Londoner and Proud

Bon soir mes petites! Well it's been a week of unrelenting debauchery, In La Vie's world this is otherwise known as...a standard week. But I have been working hard too, cherrypicking some delectable venues for you in the grand tradition- that of sumptuous cocktails, darkened rooms and, this week, more than a few nipple tassels. The things I do for you...

Proud Cabaret

Somewhere in the City, nestled amongst the skypiercing buildings, Windsor knots and trade floors, is a little door. Go through and be ushered into the past, into a world of cabaret tables and plush velvet couches, corset clad waitresses and smoky piano blues. It's a little bit Jazz, a little bit burlesque, with a dash of saloon thrown in for seriously good measure.

If you fancy going for the dinner option on a Friday night at Proud,you can't go far wrong - portions are generous, food is tasty, and the menu is ever changing, but more importantly is essential for soaking up the gorgeous cocktails you can't help but order and order and order.

La Vie recommends the Cucumber, Passion Fruit and Chilli Martini,which was perfect with the lemony dessert I had (which quite honestly I could have very happily got a hotel room with) and the quite devastatingly lethal Manhattans - made to order and about as deliciously headfucking as a cocktail can be.

Speaking of delicious things (and hotel rooms) I cannot fail to mention the show, which was gorgeous, professional and polished. My Vie-ettes will know all too wellwhat a huge fan I am of amateur burlesque, but I challenge you to watch the likes of Luna Rosa (fresh from the Venice Festival - famously'Satan's lapdancer) and Elsie Diamond with her fabulously dirty take on Blitz-era songs, and not be completely entranced, as well as entertained and not a little titillated...at the end of the evening the mood (and era) shifts to a 1950s swing band - the cherry on the cake in the time capsule, if you will...

A word of caution darlings - look out for the service charge at the end of the night,and keep an eye on your cocktail intake - those babies ain't cheap! Otherwise go,enjoy, have a downright decadent time...

www.proudcabaret.com

Ziloufs I visited this lovely bar on Upper St,moments fromHighbury tube, and lovedit! Great atmosphere and fantastic decor - rococo chandeliers teamed with early television sets, ingeniously converted into fish tanks! This was another drinky occasion I fear,but I have resolved to go back for food (the sight of a huge pile of rib eye steak and chips snaking it's seductive way around the room sealed the deal...) so I promise I shall report back on a place I can seebecominga firm favourite.

RubyLo Sister venue of one of my north London faves,this little underground bar between Oxford St and Baker St was another treat is a week which saw my liver officially file for legal emancipation. Beware the Rusty Nail, which might be moonshine, it's hard to say. But Vie-ettes!Embrace with all your might the wondrous menu, which includes modern takes on classics like the Dark and Stormy, stuffed with sugary limes...

Next week, art and stuff. La Vie will be visiting Gabriel Orozco at the Tate, sampling cupcakes and Sunday lunch, Knightsbridge style. The word is sacrifice.

Love to all xxxxLaVie