My first (and hopefully not the last) Road Show 2011 brought me from Munich and Frankfurt over Zurich to Milan and finally London and as I cannot sit still to utilise every moment I discovered new and visited old favourite places such as cafés, restaurants, shops, museums, etc. that I wanted to share and deeply recommend.
So fasten your seat belts and travel with me and enjoy some of my Road Show’s Hot Spots 2011:
MUNICH
As Sophie (www.thelipstick.net), my Road Show partner in crime till Zurich, and I after our successful start in Munich just had time for a quick breakfast the next day (Frankfurt was waiting for us) we followed the advise of my dear friend and Munich brand ambassador Nina to go to “Liebling” just a couple of steps from our Road Show Munich location.
Café. Kiosk. Wohnzimmer. “Liebling” already explains what it promises – a wonderfully cosy café slash kiosk slash living room (indeed you could spend the whole day there) which offers breakfast, snacks, self baked cakes, coffee, tea and drinks. And the best of it all (because the two super relaxed and downright simpatico brothers and founders did not know how much to ask for a coffee): you pay as much as you think your consummation is worth it. It’s a miracle that such paying system works out but in the end people are (always) honest and don’t want to pay too little.
I went for a very yummy müsli, which one of the two prepared himself for breakfast. He is also very open to chat and exchange thoughts about the entire world, especially about football (we are talking about real affectionates having a “Fußball unser” (“Our football”) – book in the bathroom). The living room in the back is equipped with a huge screen and projector to not miss any important games.
FRANKFURT
My very first stay in Frankfurt was short but sweet. After a good rest from the eve of the sale I packed my camera to conquer the streets of “little New York” (as I named Frankfurt due to the “wanna be” – sky scrapers in the financial centre) and just at the time I dived into the grey, super commercial, modern, concrete part of the city centre I got luckily saved by an investment banker, who showed me the other side of the city, namely the lovely, old centre with its little shops, cafés, fancy food shops, etc. Unfortunately there was not enough time to wander around, I had to meet Sophie in an also very cool area of the town, Schweizer Strasse, to hit the road direction Zurich. But before we grabbed a coffee at “La Maison du pain”, a French brasserie (reminding me of the chain “Le pain quotidien”) – absolutely tres jolie to enjoy café au lait and a tarte de citron.
ZURICH
Oooooh Züri… Having lived in this city for 2 years makes me always return with mixed feelings, on the one hand everything feels so familiar while on the other things change so rapidly and you are not part of it anymore.
However, I still love Zurich and its’ lake, rivers and mountains around, especially my favourite hang out places I don’t miss to visit every time I am there.
My fashion eldorado and absolutely favourite shop in Zurich is “Vestibule” run by lovely Laurence who moved her shop from Niederdorf (old city centre part of Zurich) to St. Peterstrasse 20, just a few walking minutes from famous Bahnhofstrasse. Offering brands such as Chloe, Alexander Wang, Phillip Lim, Forte_Forte, Maison Michel and Notify jeans Vestibule is now also place to find Swiss most known bag label Freitag and its’ newest collection Reference. I fell in love with model R103 GREEN.
I love Morocco. And Maison Blunt/ The Tea Room in the hip Langstrasse neighbourhood of Zurich. Spending nearly every Sunday for brunch there made me always feel like in the middle of Marrakech’s medina.
The Tea Room is divided into the left side with its more typical restaurant setup with tables and the right side, dominated by sofas, low round tables, squat seats and pillows to chill the whole day through sipping your fresh mint tea or smoking a Shisha water pipe. During spring and summer guests can sit also outside on the sidewalk and in the back on the hidden terrace. Staff is funky and quite friendly.
Food wise you can enjoy typical Arabic cuisine ranging from chicken tagine with couscous to hummus and mezze. For brunch I mostly went for the traditional breakfast version “Großes Hausfrühstück” with cheese, ham, egg, yoghurt with fruits and müsli.
Please make sure to not miss The Tea Room and if chances are high you will meet me there for sure next time I am in Zurich.
Another hang out place to be is “My Place”, a small bistro offering drinks, breakfast and delicious snacks for lunch and dinner. And their furniture. Second hand chairs, tables and lamps from the 60ies till the 90ies can be bought at any time so now and then it can happen that you have to change your table because one of the guests just decided to buy it.
