Places to throw a party!

Every now and then I do some serious research for particular nights - before New Year's Eve I will investigate everywhere I can think of for the night out, and list their features so I can decide which best fits my bill. Most recently I've done it for my birthday. What with running a meetup, I've acquired a fair few friends over the last couple of years and I thought I'd have enough people to hire a private room rather than just booking an area. So I started finding places I liked and I thought I'd share it with you:

Bohemia, Hackney

This is where I ended up choosing. They have a small cafe in the day that you can have completely for yourself for a minimum spend of 550. They can fit up to 60 with tables, up to 100 probably without and you can have full use of their PA system, mics, bring in a DJ and even decorate a bit if you like! I'm not bothering - I think the inside is nice enough as it is. You need to put down a 100 pound deposit in advance.

Dead Dolls House/Dead Dolls Club
The newish Dead Dolls Club at The Arch has a private area that overlooks the rest of the bar so you'd be subject to the same music everyone else is listening to. The Dead Dolls House has various areas you can have completely to yourself, depending on whether you just want drinks or a sit-down meal as well.

Callooh Callay
I love this place, with its quirky decor and cocktails. They have a couple of places you can hire out - through the wardrobe or the upstairs bar. The Upstairs holds 30 people and there's a minimum spend of 1500 pounds though that can be spent on food, drink and the service charge (and the cocktails aren't cheap so you'll probably get through it quicker than you think!). You have to put down a 30% deposit.

The Looking Glass
Another cocktail bar, and this one doesn't even have a minimum spend! Nor a hire charge. All they ask is for a deposit in case of cancellation, and you can get a part of, or even the whole area through the Looking glass depending on how many of you there are.

Mr Buckley's
They have a basement bar that you can again, have either part of, or the whole thing if there are enough of you. There's a minimum spend if you want the whole thing, otherwise there isn't but other people are free to wander down. Didn't get as far as finding out what the minimum spend was.

House of Wolf
I was *this* close to picking House of Wolf because it's such a cool, weird, splendiferous venue. THey have several rooms available - I had my eye on The Apothecary Bar (which also has the secret room) which would have been a 200 pound deposit and 1000 minimum spend before midnight. You would also be able to have your own music playing but after midnight they open it up to everyone and it would play the same music as the rest of the venue. Can take up to 40 people.

Paradise Inn
This can be hired privately but I didn't get as far as to ask for how much or really any other details as I'd pretty much decided on Bohemia by this point.

Tipsy Bar 
See above

The Macbeth
The Macbeth has an upstairs which is available to hire. It can take up to 60 people standing, there's a £1000 minimum spend and it requires a £100 deposit. 

The Star of Bethnal Green
This place has an upstairs that can be hired for £150 though you require at least 40 people to be able to hire it privately. There is then only a £750 minimum spend - not bad! 

The Red Lion, Hoxton
I didn't even think this place would do private hire but I found it on Barchick's list of private hire places. I was tempted by this one because it's a pretty cool, shabby old pub, laid back. You can hire one of the upstairs rooms and get access to its roof terrace. It can take up to 70 people and there's a minimum spend but I didn't end up enquiring about it because, it is such a basic pub - the wine is cheap and the beers aren't extensive. 

Other places to note: Shaker & Co, Pub on the Park, Far Rockaway...

Where have you hired and was it any good? Let me know!

Romantic Misadventures at Bohemia with Manhattans Project, 13th February

To finish our faux Valentine's Day in style we headed up to Hackney Central, to the boutique Bohemia cafe/bar where the Manhattans Project take over every Thursday, and who had collaborated with Romantic Misadventures for the night.

Romantic Misadventures is a night of storytelling, based around love, romance or sex, and often the stories are of a biographical nature. But not necessarily so, and fiction and poetry are welcome as well. As you can tell from the name, tales of the joys of love aren't quite so welcome as recounting embarrassing and horrifying anecdotes from your romantic past. Which the host and several other guests were more than happy to do. In this respect it wasn't dissimilar to the very popular Cringe night. And free, too!

This wasn't a one-off night and I got the feeling that quite a few of the people reading had done so before, and that a lot of the crowd were part of a loyal following. I can understand why. The stories were all very funny, those that were true more so for being true and I had a really good night. Highlights for me included one girl reading us a list of her personal turn-ons, for example: 

'Ginger women

Ginger men

Ginger bread

Any kind of bread'

Or there was the guy who read a work of art about Thaddeus Hardcock, the billionaire who had more than a passing lust for furniture, much to the dismay of the heroine who was trying to court him. This was a hilarious sending up of the Shades of Grey that anyone with even the most scant reading of the original text could appreciate. 

And the woman who, recently divorced, could NOT wait to start having all the sex. But it was a lot harder than you'd think to find decent people to have all this sex with, and we heard of several of her recent attempted conquests, including one young man who 'did a murder wee' in her toilet and then just shrugged it off. 

I wasn't quick enough to note down the names of these brave and fabulous volunteers so if you happen to know, do tell me. Kit Lovelace was the consummate host, sharing with us a couple of his worst ever Valentine's Days to warm up the crowd. Would love to return some time, and may bring my Meetup group along as well, it's right up our street.

Alongside all of these were some fantastic drinks. The Manhattans Project had crafted a menu especially for the night, cocktail names which were an amusing read of itself. To wit: The Thyme Apart (which sold out before the halfway point, possibly because it was the cheapest cocktail) – "This ain't your Grandma's Plymouth Gin ... combo. Because ever since the accident she hasn't been able to move her legs, let alone mix drinks. How insensitive can you be? Here's to grandma." Irreverent much?

First up I had a Fake Orgasm which was my favourite drink of the night (and possibly, ever) and so good I can promise you I faked none of my enjoyment. I think it a little unfair to have named it so - The Gushing Climax would have been a more appropriate representative name. This (like most of the menu) was a whiskey based drink (well, bourbon) topped with condensed milk foam that was thick and sweet and gradually sank into the rest of the cocktail as you drank it. After sipping mine, Stephen made sure to have one before we left.

They had one white wine and one red wine on the menu and I had one of each. Must admit I wasn't a fan of the red wine but the white was a Picpoul which is always pretty reliable. They were also serving Five Points Pale Ale as the beer, which Stephen hadn't had before but will likely be seeking out again as he really liked it.

We had a couple more cocktails between us - my last was a Sex on the Beach with whisky and 'really good schnapps'. This was no ordinary, too-sweet fruity cocktail but one that was properly grown up. Stephen had a Manhattan as his first cocktail, which, you know, is kinda the Manhattans Project's thing, so had to be done. That came with a cherry sunk in it - saved to last so it was completely alcohol-sodden.

The venue itself, Bohemia, seemed cute, a little ramshackle with several wooden tables for four and lots of arty stuff on the walls, low-hanging lights and the comforting rumble of the overground above it. Perhaps a little hard to judge the place when it was overshadowed by the Manhattans Project takeover and the Romantic Misadventures on stage, but it seemed like the kind of place you could get cosy in with a coffee, or come for a bite to eat of something homely, with a laid-back atmosphere. I shall remember it's there, nestling under the arches of Hackney Central for the future.