I've tried many times in Manhattan.

Another healthy dinner.

Shack Burger (single).

The crinkle-cut fries were fine, but nothing special. You could easily share the fries between two if you wanted to have a shake or concrete (very thick frozen custard) instead — or another burger. Today, though, I wanted to focus on the burger so I'll have to go back for pudding on another occasion. Overall, we paid £22 for two burgers, fries and two drinks, which isn't exactly cheap, but reasonable enough for Covent Garden.

People-watching.

Love the menu.

Shake Shack have actually commandeered two adjacent outlets within the market hall: one where they make the food and one with some seats. At the moment, you can also sit on the cobbled terrace of Covent Garden, sheltering from the sunlight beneath huge parasols, and watching Covent Garden go by. Yes, there are definitely far worse places to be on a sunny summer evening.

Shake Shack London. 24 Market Building, The Piazza, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 8RD (Tube: Covent Garden). Website.

The Caffeine Chronicles: Modern Art Oxford Review, Oxford

I've lived in Oxford for more than half of my life, including three summers working at the city's tourist information office, and yet I've somehow never managed to visit Modern Art Oxford. Technically, I still haven't, I suppose, but we did at least stop there for coffee on the way to our family lunch on Sunday. During the summer, they pull the gorgeous custom tables and chairs out into a sort-of semi outdoor space, just off St Ebbe's and it's a really nice place to hang out on a sunny afternoon.

The café at Modern art Oxford. Love the décor.

The Modern Art Oxford Café used to serve Monmouth Coffee, but they now use Ue, a local coffee roaster. I had been hoping for an iced filter coffee, ideally made with an Aeropress, but they only served pre-assembled iced coffee, with milk in, so instead I went for a double macchiato.

The double macchiato.

The coffee was pretty good, although not up to London standards and not as good as The Missing Bean either. There was a little too much milk for my taste, and the the coffee wasn't as rich and flavoursome as I am used to. But not a bad coffee for Oxford, and I'd certainly return to the café next time I'm in town with some time to kill.

The Modern Art Oxford Café also serves a tempting array of pastries, as well as local beers and ciders, and wine from a locally sourced company. And besides, the café is right next to the museum gift shop, which has a great selection of design-oriented gifts. What's not to like?

Modern Art Oxford Café. 30 Pembroke Street, Oxford, OX1 1BP. Website.

Roll Up, Roll Up

Well, we Brits were granted several wishes this past weekend: not only did we have gorgeous, sunny weather throughout, but Andy Murray finally won Wimbledon. I didn't see very much of the latter, as I was at the circus, but more of that later. It was my grandmother's 75th birthday last week, so I headed back to Oxford on Saturday to celebrate with her and the rest of my family. The cats were pretty unimpressed with the heat, but the rest of us were very pleased.

Sleepy Maisie.

We had an epic barbecue on Saturday night, involving — yet again — far too much meat. My favourite was, of course, the bacon cheeseburger, but the bites of chicken and sausage I had were also delicious.

Hamburgerology, BBQ edition.

We took a few family photos with the trademark red sunglasses, before it was time to set up the pop-up cinema on the patio.

And I couldn't resist putting myself on the big screen, while we waited for it to get dark enough for us to project the movie. I had prepared a long-list of family-suitable films, and the chosen movie was Midnight in Paris, which I quite liked, and which I thought would go down well with the group. It was great to sit outside watching the film, long after the sun had gone down. I'm starting to wonder whether I could fit the screen on the balcony in my own flat.

Leaping on the big screen. Almost.

Oxfordshire's newest pop-up cinema.

As there is no rest for the wicked, Papa, The Bro and I were up relatively early this morning to go for a run around Christchurch Meadow, trying to beat the heat. I'm not sure we succeeded on the latter count, but after such a hectic fortnight, I was glad to squeeze another run in. 

On the way back, we stopped at the top of South Park to take in the view and do a few leaps. This view is new to Papa, it seems, even though it appears in most of the "Dreaming Spires" postcards of Oxford and even though he always drives past on his way into Oxford.

Dreaming Spires leap.

After we'd breakfasted, showered and changed, we went back into Oxford for lunch at Browns. Back in the day, when Oxford didn't have many interesting restaurants, we used to alternate between Browns and Pizza Express for family meals out. These days, it's less exciting, although the food was nice, if a little too much for such a hot day. And certain family members would rather have been watching the tennis. A cute new kitchen shop on Little Clarendon Street called The Oxford Pantry was more tempting to me, but I got there in the end with my patriotism.