My Place
Hottingerstrasse 4
http://www.myplacedesign.ch
In need of something sweet? Behind Bellevue, the “belle vue on the lake” – junction of trams, buses and cars, you can find “Cake Friends”, a mecca for all kind of cakes, tartes, cookies, brownies, mousse aux chocolates to fill up your serotonin deficit (don’t worry, they offer very good salads and quiches as well). Also a good idea is to take away some of these delicacies in Cake Friends’ super stylish packing for a picnic at the lake.
Cake Friends
Torgasse 3
http://www.cakefriends.ch
MILAN
Milano. Ti amo. Couple of years ago I centered my life in Milano which has been by far one of the most wonderful time I ever had. Dolce vita with friends, fashion and food. And Milan’s nightlife. Dio mio.
As everything has an end also my unforgettable exchange semester was suddenly over but Milan and especially the Salone del Mobile, the furniture fair taking place every year in April, makes me come back regularly. Milan for itself and from my point of view is not a beautiful city, on the contrary it’s all about the lifestyle you are living there: starting the day with a delicious cappuccino (I still don’t understand why the Italians make the best coffee on the whole planet) and brioche, enjoying a soft panino or rotolino with prosciutto and formaggio for lunch and having dinner in one of these charming trattorie with home-made pasta and pizza; if you are lucky sitting behind Giovanni, Stefano, Alessandro or Paolo in their perfectly cut business suits on some Vespa cruising around the city; walking on high fashion Via Monte Napoleone window shopping and dreaming about all these wonderful dresses, bags and shoes and with luck waving Domenico and Stefano or Roberto or Giorgio, all having their offices in the neighbourhood; wandering around the arty Brera area to glance in every gallery; …
However, Milan offers a lot and I would like to concentrate on Via Ticinese which was back then close to my home and still is one of my most favourite Milanese road because it has everything I need: right at the beginning you can find “Civico 82”, an excellent equipped shop selling Italian no name designers for a reasonable price.
Couple of steps ahead “Mauro Leone” is located, a tiny but oho shoe boutique offering the most beautiful ballerinas, high heels and boots made in Italy with excellent leather for really, really a fantastic price (ballerinas start at EUR 39,00).
Right opposite you can quench your hunger at “La Crepperia” with exquisite pancakes filled with Nutella or home-made ice cream.
Once in Milan never ever miss the tradition of going to an “aperitivo” with the idea to go for an after work and before dinner drink but the problem behind is that they always serve fantastic little snacks, pizza, cheese, frittate, etc. for free so that dinner afterwards is rather an illusion. If you follow Via Ticinese direction city centre you will cross a wonderful piazza, Colonne di San Lorenzo, and right there you have to drink a strawberry daiquiri (Rickie, I miss you) and enjoy all these little snacks at “Exploit”, a cosy bar having the most marvellous surrounding especially in summer when life is outside.
I am a big cowboy boots fan and this passion actually started in this shop while I was living in Milan: “Sendra” is my heaven. I think, I have not taken off my first pair for a couple of months and years, this is why I bought the exact pair 4 years later again and what surprise, the guys remembered me and my enthusiasm (what customer service ;). Although my current two pairs bring me from A to Z I still visit my cowboy friends every time I am in Milan.
LONDON
Last time I was in London I was 16 years old. And thinking back I honestly do not understand what took me so long to come back, I deeply fell in love with this city now. The Road Show’s last station was for me the ultimate finale and if I list here all those fantastic places I have been to (Tate Modern, The Saatchi Gallery, Borough Market, Portobello Market, just to mention my highlights) I would fill too many pages so I rather summarize my favourite architectural and interior designed restaurants:
Laura, my London brand ambassador, brought me after a successful Topshop – shopping trip to nearby “sketch”, a unique complex with a bar, tea room, restaurant, club and art gallery in one. We filled our energy with a traditional 5 o’clock tea and some wonderful chocolate cake at the tea room decorated with all kind of interesting interior details which makes you feel like Alice in wonderland (the bizarre staff contributes to this funny atmosphere). The entire ambience in the end is to die for, layout and furniture are out of this world (toilets are definitely worth a trip as well).
sketch
9 Conduit Street, London W1S 2XG
www.sketch.uk.com
After a good sleep from the long dancing night before a proper brunch was what Laura and I were looking for. And we found it at “Megan’s” in Fulham, Laura’s favourite place for English breakfast, scrambled eggs, home-made pastries and other delicatessen. Megan’s is a hidden, little treasure, super cosy with high quality food at very reasonable prices. Summers are spent in the hidden and quiet but magical garden.
Megan’s
571 Kings Road, Fulham SW6 2EB
www.meganrestaurant.com
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