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Leonie Cooper

@leoniemaycooper

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Food + Drink Editor @timeoutlondon 🍽 Co-host @messylunchshow 🍸

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A gloomy, doomy pleasure to play morbid country and hellfire hillbilly records with my favourite Princess of Darkness aka @kamelliasara 🖤 by @leoniemaycooper

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6 months ago

A series of gentle dispatches from my second city, fuelled by Gibson martinis, Oasis, Neil Young, and the overly wishful thought that I might just bump into Elliott Gould if I loitered outside his apartment from The Long Goodbye. by @leoniemaycooper

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10 months ago

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a year ago

I was recently reunited with my one true American love, Amtrak, on a magical trip across Missouri. If you’d like further information on how I had a panic attack halfway up the Gateway Arch, found the best bar in St Louis (Stews’s), the best jazz club in Kansas City (Green Lady Lounge), the strangest little time warp of a town (Hermann), hunted down William S Burrough’s final resting place, and suffered extreme thrift store regret after not buying a 1950s diner waitress uniform, find it all on Time Out now. by @leoniemaycooper

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10 days ago

After experiencing a mild but powerful ego death last year at Osip, I’ve wanted to eat at Merlin Labron-Johnson’s other place. The Pharmacy feels like you’ve stumbled into a little auberge in the south of France; enamel jugs of freshly-picked flowers here, a rustic farmhouse kitchen table there, and the spirit of MFK Fisher floating above it all. Like Osip, absurdly fresh produce is the thing; peas have just been picked, the first sungold tomatoes of the year have been pickled for your pleasure and the chicken has only just stopped clucking. Heaven. @merlin_johnson by @leoniemaycooper

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14 days ago

While everyone was eagerly awaiting the re-launch of cult Kings Cross boozer McGlynn’s by its surprise owners - artist Peter Doig and gallerist partner Parinaz Mogadassi - the pair have covertly opened the best new bar in London. A semi-municipal white-cube space just behind the eerie 24-hour McDonald’s on City Road, inside there are a few splashy, modern canvases and a curvy, freestanding vintage bar. Most imposing of all though, are the room’s two mammoth-sized speakers, which allegedly once belonged to Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk. Nothing has ever screamed ‘intersection point on a Venn diagram of The Modern House and The Quietus’ more than Tramps Bar. The drinks offering is deft, impressive and nonchalant. On a weekly changing A4-paper menu you’ll find house martinis (always gin, never dirty) alongside things like an ‘Arnoldo’ - a tequila-spiked Arnold Palmer. Perch yourself on one of the five tables, at the handful of seats up against the bar or on a black bean bag on the concrete floor, safe in the knowledge that you’re in exactly the right place. Full review on Time Out now (and no I didn’t try the food and yes I will be back to do so). by @leoniemaycooper

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17 days ago

A Hackney failsafe since the heady days of 2012, Lardo was a Swiss Army knife of restaurants; not only ideal for washing away Spurstowe hangovers, but for entertaining troublesome toddlers and dates you weren’t sure were definitely dates. It didn’t particularly need to switch things up, but almost 15 years after opening, Lardo has reinvented itself by installing the idiosyncratic Marta Sandini in the kitchen. She’s done it with a global approach to casual Italian cuisine that’s as playful as it is unhinged. Take, for example, a giant spring roll stuffed with smooshed potato and mushed-up mushroom that’s Tuscan dining by way of Cantonese cookery. Slightly more sensible, but only just, is a brined watermelon salad embellished with worm-like wiggles of charred lemon puree that looks like something Peppa Pig would take on a family picnic. There’s also an unfurled artichoke, oily and fresh and perhaps the most trad dish on a menu bristling with anarchic innovation. Lardo didn’t need to change a thing, but we’re kind of happy it did. Full review on Time Out now x by @leoniemaycooper

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21 days ago

Yet another sensational month of pals and pints and somehow cooking at Claridge’s? by @leoniemaycooper

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25 days ago

Real life stories: I was saved on the hottest day of the year by The Victory, a new southeast London gastropub that seems like it’s been there forever, because in a way, it has - for almost three decades it was home to the much-loved Franklins. Weak from my cross country journey on both tube and Lime, perfect melba-toast like soldiers topped with chopped egg mayonnaise and silky anchovies roused me from my daze, while juicy melon and runner beans with basil, ricotta and the occasional almond had us in giddy raptures. A more harmonious and sweat-proof salad I cannot imagine. Grilled langoustines, burnished with tomato butter bring some Cajun energy to the table. At The Victory everything is presented classily and simply, but comes roaring with flavour. The main event was whole roast poulet jaune, served in two parts, first breast swimming in a creamy marsala sauce, then a flash of leg with the crispiest of skins. Like The Godfather and its sequel, both are good, but the follow-up might be even better. The Victory? A goddamn triumph. Full review on Time Out now. by @leoniemaycooper

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a month ago

Earlier this year I went to Reykjavik and, for some reason, met the President (and the First Gentleman), had a minor ego death in the Sky Lagoon sauna, ate the greatest lamb stew of my life and grazed endlessly at @foodandfunreykjavik. Read all about it on Time Out. by @leoniemaycooper

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Visit Glastonbury, dodge the druids and head straight to the divine Queen of Cups. Set inside a 17th century coaching inn off the town’s main drag of crystal shops and incense emporiums, the innovative menu is the product of Ayesha Kalaji’s Welsh-Jordanian heritage, meaning laverbread falafels, harissa hogget and chicken hearts marinated in lavender molasses. Everything is beautifully presented to the point of being bejewelled; there are rose petals here, pomegranate seeds there, and lemon balm leaves everywhere. Some dishes look so pretty that it feels like sacrilege to eat them. Do it anyway. Need somewhere to stay? The glorious Craftsman’s Cabin isn’t too far away and (v importantly) has a clawfoot bathtub on the outdoor deck. Full review on Time Out now 🔮 by @leoniemaycooper

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a month ago