50 coffees with 50 people, Week #5

50 coffees — my experiment in social learning since quitting my job last month — continues…sort of. This past week has been a lot more about socializing than learning. I’m a bit okay with that because it is summer after all but I’d like to tilt this back in a learning direction. Here’s what I’ve been up to…

Dinner at Bouillabaisse with my friends Barry and Natalie and, uh, Bobby Chinn. My friend Barry invited me along to friends & family night at Bouillabaisse and I told him I wouldn’t really blog about it. Instead, I will talk about it in the 50 coffees sense. I learned the world is a small place. I met Hilary from Hush Heath who just happens to know Denise the Wine Sleuth. (Denise is rapidly becoming the most-mentioned name in this series!! Can you tell she is a master networker??) I also met Bobby Chinn and we talked colonics. I’ll leave it there. This was a very fun night and I consumed a lot of seafood. I didn’t want it to end! And it was only a Monday. The Verdict: Bouillabaisse is now taking reservations so if you like seafood –like I do — you should go. Fine Print: I was a guest of Barry’s.

Coffee at Shoreditch Grind with a Headhunter: I’m still on the list of heads to be hunted, so every so often, a headhunter asks to meet me. Yes, this blog is not my full-time job! I’ve spent the last few years working with an HR system called Workday, which is somewhat of a rare skillset for Europe. This headhunter has been particularly nice over the last year or so so once I told him I had quit my job last month, I agreed to meet up for a coffee and talk shop. The Verdict: I like the vibe at Shoreditch Grind. And the staff.

Dinner with Kikkoman at Korubuta in Chelsea: I love soy sauce. In the US, if you buy soy sauce, you pretty much always buy Kikkoman. You buy soy sauce on brand. To me, not buying Kikkoman would be like trying to make your own ketchup or serving Hunt’s ketchup. There is only one soy sauce and that is Kikkoman! In the UK, this is not the case. People buy soy sauce on price, which is funny because soy sauce is not expensive. So I was pretty delighted to be invited out to this dinner to celebrate the joy of Kikkoman and to help, possibly in some small way, convince the good people of the United Kingdom that they really should buy Kikkoman. And Korubuta was a pretty cool place to have this all come together — very Japanese izakaya/drinking den. It was great seeing  fellow London restaurant blogger Cassie again too!  The Verdict: Shameless plugs everywhere! Use Kikkoman! Go to Korubuta! Fine Print: I was a guest of Kikkoman and Korubuta.

Lunch with Ollie at Whaam Bahn Mi. The lovely Louis at Tonic suggested I drop by Whaam Bahn Mi for lunch for one of my 50 coffees. Whaam is tucked behind Piccadilly Circus and the staff could not have been nicer to me and my friend Olly as we tried to figure out what we wanted. It’s a tight little space — more of  a takeaway joint and not somewhere to linger. We grabbed our lunch boxes and headed over to Golden Square to enjoy the rare London sunshine. We enjoyed our traditional bahn mi too and Olly introduced me to some cool new apps to help me rediscover London….Dojo (what’s going on in London) and Uncover (last minute restaurant bookings). Also, I learned that Olly remembers what I write in my blog more than I do! The Verdict: Whaam is a very good value in an expensive city. Traditional pork Bahn Mi sandwiches at Whaam go for £6 quid. Very generous portions too. Fine Print: Olly and I were guests of Whaam.

London Travel Massive: On Thursday, I decided to heat up to Kings Cross for the London Travel Massive. I figured there would be lots of interesting people to talk to and things to learn, so it could sort of serve as one of my “fifty coffees.” The event was hosted by Cheapflights, which I guess I kinda knew about already but I didn’t realize that they were an aggregator site. This means that they will be even better than the best at finding you the cheapest flight! The best part about this event is that they gave everyone free iPhone chargers!! (Handy because my old one really doesn’t hold more than one charge.) It was a fun night and I met some nice people. The Verdict: If you’re into travel, you should check out these London Travel Massive Events.

Drinks at the pub with my old boss. After hanging out with strangers on Thursday, I decided to hang out with someone I hadn’t seen in a while for my next coffee. My old boss suggested we meet at The Artillery Arms, which is a nice little pub southwest of the Old Street Roundabout, close to Whitecross Street. Unfortunately, even though he was the one who chose The Artillery Arms, he went to an entirely different pub to meet me! Once we sorted that out, we talked about everything and nothing and before you knew it, 20-ish of my old colleagues turned up. It was a bit of a reunion and very different from the night before where I stood in a room of total strangers. (With the exception of course of social media master A Lady in London who was also at the London Travel Massive.)  The Verdict: I like The Artillery Arms, particularly when it’s quiet. Oh, and I also like Cornish Orchards Cider!!

Outcomes from this week…

• This week was a bit short on learning and a bit higher on socializing. I’m okay with that for now, sort of, but I’d like to learn more as this project continues.
• Though all the different conversations I had this week, I think I have some leads for my new gig. Yes, it’s true. I have a new job! I’m now an MBA admissions consultant. So if you or someone you know wants to talk about getting into a top b-school, talk to me. I hold an MBA from Chicago Booth myself, but I’ll be helping candidates with their admissions strategy across all the top MBA programs. (Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, Chicago, etc.)
• I have some cool new apps to check out thanks to Olly.
• Free soy sauce!
• I hung out with Bobby Chinn.
• I connected two people who both like sports and analytics: one was from the Kikkoman dinner, the other is from my new gig. I hope it will prove useful to the two of them!

Let’s see what next week brings…