On Thursday the first of August BBS assembled a crack team of professional revellers to take on the Wheeled In Chelsea Bar Crawl to help launch our Summer Competition. We were going to go to five different venues that had featured on Made In Chelsea. The night would involve five people, four bars, one restaurant, one wheelchair and a whole lot of white wine.
We began the evening one person short. Amanda the Commanda was stuck in traffic somewhere north of Chelsea and would have to meet up with us somewhere along the crawl. For now there were the four of us: Fiona – founder of BBS and, naturally, the leader of the gang, would be wheeling through Chelsea, Paul – The American Lieutenant, Gin Mule enthusiast and chief steerer of the wheelchair, Lucy (BBS Hack) – charged with photographing the evening and myself (Max, Ed in Chief) – left to try and chronicle the chaos and review the bar crawl.
The evening started with us gathering in the courtyard at Bluebird. We’d been to the indoors bar restaurant before and really liked it but that was before…. This time we were in the courtyard and it did not reach the standards we had expected. The staff were a bit surly and not in any sort of hurry to get our drinks.
We were also sat right next to some rather unglamorous cooking chickens and Fiona described the experience, rightly or wrongly (possibly both), as being “not too far from KFC”. It wasn’t all bad though, just a bit of a let down knowing how great the inside is at Bluebird. Because of the service we decided that we should downgrade them from 3 to 2.5 BBS Ticks. The access was fine – all flat and there is a disabled toilet inside so there weren’t any problems on that front. It was nice to be outside in the last remains of the sun but we decided that we couldn’t handle the wait for another drink and moved on after one.
Our second stop was almost next door to Bluebird at Beaufort House. We weren’t outside but the huge open glass doors and windows gave it the feel of being open air and really summery with lots of fresh air. That plus a gigantic mural of a beach scene covering the entire wall made us think of Ibiza rather than the KFC vibe of the previous stop. The staff there were much more friendly and attentive too.
Some of the team decided to take their first foray into the cocktail menu at the Beaufort but wisely avoided the £1111 Chancellor. Made with an entire bottle of Dom Perignon, 3 very generous doses of Remy Martin Louis XII rare cognac and served in a Martini glass standing at over a metre tall, it probably would have both blown the budget for at least the entire evening and had us all heading home early. We made the more sensible decision to have some bar snacks to share – Honey & Mustard Mini Cumberlands and salt and sour squid – which were excellent.
The access was again really good there. Getting inside was no problem at all and there was loads of space to move around. The disabled toilet was close to where we were sitting and generally well equipped. We would however quibble about the fact that they’d left highchairs in there – it’s not a storage cupboard! The other snag was that it was in quite a narrow corridor with an inconveniently placed chair. Fiona ended up having to make something close to a twenty point turn to get back out, but at least that was a good workout. We really liked it there and gave them 3 BBS Ticks.
Next we planned to take a short walk to Bumpkin‘s new restaurant in Sydney Street, for one last drink before our dinner. We headed off down the King’s Road. On our way we spotted a couple of notably difficult to access restaurants. The first was Buona Sera At The Jam which is a tiny little restaurant where they’ve stacked the tables like bunk beds, with ladders to get up to them. This is a creative idea but hardly suitable for the less able. The second suspect was Byron Burger which we’d seen on Made In Chelsea but has steps to get inside.
When we got to Bumpkin we found ourselves presented with a similar problem. We knew it was possible to get in via the garden centre next door but it was now too late to do that as it was closed. On top of that, the waitress at the door told us we could only stay for one drink and would have to order some food if we wanted to go there. We were just about to eat so we ended up just going to the Sydney Arms pub across the road instead.
It was a perfectly pleasant pub and a decent spot for a quick drink which is clearly a popular choice amongst the locals after a hard days work. Getting in was pretty accessible although a little bit of a bumpy ride for Fiona. The main area was flat, although other sections of the pub were up a couple of steps and there was no disabled toilet. But it did a good job as our backup option when the Bumpkin fell through. It was while we were there that Amanda managed to join us. The traffic had clearly been a nightmare but she was on top form and ready to join in the revelry.
After three bars it was time for some dinner, so we headed to Tom’s Kitchen on Cale Road (The Cast of MIC are often filmed discussing their love lives here). It’s a really relaxed restaurant with great food. It was everything we wanted – nothing too complicated but also good quality. The food was simple but very tasty and the wine was good and plentiful.
We opted to have starters and mains but didn’t have room for desserts afterwards. Everyone enjoyed their food enormously, the access was great and the staff friendly. Like Beaufort House they did store high chairs in the disabled loo – please note this makes a 20 point turn more likely!! The only tiny complaint would be that the pies (especially the shepherd’s pie) were served to us at volcanic temperatures. Otherwise, it was a perfect place for us and we had a brilliant time. Tom’s Kitchen got 3 BBS Ticks.
After dinner, it was time for a nightcap or two (or three!) at JuJu back on the King’s Road. Even using the BBS App we had a bit of a struggle to find it, probably as a result of too much wine with our dinner. We eventually found it, covered in scaffolding outside but operating as normal indoors. It’s a dark and sleekly decorated bar and nightclub – very stylish. We had about half of the bar to ourselves which was a bit strange but not a problem.
The access was easy and flat and the drinks were really good, although some of the cocktails we had were pretty heavy on the ice side of things. Fiona could barely lift her glass to drink it because the massive block of ice in there. But it was a very cool place to end our Wheeled In Chelsea event.
As the night drew to a hazy end the team started to part ways. Lucy and Fiona, made of sterner stuff than the rest, stayed on after everyone else. As the others departed they were talking of returning to Beaufort House, which had been a highlight of the evening. Maybe even buying one of those £1111 cocktails (OK, that was probably the wine talking). The exact time that they left and Wheeled In Chelsea officially finished, can only be estimated but we do know they made it home eventually.
All in all, it was a really good night out, enjoyed by all. We found that the access was generally of a pretty high standard at everywhere we went and wheeling through Chelsea was pretty easy to do. It was a great way to launch our Wheeled In Chelsea competition and we hope that everyone who enters has as much fun as we did!
The Wheeled In Chelsea Competition is running throughout August. All you need to do is go for a fun day or night out and send us a review of it and you could win one of a selection of prizes. We’ll be giving away three prizes from The German Crutch Company, a dinner for two and other prizes that we will be announcing during the competition.