It took me about five years to actually get to Cellar Door
and it was a total anticlimax. The space itself is pretty cool – it’s a
repurposed public toilet in the middle of Aldwych. You’d never know it was
there unless you knew it was there. Downstairs they make the most of the space
with mirrored walls – so much so I kept walking through thinking there was more
to it. There wasn’t. Luckily there were two seats along the side so we quickly
grabbed those and waited for the acts to start.
I will give Cellar Door the benefit of the doubt – maybe we
just chose a dud night. It was basically a guy on keyboard with a walkabout
cabaret singer doing numbers such as The House of the Rising Sun and In These
Shoes and moving around the audience giving them her most personal of
attention. I found it all a bit cringey and forced though perhaps I just wasn’t
drunk enough.
Speaking of drinks, we ordered ‘martinis’ – mine the Cool as
a Cucumber and Carolyn’s the London Calling. For martinis they were oddly
frothy and not particularly potent. Mine tasted nice enough – but was too mild.
Carolyn’s was similar – and more to her preference when it comes to strength.
We had our cocktail and then made a sharp exit before the
singing started again!