I’m having 50 coffees with 50 people…Week #3

As I write this, it’s Week #3 of my 50 coffees project and everything is happening. I feel like I’ve learned more in the last three weeks than I have in the entire last year. Talking to people is good for the mind, body and soul. (Body = I’m also spending a lot of time at the gym…more time than I have in years!) Here’s what I’ve been up to in Week #3.

Lunch at The Well with my friend Brian. Brian was supposed to meet me at Iberica the weekend of Week #1 for paella. He got the dates wrong and went to Gibraltar instead (!!!), leaving me with a giant pan of paella to polish off. I love Iberica. I really do. So I still managed to have a lovely time but I had an even better time at The Well the next week because Brian actually turned up! We talked restaurant booking systems and taking the overhead out of restaurants and taking costs out of systems in general. That’s what happens when two U of C people get together. Also, I think we agreed that markets are definitely inefficient. Brian also convinced me to sign up for another Chicago Booth event later this month. (More startups!)

Lunch at Sanxia with LIZZIE. Buy her book, Chinatown Kitchen, on Amazon now! Lizzie was already on my list of 50 people but she awesomely reached out to me before I got to her. (It’s really hard to organize coffees with 50 people at the same time, so I reach out to five-ish people a week.) She suggested a couple of places but once she mentioned Sanxia, I was in. The lovely if slightly goofy staff alone makes me want to go back. Also, the soup noodles and the dumplings. I didn’t die over the scrambled egg and funghi, but this is a menu worth exploring and we explored it so there’s that. The best part? £12 quid a head!!! The Verdict: Eat the menu. And buy Lizzie’s book!

Lunch at Aqua Nueva with Chris: Back to where it all started during Week #1! At the very beginning, I had reached out to Chris to set up lunch and we had picked this date in mid-June, but then Bar Boulud happened so after not seeing him for 5+ years, I saw him twice in a two week period! He was kind enough to invite me to the reopening of Aqua Nueva, where I saw Hugh Wright in all his fabulousness from a distance. I also fell in love with the Secreto at Aqua Nueva–deliciously lusty pork and potatoes. (Luckily, we ordered two.) The Verdict: Discuss your business secrets over Aqua Nueva’s Secreto. Disclaimer: We dined as guests of Aqua Nueva. Top Tip: Ignore where Google Maps says Aqua Nueva is. It is not on Regent Street by the Apple Store. I’m not sure why the restaurant hasn’t done something about this already…

Virtual Coffee with Jessica from Meal Sharing: Jessica from Meal Sharing saw my post and suggested we have a virtual coffee date over Skype. I LOVE THIS SORT OF THING! The idea behind meal sharing is that in over 450 cities around the world, there are people willing to have you over for dinner. Jessica and I joked about how restaurant bloggers don’t tend to cook much but know all the bloggers who do. If you’re interested in hosting people for dinner, drop Jessica and the team a note! Meal Sharing looks like a fun concept.

YOLO Party at Yo! Sushi: The old me would have said no to something like this but 1. I’ve always kinda loved Yo! Sushi and 2. The party was in Soho and I love Soho. I am really super glad I went because this was an awesome party. There were Japanese hot dogs, furi fries (just shake and eat), unlimited Yo! Sushi dishes and free sriracha key rings!! While I was at the party, I met PS Origami and Happy Belly and I also ran into Kavey and told her about my 50 coffees project. (Kavey, I am coming for you.) My only complaints? As with all PR events, it would have been nice to have copious free wifi. Also, they didn’t tell us the hashtag #yoment until half-way through the party. PRs of the world, HELP ME HELP YOU!!! Because I really am open to that these days.

Drinks at The British Film Institute with @Webcowgirl: I’ve been following @Webcowgirl on Twitter for ages. For a while, she was documenting what people were reading on the tube, which was fun to follow given how seldom people tend to read real books nowadays. I thought it was very cool that Webcowgirl reached out to me — a stranger on the Internet — and suggested we meet up. We had cocktails at the bar at the BFI and it couldn’t have been a more lovely, gorgeous late afternoon, watching the tourists and the Thames go by. It was such a lovely evening that I decided to walk all the way back to Old Street afterwards.

Malaysian by May Supper Club with Denise & Jeanne & Rosanna: Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time. Thank you, Pietro. And thank you Jeanne, for inviting me in the first place. But I digress…May’s Malaysian food is truly fantastic. I adopted a Malaysian tourist at Holloway tube — she was already planning on joining for dinner but was traveling solo — and she said later that May’s food was truly fantastic and authentic. I can’t speak to the authenticity part but I can tell you…FANTASTIC. Be on the lookout for May’s next Malaysian supper club. Truly a great night out.  The Verdict: GO! (And take more photos than I did. I was having so much fun, I barely took any snaps.)

Cool things that happened during Week #3…

• I created my first Snapchat. It was okay. I kinda get Snapchat more now, but I don’t like that your videos disappear. I want mine back!
• I started Couch to 5K! I’m on Week 2 at this writing.
• I actually made it to Cardio Boxing!
• I uploaded 40,000 photos to Google Photos! And it’s awesome. If you haven’t experimented with the new Google Photos yet, you should!
• Imogen at Quarto Group sent me the book “Daily Greens 4-Day Cleanse.” I am kinda in the market for a cleanse — waaaaaa — so the timing worked perfectly. It’s a beautiful book so this should be interesting.
• I published two blog posts (this one and this one) in one day! That hasn’t happened since like 2007!
• I met an origami artist!
• I booked plane tickets to NEW YORK CITY next month!