Describe the overall Mother of London aesthetic.

I reckon Mother of London is pretty easy to spot- I don’t think I’ve ever designed a collection in my entire life that hasn’t incorporated gloves and a high collar, for instance – largely consisting of tailored and fully encasing garments, with a very deliberate nod to alternative culture. We’re primarily known for our leather work.

You’ll be releasing a number of t-shirts, which is a big step away from your usual intricate construction and stiff materials. Can you talk about that process?

I wanted to have a few basic pieces, like T-shirts and daywear, that would be a bit more attainable and practical than the usual Mother of London contraptions, but I didn’t want to just screen print a bunch of T-shirts, either. The garments are a custom cut of our own designs and the knit we’re working with is custom custom dyed. I had to spend some time learning knitwear basics and sourcing the right people and products to make this happen, and I’m most chuffed with the results.

This line is several years in the making – what’s was the final push that motivated you to take the final steps and make it a reality?

It was always the intention to make a ready-to-wear line, but a lot of resources go into making an entirely new line and the usual Mother of London tailoring and costuming side of the business has consumed most of those resources. This is where my former assistant, Jessica Darwin, stepped in and made it happen. I couldn’t have done this without her.

Does moving to and living in Los Angeles influence your work?

Although I don’t think it’s influenced me creatively, in terms of motivation and support it’s been fantastic. Los Angeles is a city full of people who get stuff done, and that spirit is totally lacking in London. So far, LA has been encouragingly enthusiastic about the London bleakness that is Mother of London, which was a nice surprise.

What do you anticipate for the near future of MoL?

It’s difficult to say, but I’m happy for things to continue going in the direction they are. 2011 was a fantastic year.

And finally – do you have a dream client, living or otherwise?

Janet Jackson!

Keep your eyes glued to the official Mother of London Facebook page over the next few weeks and follow @mildredvon on Twitter for the launch announcement.

Words and photos by Zoetica Ebb (@Zoetica)

In the lobby of West Hollywood’s Andaz Hotel, Allison joked about continuously breaking her Kindle as Catherine told her somber tale of someone beating her to the house she had planned on moving into. The girls explained that listening back to their earlier tunes makes them proud of how far they’ve come and that being role models to artists who haven’t made it yet has it’s pros and cons.

Is it difficult to be in a band with your sister?

Catherine: It can be difficult but I think it’s difficult to be in a band with anyone. And we’ve been doing it for so long and we’re kind of forced to make it work because we’re siblings and we can’t say, “Oh I never want to see you again!”

Allison: Well we could…

Catherine: We could but we figured out a way to kind of work thru our differences and make it work.

Do you live together?

Catherine: We did for the past year in London but usually no.

Allison: We fight much less when we don’t live together. Right?

Catherine: Oh yeah [laughs].

Are you pretty similar or are you opposite of each other?

Allison: People that get to know us say that we’re really different but I think it’s hard for me to tell you how we’re different.

Catherine: But we definitely are different.

Allison: It’s the way we process things.

How old were you when you both started singing?

Catherine: I think 4 and 6.

Were you always singing together or did you ever have your own individual projects?

Allison: For a minute each of us has done something, but mostly together.

Is it true that “Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge” was going to be your last music effort?

Catherine: That was going to be our last effort together and we decided to split up. Then the bass player from Coldplay called us and wanted to work with us so we got back together.

What was your plan B if that didn’t work out?

Allison: Solo projects.

How did you guys hook up with Guy Berryman from Coldplay?

Catherine: I met him in New York thru an ex-boyfriend years ago and he heard our music and really liked it and we kind of stayed in touch thru that. Whenever he’d pass thru New York, he’d call and see what we were up to. He wanted to hear our new demos and he wanted to start a production company so we ended up making this last record together.

Was your record one of the first that he made with his new company?

Catherine: Yeah we were!

So you grew up in Alabama and moved to New York and now live in London?

Allison: We’re done with London.

Catherine: I think I’m gonna move to LA. I was just looking at houses yesterday and I got rejected for the house I wanted.

Allison: Did he say why?

Catherine: He said somebody had checked it out first or something. Oh my God the house was amazing and I loved it. I’m so so sad. I just found out.

Are you both going to move to LA?

