Zoe Griffin / party princess  
  LIVE LIKE A CELEBRITY!  

The best things in life come in threes, so after posting my top drinks and my favourite celebrity fashion looks on Friday, it’s time to reveal what restaurant I (and a few celebrities) like.

It’s called The Lonsdale and it’s in London’s trendy Notting Hill. Read the review here in my restaurant review section.

This week I’ve been running a competition giving away Camitz sparkling vodka so to tickle your tastebuds (and remind you that you can enter until Monday 3o August), this week’s top cocktail contains a bit of the fizzy stuff.

Actually it contains a lot of the fizzy stuff as we’re mixing it with Champagne to bring you the Camitz Blueberry Champagne Cocktail

Ingredients: 20ml White blueberry liqueur
20ml Cranberry juice
60ml Champagne
40ml Camitz Sparkling Vodka

Recipe: Refrigerate ingredients then layer in order listed into a chilled Champagne flute (ie pour in the blueberry then the cranberry followed by Champagne and vodka) and you should get a nice striped effect.

It’s Friday people and we all know what that means – cocktail of the week!

This week Perrier invited bartenders and mixologists to compete to create the best cocktail using their iconic sparkling water.

Perrier seems to be having a bit of a ‘glam moment’ with its uber cute Dita von Teese designed cans flying off the shelves at Selfridges and we can vouch that it tastes good in a cocktail too.

The mixology event was hosted by botanical bar Saf and drinks were mixed, served and judged from their kitchen garden greenhouse (which cleverly doubles as a bar back) where they also grow the herbs and flowers Saf incorporates within its menu and cocktail list.

Winners were as follows:

1st (and Cocktail of the Week) – The Kentucky Blueberry Lemonade at The Redchurch Bar (mixed by Terrence Lundy)

Very close 2nd – The Super Sain and Green and Red (mixed by Steffin Oghene)

Kentucky Blueberry Lemonade

Ingredients: half a lemon, 25ml cane sugar syrup, 4 dashes of Peychaurds bitters and a handful of blueberries plus 50ml bourbon and topped with Perrier.

Muddle, shake, strain over ice and serve in a sling glass with lemon zest and mint. Yum!

The Party: Aura nightclub’s post F1 bash

The Venue: Paramount club (centrepoint)…An Aura takeover, for one night only

The VIP Guests: Seb Fontaine DJ-ed, JLS partied HARD!

The Drinks: It was an open bar – so there was a LOT of drinks. Revellers either bought a table (which came with a magnum of vodka and a jeroboam of Champagne) or paid a door fee of approx £95  to get free wine, spirits or soft drink.

The Gossip: (1) JLS celebrated their 3rd number one single The Club with lots and lots of Champagne and vodka – they earned it. At the start of the night they sent Twitter messages to their fans from their account @JLSofficial

By the end of the night, they were in no state to write anything

(2) There was almost fisticuffs from Oritse. At the start of the night he looked happy to hear the joke:

“Why won’t you get drunk at a party with JLS?” – Beacuse you only get One Shot

By the end of the night it wasn’t so funny!

Calling all truffle pigs!

Black Moth vodka is the brainchild of the truffle-hunter extraordinaire Dr Paul Thomas (you might have seen him on Dragon’s Den) and vodka enthusiast Paul Amin.

It infuses British vodka with French Black Perigold truffles and took two years to create.

Currently stocked in Selfridges, it comes in a sleek black bottle with a silver moth design which looks way too cute to keep in the freezer!

The Black Moth Rose Fizz was created by mixologist Johnan Svensson of Drinksfusion as a sweet (and very pink!) cocktail to still compliment the delicate truffle flavour.

Method:

Shake Black Moth Truffle Vodka with fresh lemon juice and add to crushed strawberries. 

Top with champagne and a hint of rose liqueur and vanilla sugar.

Yum!

The Johnnie Walker Festival of Speed Fizz
If Glastonbury lacked glamour and you’d prefer petrol to peace and love then look no further than the Goodwood Festival of Speed – which runs from 2nd to 4thJuly and offers the combined thrills of fast cars, motorsport stars … and cocktails.

From 200mph supercars to steam powered engines –Goodwood estate owner Lord March’s idea of filling a field is very different to Michael Eavis’!

In keeping with the hedonistic garden party vibe of the event, Johnnie Walker have created a range of themed drinks including The Hill Climb (with cold espresso and sugar) and The Monte Carlo Mule (with Apricot Liqueur).