Un air de famille.

Then, it was time for our date with Giffords Circus, which had set up its big top in the University Parks. My family went to see it last year, in a muddy field in a nearby village and had enjoyed it. Unfortunately, today was so hot that the tent felt like a sauna, and by the interval, we were all starting to droop, so we called it a night. The first half was good fun though: the tight-rope walkers and fire jugglers were my favourites.

Roll up, roll up.

Zoo Lates Take Two

After several weeks of long days at the office, we were allowed to escape at lunchtime on Friday for a day of team-building fun. Stage one involved heading down to the South Bank to do a treasure hunt that sent us hurrying around Covent Garden and Leicester Square. 

The treasure hunt company texts you clues and you have to text back the answers and complete all 11 clues as quickly as possible. Some were more cryptic than others, but it was a fun activity, particularly if you are in two teams, as we were, and particularly if you have visitors from out of town. £15 isn't too bad for several hours of entertainment and a nice route through some of the more touristy parts of London.

Five have a mystery to solve.

We were lucky to have gorgeous weather on Friday, so after we'd finished, we cooled off in Lincoln's Inn Fields for a while, before heading to The Edinboro Castle in Camden for some Pimm's. I can't remember the last time I was sitting in a pub at 5 pm on a Friday, and the sunshine made it all the more sweeter.

The entertainment in the queue.

Then it was time for Zoo Lates at London Zoo. I went last year with some friends, but because we were in a pretty big group, we didn't get too see much so I was excited to go again. We were still in a big group, but my boss had some insider knowledge, having worked there for several years, so she took us on a great route past all the biggest crowd-pleasers: the gorillas and monkeys, the tigers, the giraffes and the penguins. I still haven't had the chance to properly play with my new camera, but I managed to snap a few nice animal shots.

Big daddy gorilla.

Cute black-and-white colobus monkeys.

Tiger, tiger, burning bright.

We got to see plenty of other animals too before we found a patch of grass for our picnic. Meanwhile, an almost-silent disco was going on. We decided it was more fun to watch people boogying and singing out of tune than to actually take part.

The not-so-silent disco.

I did concede to buying a giraffe headpiece though, which may come in useful for my next half-arsed fancy dress effort.

Convincing disguises, no?

There were too many people watching the giraffes perform, so my photos weren't great.

Once it got to bedtime for the animals, I was feeling pretty beat myself, but there was still time for one last quick drink before I caught my long, if relatively direct, bus back home. What a lovely day.

Venturing Fourth

The past week has been so hectic that I hadn't been running since last Thursday, so I dragged myself out of bed at 6.40 am to do an abbreviated river route in the mist. This is important both because of the way the weather improved over the course of the day and the amount of food I ate. 

Disappearing Shard

This morning we covered the desk of my visiting US colleague with flags, banners and red-white-and-blue balloons. She was impressed, especially when later in the day, we offered up some patriotic cupcakes, courtesy of Hummingbird.

Foolishly, perhaps, I went to KERB for lunch and ordered a pulled pork sandwich from Miss P's BBQ. I say foolishly, because I knew there was a good chance of a burger later on and even I don't usually eat that much meat in one day. The sandwich was great though — a tasty bun, overflowing with juicy, flavoursome meat and coleslaw. It's just with hindsight that the catfish might have represented a marginally healthier option.

Miss P's pulled pork sandwich

I am a big fan of Shake Shack and visit the New York branches, especially the Madison Square Park original, at least once every visit, and I've been looking forward to the opening of the London branch for months now. I was a little puzzled as to why they were opening tomorrow, though, given today's late (and given the opening of the London branch of Five Guys today). But it turned out they were doing a launch party today, guest-list only. Despite bringing a bona fide New Yorker and plenty of burger credentials, we couldn't talk our way in.

Instead, we went to Meat Market, Meat Liquor's more casual sister, and picked up some burgers, fries and bourbon shakes, and headed outside to sit in the piazza, watching a self-proclaimed entertainer talk up his grand finale for about 35 minutes. I haven't been to Meat Liquor in ages, and the burgers were really good. I say "burgers" because it turns out that at Meat Market, all of the menu items are doubles. Oh noes! I ordered the dead hippie (two burgers, cheese, onions, dead hippie sauce, etc), and we shared some fries.