Allison: I’m not sure yet. I kind of want to move to Nashville. I’m trying to decide if I want to split my time between the two.

What was the biggest thing you had to get used to with living in London?

Catherine: The fact that you can’t get great food whenever you want it. In New York, you can get whatever you want to eat at any hour or delivered to your home. In London you really have to search out good food.

Allison: But after 10pm, that’s it.

Catherine: Some of the food is so bad. It’s like they don’t have any passion for food.

Allison: It’s getting better. There is amazing food there but you have to find it. The fish and chips are good but not something like a sandwich.

Catherine: You go somewhere and order a sandwich and it’s like 2 dry pieces of bread with butter and a thick layer of cheese. And it’s cold.

Allison: Stay away from Ranch dressing there too!

Catherine: They have this thing called salad cream.

Allison: It’s like miracle whip but sweeter and like a dressing.

Catherine: Oh it’s so disgusting. You’ll order a salad and it’s covered in it.

Do you get compared to a lot of other sisterly duos like The Veronicas?

Catherine: Not really The Veronicas. We get compared to anything that just has 2 women in it – Heart, Fleetwood Mac, Mamas & Papas, The Bangles…

Allison: Bananarama.

When you listen back to your earlier albums? What goes thru your head? Do you feel like you’ve come a long way?

Allison: Yes, especially live – I feel like I’m most proud of how far we’ve come. I have a fondness for the early records…

Catherine: I don’t!

Allison: But you wish you could go back and know what you know now.

Catherine: I think we were just young and kind of naive and we would play out in coffee shops with a guitar and suddenly the concept of having other instruments on a record was foreign to us. Anything kind of blew our mind like, “ooh there’s a drumbeat on there.” We just didn’t know what we wanted and now we’re more specific and more aware of what we want.

Do you ever play any of those old songs live or are they locked in the vault?

Allison: We play some songs from the last record. The other songs are locked in the vault.

Catherine: I was thinking the other day about if we’d ever bring those out… probably not!

Allison: The only way is if for some reason they started selling again and people became familiar with them but not right now. It would probably be fun to revisit them and make them new.

Catherine: Especially the production.

Do you see yourselves as role models to other artists that have been at it for a long time and are ready to throw in the towel?

Allison: Yeah. I guess when you put it that way. There aren’t that many people that have been doing it as long as us without major success so yeah.

Catherine: But I do think we might give false hope to a lot of people too who might be like, “Oh look at them. They made it after 10 years!”

Allison: I remember seeing Behind The Music with No Doubt and they were doing it for 10 or 11 years before they had that first record hit. I was so inspired by that and that gave me a lot of hope. I think Lucinda Williams also did it for a really long time before anyone knew who she was. Justin Bieber – it took him so long to make it where he is now.

Catherine: Never Say Never! He seems like such a sweet kid.

Allison: And then that whole scandal came out about him possibly impregnating that girl and I was like, “I am going to be upset if this is true.”

I remember when Jessica Simpson had that promise ring and “wasn’t having sex…”

Allison: And Britney.

Catherine: We have promise rings too.

Allison: We promise we’re having sex.

Do you guys ever feel pressure from your managers to say that you don’t have boyfriends because it makes the fans like you less?

Catherine: Every once in a while someone will say, “Oh don’t say you’re in a relationship.” I’m like, “We’re adults.” It’s not like we’re teen heartthrobs where we need to keep the fantasies alive. Adults know that even if you’re in a relationship that it might not last so if they really want a shot with you to just wait it out.

Is there anything else that we should know about you guys?

Allison: We’ve given you all the information that you can handle right now so…

Catherine: We’re highly intelligent. We have great taste.

You break a lot of Kindles…

Allison: Well mine broke and then my mom stepped on the one that they replaced so then she gave me a new one for Christmas and I need a new case for it.

Catherine: Well the case obviously helped a lot!

Allison: I’m so upset. I live off this thing.

What book are you reading on there right now?

