Free pizza, anyone? Or maybe a free pint? Two free glasses of wine with your dinner?
It’s not that we’re cheapskates or anything, but given the amount of time we spend out eating, drinking and carrying on, it’s nice to save a penny or two.
Which is why we’re heading to Pizza Pilgrims’ new Slice joint, to a sports bar of our choice with the We Love Sport app downloaded, and to Bill’s for dinner.
We’ll also be chasing down lions, de-stressing at the cinema, celebrating national burger and whiskey sour days, and enjoying afternoon tea aperitivo-style.
Then, knowing us, we’ll blow all that money we saved on an Uber home!
Free drink? Soccer it to me
To celebrate Premiership Football returning to our lives — doesn’t it come round quick? — We Love Sport app is giving away a free pint to anyone (even you!) to quaff as you drink in the opening matches of the new season, which started, by our calculations, last Friday.
So if you like to watch your matches in a pub as much as we do, download the app, find yourself a participating Stonegate venue — which could be anything from a mega-sports bar to a cute little country pub serving you up your Sunday roast — and claim one of 32 drinks available as part of the deal.
We don’t mind if we do!
Until September 10, various venues
Pizza that’s worth a Pilgrimage
What a great name? Slice! We choose to believe we’re the inspiration for this new concept from Pizza Pilgrims (yes, we realise the word slice may have been associated with pizzas for a while now, but don’t rain on our parade).
What it is… is… a buzzy new spot in the heart of the seriously upgraded Finsbury Park, where you can choose between NYC-style slices and proper Neapolitan pizza in a setting they’re describing as ‘downtown’, by which we think they’re referring to their rare selection of vintage arcade games. Not forgetting the Aperol slushies!
And to celebrate, they’re giving away 1,000 — yes, you read that right — free slices at 12pm, 3pm and 6pm this coming Monday.
Where do we sign up?! Oh, right, on their site.
Monday, 266 Seven Sisters Road, N4
Let the Good Times roll
You know what’s better than a free glass of wine with your meal? TWO free glasses of wine with your meal!
That’s how Bill’s is planning to celebrate August anyway. All you have to do is order a main meal at dinner (well, two glasses at lunch might be pushing it… for some amateurs) and they will lavish you with two wines or three beers — that’s per person, we checked!
And their menu doesn’t need a lot of recommending: burgers (meaty and vegan), macaroni cheese, pan-fried sea bass, marinated chicken skewers… All you have to do is quote ‘Good Times’ to a member of staff.
You could even sing the Chic disco classic if you’re feeling up to it — we dare you!
Until August 31, various locations
Get good feels at the flicks
Absolutely Fabulous creator Jennifer Saunders recently declared Bridesmaids her favourite film of all time and said she’d probably seen it ten times or more.
So keep your eyes peeled for her when it hits the Rooftop Film Club’s Cinema Therapy, a series of screenings designed to indulge our emotions while offering mini stress-relieving massages, free snacks, talks and spaces infused with incense.
The movies, which you can see at the coolest rooftops the capital has to offer, have been hand-selected to boost your mood, de-stress or empower you, and include Lord Of The Rings, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and, of course, Bridesmaids.
Until August 29
Roof East, Stratford, E15 & Bussey Building, Peckham, SE15
Ciao do you like them Aperols?
Aperitivo Afternoons? What about Aperitivo Evenings? Aperitivo Mornings? Aperitivo Trips To Work On The Bus Diane Abbott-style? Well, maybe Aperitivo Afternoons is a start as an alternative to the traditional afternoon tea.
Head to Magenta and they will be doing it Italian-style — well, it is an Italian bar! — with aperitivi (the plural of aperitivo, obvs!) and cicchetti, which is Italian for delicious little snacky bits.
So why not try a Bellini served with three oysters, roasted aubergine and lime, or an espresso martini with beef fillet tartare, or an Aperol spritz with some choice veggie bites…
It’s way more sophist than blinking scones and jam — and if we all pull together to make it a success, we see Aperitivo Breakfasts on the horizon.
Tuesday-Saturday, 4-6pm, 23 Euston Road, NW1
Tusk us, this is Grrr…eat
You may have seen the actually-rather-amazing herd of wooden elephants rampaging through Green Park earlier this summer.
Well, now we have a bunch of lions to watch out for.
Tusk Lion Trail is a global art installation in support of African conservation whereby 27 life-size lion sculptures will pop up across London.
But these are no ordinary lions: they have been given a celebrity makeover, thanks to the likes of Ronnie Wood, Noel Fielding, John Cleese, Mathew Horne and artists from Jake Chapman to Gavin Turk.
The idea is that you follow a trail, collecting lions as you go (not literally, obvs, they’re heavy!).
And if you gallivanting after big game helps get the message out that the African elephant population is thought to have declined by a horrifying 50% in the past 25 years, that can only be a good thing.
Until September 24
He’s the Daddy of drinks
These National Days are getting more recherché, people, with August 25 providing an opportunity to celebrate Whiskey Sour Day.
And because we’re always down for marking an alcohol-related occasion, we’ve hunted down the best recipe for making the perfect whiskey sour, using delicious Daddy Rack Tennessee — think mouth-watering maple, honey and caramelised banana notes — whiskey, lemon juice, sugar syrup and egg white.
That doesn’t sound too darn difficult now, does it? Especially as all you have to do is bang it into a cocktail shaker with ice, shake it all over and serve with a lemon twist.
And isn’t there something a bit sexy about the name Daddy Rack… or is that just us?
Wednesday
This’ll bowl you over
Watching a Test match over a G&T at a new pop-up terrace? How very civilised! Which is why you’ll find us slurping back the Jaisalmer Indian Craft Gin — handcrafted in the Himalayas, no less — at the appropriately named Jaisalmer Gin Kricket Pavilion at *checks notes* Kricket Restaurant and Bar, over at Television Centre.
That’s right, as England takes on India in the Test series from August 25 to 28, you can sit back and watch their efforts on the big screen while enjoying the likes of Maharaja mojitos and bespoke Bowled Over cocktails.
Or if cricket isn’t your thing, you can simply go along and enjoy the gin (we’ve yet to meet anyone whose thing isn’t gin, but maybe it’s the circles we run in) between September 1 and 4, when we will (fingers crossed!) get our usual glorious Indian summer.
From Wednesday, 2 Television Centre, 101 Wood Lane, W12
Don’t have a cow, man!
Join us in celebrating National Burger Day (next Thursday… yes, the day after the Sours one, keep up!) without causing so much as a moment’s worry to our friends the cows, thanks to Moving Mountains — the plant-based vegan burger that will convert you before you get the chance to wipe the ketchup off your chin.
Seriously, if you’ve not tasted these babies yet, give them a whirl: the texture, the juiciness, the sizzle as it cooks… it leaves meat burgers in the dust.
And now they’ve come up with an NBD (National Burger Day!) recipe for a double ‘cheeseburger’ — with vegan cheese, natch. Available at plenty of supermarkets, just pick some up and head to their website for this and other recipes. We’re there!
August 26
Do you have a story to share?
Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
How to get your Metro newspaper fix
Metro newspaper is still available for you to pick up every weekday morning or you can download our app for all your favourite news, features, puzzles… and the exclusive evening edition!
Download the Metro newspaper app for free on App Store and Google Play
Source: Read Full Article