Meat Market

"Who are you calling a dead hippie?"

By this point I was completely stuffed, but we wandered round to the back of Shake Shack and found we could watch their entertainment — a posh hipster band from Cheltenham called Young Kato — and those lucky party guests on the other side of the star-spangled barriers. Mini-burgers, mini-shakes and mini portions of fries were all on offer, but only to the lucky invitees, who didn't even seem to want them. Pick me! Pick me! Yes, I know I'd already had a delicious double-burger, but it was the principle of the thing.

Young Kato playing Shake Shack London's launch party

Surely you can spare one mini-burger?

Sadly, despite lingering for a while (the music was quite good, actually), samples were not forthcoming, so we headed home. As it was such a gorgeous evening, I walked home along the river, watching the sun sink down behind Somerset House and turning St Paul's and London Bridge into beautiful silhouettes.

"It's the Lifestyle Everybody Kind of Wants"

A number of the films I've seen this year so far have focused on the idea of the tarnished American Dream, from The Great Gatsby to The Reluctant Fundamentalist and The Internship, and even, to some extent, Behind the Candelabra. 

Enter Sofia Coppola's new film, The Bling Ring, which tells the scarily true tale of a group of celebrity-obsessed California teens who, convinced that "reality TV star" and "it girl" are careers to which they should aim for (and, crucially, that they deserve), armed with the powers of Google, TMZ and Perez Hilton, carry out a series of robberies at the homes of the celebrities they adore while their idols are out partying or filming. 

The movie is based on Nancy Jo Sales' Vanity Fair article, 'The Suspects Wore Louboutins' about a real group of teens, who carried out such robberies and who became known as the titular Bling Ring. And it's the "true story" aspect that is so scary.

As the movie opens, the remorseless Nicki (a very good Emma Watson), post-prison-time is giving an interview about her experiences. Completely without irony, she tells us how it's her journey to push for peace and for the health of the planet. "I might want to lead a country for all I know," she says, entirely sincerely, when asked about her future plans. Nicki is being home-schooled with her sister Emily (Georgia Rock) and adoptive sister Sam (Taissa Farmiga), by their mother (Leslie Mann). I should really say home-"schooled" because most of the "lessons" consist of Adderall dispensing and mood boards based on the lessons to be learned from Angelina Jolie.

Meanwhile, Nicki's friend Rebecca (Katie Chang) has a compulsive stealing problem — her favourite hobby is opening unlocked cars at parties and taking people's wallets, handbags or drugs. When Rebecca meets lonely new boy Marc (Israel Broussard), who can spot a fake Chanel handbag at ten paces and who knows his way around the interwebs, they realise how easy it is to find out celebrities' addresses and then, using Twitter, and TMZ and other gossip sites, establish when they will be out of town. 

I suspect the addresses may not be the top search engine hit, as shown in the film, but apparently even A-list celebrities do sometimes leave at least one door unlocked when they go out, and leave a spare key under the doormat. Rebecca will casually pocket a paperweight and walk out with the Birkin...and the convertibel. Nothing is sacred, from paintings to pills and Porsches, although they do draw the line at Paris's dog. They all refer to the celebs by their first names, use the phrase "I know, right?" every other sentence, and use enough vocal fry to, well, fry bacon.

Marc and the girls love their new lifestyle, but they aren't particularly careful about who they tell that they hung out at Paris Hilton's house, and, of course, they constantly upload photos of their spoils onto Facebook. They get to be their own paparazzi. When Chloe (Claire Julien) gets a DUI for crashing her car, drunk, into another car, she is so proud that she is just like Lindsay! "I was, like, so drunk they said I shouldn't even be alive let alone driving," she humble-brags.

Rebecca is portrayed as the ring-leader, but she doesn't exactly have to twist the others' arms. "I wanna rob!" Nicki enthuses as they prepare to visit another celebrity's house. Cut to Nicki talking later to the police, **SPOILER ALERT** after they've all been arrested: "I didn't know what they [her friends] were doing." None of them shows any remorse for what they've done — they think they are entitled to all the expensive things and to the celebrity lifestyle — but it's Nicki who is the scariest character in many ways. 

She genuinely believes that she has been put on this Earth to be a leader. When she finds out she has made it onto TMZ, she is over the moon, and the real people on whom the movie characters are based will certainly love the film, even though they come off horribly, because they are being talked about and noticed, and there is no such thing as bad publicity, right? Right?

