Return to form

Wow, I really did have a big blogging week, didn't I? The return to form to which I refer however, is actually the return of The Bender. Lydia has mentioned many times that 2007 (a.k.a The Year I Gave Up Excessive Alcohol Consumption) was pretty boring. So anyway, the Bender - the practice of stumbling around various alleyway bars of Melbourne and excessive alcohol consumption was resurrected last night.

Apart from the two glasses of red I had at after-works drinks, the night was kicked off at Cafe Vue's weekly cocktail party. Five cocktails paired up with 5 different types of fingerfood.

Menu of the night (actually changed monthly)

Cocktail #1 - Bellini with scallop papaya and spherified papaya balls.

Oooh, Bellini made with Moet? How swish :P

Cocktail #2 - Mojito served with beef tacos.

That mint foam (in place of actual mint) on top was like awesome, and I'm not a lover of foam foods.

But this is serious the best taco. Ever. I can't remember what they did to make it so special other than deep fry almost everything in it. It just was.

Cocktail #3 - Cosmpolitan paired with...

Cauliflower couscous with veal shin roulade and osso bucco sauce

Cocktail #4 - Bramble with roquefort pannacotta and pear puree.

The Grand Empress hates tequila so I got to have hers. Turns out she also hates blue cheese so I got to have that as well!!

Cocktail #5 - Espresso Martini with tiramisu

Now, I don't drink coffee at all so I happily handed it over to the Grand Empress. It turned out however that Lydia had told them there was a member of the party who didn't take coffee and they made me a coffee-free tiramisu and another cocktail (below).
I don't remember what was in it, but it was nice. Fruity.

Later in the night, some revellers started throwing tiles off the building next door, forcing the closure of the pathway to get to the toilets. So the restaurant instead opened up their doors to the (private) Dom Perignon room which had it's own bathroom. Faced with such opulence, we naturally had to take some uber-posed photos.

The Grand Empress also tried to get into the cabinet that held the Dom Perignon.

Despite the 5 cocktails + 1 white that she'd downed, The Grand Empress was *I'm not drunk. This doesn't feel like 'A Bender' to me!!!*, so we went to PennyBlue, MOO's more mature sibling.

The view of the bar from my bench.

Formerly loved bottles of booze that line the walls.

I remember the first time I went here with someone who shall remain nameless and we didn't spend a lot of time there because my companion was put off by the crowd who they found 'old'. When I pointed out that we ourselves were no longer lambs in the meadow, they got offended.

'Old' crowd visible in background

But last night was the triumphant return and it was very comfortable and completely pleasant. I like Pennyblue.

We slowly crawled our way up Lt. Bourke St. and went to Manchuria. Alas, since I somewhat consider Manchuria my *home* bar, I took no photos. Following Manchuria, we attempted to get into Seamstress, only to be told that it was closing!!! What?! At 1am on a Friday night/Saturday morning? Can I just say *FAIL*?!?! So instead we hied it down to somewhere that's close to becoming my new favourite place 1806, with my new favourite sitting area, the Red Alcove.

Yes, I arranged this photo so you can see the coolness of my Red Alcove.
(Plus advertising)

Snuggled in the comfy red velvet chair. (Ignore the blurriness)

Lydia at her regal best.

The Grand Empress demonstrates why I love the Red Alcove so much. That's right, the colour looks good with our colouring and it's really comfy.

Yessum, the Red Alcove rocks. All I ask now is that no one sit in it so it remains MY area. Okay? Good.

And no bender is complete without Stalactites, which did not live up to its other nickname of Fight Club. It did however deliver the souvlakis at 2:30am and it remains the one place of 'good' (read: mediocre but full of memories) food that hasn't disappointed the Grand Empress on her return home.