But we like the Festival of Speed Fizz for its heady gingery vanilla aroma. Grab one of these and then get someone else to drive… (Preferably Lewis Hamilton)

The Johnnie Walker Festival of Speed Fizz

Ingredients

25ml Johnnie Walker Black Label
5ml Vanilla Syrup
Top with Ginger Ale
Garnish with mint sprig

You know what time it is people!

Cocktail time!

It’s nice when people make an effort with surroundings and we’re looking forward to the return of Frank’s Campari bar next week – which is part of the Bold Tendencies Sculpture Project ad brings some glamour to a multi-storey car park in Peckham – as well as creating a resurgence for classic Campari based cocktails such as Negronis, Sbagliatos and Americanos…

In a similar vein, Mr Carter, the eccentric host of 40 winks; the lavish, shabby, chic townhouse hotel famous for its decadent parties and bedtime stories (although Samantha Cameron was spotted in there this week!) brought his pyjama party evening to the Royal Exchange this week – serving up ‘tales of wonder and amazement’ along with scotch egg canapes and this peculiar drink.

The Cardamom Martini

Fresh Pineapple

Gomme Syrup, 10ml

Smirnoff Black Vodka 40ml

Whole Green Cardamom 5g

Mix the syrup, pineapple and vodka and shake over ice. Garnish with the cardamom and a pineapple leaf.

The Bavarian Beerhouse has recently opened a second branch in London’s Tower Hill – giving Germanophiles double the chance to experience sausages, steins of lager, pigtailed waitresses and oompa bands. You can also watch all the German World Cup games there or take away a picnic hamper of meatloaf and cheeses.
So, in honour of their new venue opening (and just cos they’re fun to drink) Cocktail of the Week this week is the Bavarian Beerhouse Pornobrause.

Pornobrause (or Porn Fizz) consists of shots of schnapps which are served with a little sachet of crackling space dust – like the sort you used to have in Primary School.

You pour the sachet into your mouth, then down the shot. Shake your head from side to side and the cocktail mixes in your mouth. Vorsprung durch technik genius.

We don’t catually have a method of how to make one, but buy some space dust from your local newsagents and experiment to see what it works with.

THE PARTY: De Grisogono jewellery private dinner with a gig by Cheryl Cole

THE LOCATION: Hotel Du Cap, Eden Roc

THE GUESTS:Cheryl Cole!!! Naomi Campbell, Meg Ryan, Tamara Beckwith, (a lot of people went to Monaco for the World Music Awards)

THE GOSSIP: Come on, it’s all about Cheryl Cole – who did 4 outfit changes (and I’ve photographed three below).  Showing off the jewellery first in an elegant ballgown, then swapping stage outfits in quick succession. She earned the reported £275,000 that she got for her apperance.

Will.I.Am drove for miles to see Cheryl after attending the World Music Awards he made it to Cannes to DJ at the after-party

Photos: It’s all about Cheryl Cole, but I have to sneak in one of Meg Ryan at the bottom.

Meg said she has given up acting and wants to get into directing because she thinks there are no parts she would like to do right now. In the photo at the bottom, I can’t work out if she has had surgery orif its just a bad angle…

Looking stunning at the start

outfit 2

outfit 3

MEG RYAN

Meg Ryan with producer Lawrence Bender

Money Never Sleeps and neither do I – I have arrived in Cannes! Last night’s big event was the premiere of Oliver Stone’s movie Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, and I attended the after party (insanely decadent!)

For the next seven days (I am here until Saturday 22nd), I will attempt to have last nights party gossip summarised here first thing in the morning so you can check here to find out what happens first.

If it’s a bit late, it means it was a good party so check back later.

And just to tease you, there is slightly more than what I am writing on this blog as I am writing a feature about Cannes for Now magazine, when I will be lifting the lid on EXACTLY how decadent things are.

For now, let’s just say the main detail is:

THE PARTY: Official after party for Wall St 2

THE STARS: Carey Mulligan, Shia LeBoeuf, Oliver Stone,

THE FORMAT: A private villa on avenue de benefiat, just outside of Cannes

THE LOCATION: Sit-down dinner in a marquee for the film’s key people followed by drinks around the pool. Dancing in the marquee / a covered bar by the pool

MY PHOTOS: Apologies for the poor quality, these were taken on the camera phone as I arrived in Cannes late and had to head straight to the party:

Champagne by the pool

Starting to flag at 2am...but still have Champagne

FILM REVIEW: I didn’t arrive in time to watch Wall St 2: Money Never Sleeps (because of a BMI Baby plane fault), but it’s caused a buzz on La Croisette. Carey’s performance is spell-binding, with critics raving you can’t take your eyes off her. Next year, will be her Oscar year – she’ll have one by 30.