There are some moments of humanity too. Despite thinking they are wise beyond their years, the characters often reveal how young and naïve they truly are. "If I tell you where everything is, will you let me go?" Rebecca asks hopefully. And Nicki is dragged kicking and weeping into the police car, calling desperately for her mother. "But it's the lifestyle everybody kind of wants," Marc says. "America has a sick fascination with a Bonnie and Clyde thing." 

The film does feel Haneke-esque at time: to what extent is society to blame for this behaviour and to what extent do we, the viewers, contribute by watching the film and therefore add to real Bling Ring's belief that they are worthy of our attention and our interest. 

I haven't seen This Is the End, which also features Emma Watson (playing herself), but it seems like a good companion piece to The Bling Ring. Both ponder the following question: "whither our celebrity-, image- and brand-obsessed society. The Bling Ring doesn't offer a comprehensive answer, but it makes for very compelling viewing. Oh, and it's only 90 minutes long — at which point, I was dying to get back on Facebook and TMZ. "I know, right?"

California Dreamin'

After rolling my eyes through more Vince Vaughn and/or Owen Wilson movie trailers than I care to remember, I was surprised to find myself being charmed by the trailer for The Internship. Maybe not charmed enough to pay £13 to see it, but certainly enough to go to a free preview screening last night. 

I chuckled several times during the trailer and was worried that those moments were the only funny parts of the movie, but actually, it was perfectly harmless. Utterly predictable, of course, and by no means a great film, but entertaining enough.

Director Shawn Levy's film feels like a smattering of The Social Network, The Apprentice and even The Hunger Games, combined with a large dollop of Wedding Crashers — or any other Vince Vaughn and/or Owen Wilson movie you've ever seen. Our screwball heroes are Billy McMahon (Vaughn) and Nick Campbell (Wilson), a pair of great salesman who get laid off and, against all odds, manage to secure themselves internships at Google. Despite being unable to operate a web cam, or talk about things being "online" rather than "on the line."

Billy and Nick are clearly the wildcard candidates, and are about twice as old as the other interns and even than Lyle (Josh Brener), who is assigned to manage them and the other misfits on their team. You see, the internship is a series of projects or challenges, at the end of which, only the winning team will be offered jobs at Google. 

Derided by evil Brit Graham (Max Minghella, who also played an antagonist  in The Social Network; what's next, Max? A Vested Pinterest: The Pinterest Story?), who picks all the Ivy Leaguers and hot girls for his team, and admires his reflection using his Android mirror app, dropping his ts like there's no tomorrow.

On Team Fogeys, meanwhile, we have the Asian genius/maniac (Tobit Raphael), the geek-chic-ier-than-thou brain (Dylan O'Brien), and the girl who's an expert of every imaginable online fetish but who has never had a boyfriend (Tiya Sircar). 

Their 23-year-old manager, Lyle, is essentially Harry Potter. They all resent the presence of the oldies, who have no coding skills to add to the challenges and who, despite being much better at sports than their team mates, don't know the rules of Quidditch, which, of course, turns out to be one of the challenges.

But is it possible that Billy and Nick's teammates might learn as much from our heroes as vice-versa? Is it possible that if they all just pool their skills and work together, they might defeat the Evil Brit and the others? Is it possible that Billy might also win the heart of Dana (Rose Byrne), a 30-year-old Google employee with no social life? 

I couldn't possibly say, but you don't exactly go to see this kind of film for the shocking plot twists. You don't really go for the great acting either, but as I said before, I did laugh more than the requisite number of times, even if it was more chuckling than ROFLing. There is, of course, as much laughing at the Google geeks as at our hapless luddites, and there are uncredited cameos a-plenty, from Goodman and Ferrell to Brin. In sum, this is good popcorn fodder, but you wouldn't be missing out if you waited until the movie's DVD or TV release.

Incidentally, if you are hoping for more of a real insight into how things work at Google, I would recommend I'm Feeling Lucky by Douglas Edwards, Google employee number 59. Because there is more to Google than nap pods, free food ("even if I order five bagels? Or seven?") and an in-house sauna.

On a final Google-related note, I dedicate this post to the memory of Google Reader. RIP. I've switched over to Feedly, which is a great alternative. I've also added a new Feedly button to this blog, in case you'd like to subscribe.