Allison: Oh like a million! But I think at the moment I was reading “The Heart of Tantric Sex.” If you must know…

Words by Nicole Pajer (@NicolePajer). Photos by Catie Laffoon (@CatieLaffoon)

Last year one of my favorite bars in London, The East Room, tragically burned down. (Luckily, I was able to have one last awesome night there two days before the fire; was one of the best nights I’ve ever had in this wonderful, wonderful city.) The East Room is part of a group of members only bars which include: Milk & Honey (London and New York), The Player (London) and The Clubhouse (Chamonix, French Alps); I’ve been to Milk & Honey a bunch but had yet to give The Player a try (or The Clubhouse… which I doubt I’ll be hitting up anytime soon unless I randomly get a surprise trip the the French Alps, which I would most definitely not be opposed to).

So last Friday after dinner (first time ever going to a sushi joint with a conveyor belt! So exciting. …Clearly, it doesn’t take much to get me excited), the boy and I headed down there (to The Player); dodging umbrellas left right and center. The entrance is unassuming: simple door followed by a narrow staircase which opens up to this low ceilinged, 70s inspired den – disco balls and everything – pow! Leather couches line the wooden walls with small tables dotted around and an open space near the DJ booth where one can get ones groove on if one so chooses to do so.

The music varies from night to night: some nights there’s more of a relaxed, indie pop vibe and others (generally later in the week), it’s more electro / 70s disco funk (which is what was playing when I was there; totally loved it). One of the great things about the music there was that it was never too loud nor too quiet, you could easily have a conversation with whomever you were with but at the same time, could totally bust a move without looking like an insane person dancing to barely audible music (note: dancing abilities dependent on the latter).

There’s a small food menu if you want to get your nibbles on, however seeing as we just came from dinner, we didn’t get any food and focused on the clearly more important matter at hand: drinks. To be honest, I’m somewhat of a contradiction as I love going to new places, finding new bars and restaurants, etc. but at the same time I’m a total creature of habit when it comes to certain things: clothing (comfort), drinks (whisky), food (meat) however I was feeling a bit adventurous – “when in Rome” and whatnot – so decided to stray from the norm and sample some of The Player’s specialty drinks. We started off with the “Popbitch Cocktail” (great name), which comes in a glass literally the size of my head (and I have a huge head) and quickly demolished that before moving on to some of The Player’s specialty cocktails like the “Gimlet Royale” (vodka with fresh lime juice, mint and champagne – seriously yum yum yum) for me and “Sosho Cooloer” (mango vodka and white wine with muddled red grapes, lemon and apple juices) for the boy.

Both of us were so smitten with ours that we didn’t even bother with trying anything else and quickly ordered another round. After downing those we decided to be sensible (the horror!) and call it a night; clearly on the early side for The Player as it was a bit after 1 but they seemed to just be getting the night started.

I’m an easygoing pandagirl but am rather picky when it comes to bars and I have to say, The Player was awesome: interesting cocktails that actually taste good, great music, funky decor, attentive but not overly in-your-face staff, disco balls, the works. Will definitely be heading back there.

The Player

8 Broadwick Street

Soho W1F 8HN

*Members Only

http://www.thplyr.com/

Drake’s Passage, a six-episode original travel series, premieres on Monday, August 15 at 10 p.m. ET/PT during FUEL TV’s “Raging Mondays” programming block. Produced by Red Bull Media House North America, Drake’s Passage takes viewers to iconic cities around the world and showcases them through the eyes of Drake McElroy, who is one of the most stylish, cultured and respected riders in the freestyle motocross world.

As a judge for the Red Bull X-Fighters freestyle motocross world tour, McElroy visits several amazing locations where the competitions are held – Mexico City, Cairo, Madrid, Moscow, London and Rome. While on the road, there is no such thing as downtime. When he’s not in the judging booth, Drake hits the streets to see what some of the world’s largest and most dynamic cities have to offer. He explores what makes each location unique, including art, music, food and sports, as well as venturing off the beaten path.

In addition to soaking in the local flavor, McElroy immerses himself in the culture of motorcycles in each country, where despite their cultural differences, riders share one common bond – the love of the motorcycle. “I have been able to shine a light into parts of the world that were only shadows in my brain,” explains McElroy. “Our goal is to keep it off-the-cuff and in the moment, and I’ve found going into situations with no expectations yield better than expected results. It’s a sheepish riot. You may laugh more times than you have phalanges to count. Tune in, you might learn something.”

This is not your typical travel show. This is Drake’s Passage.

Drakes’ Passage starts Monday, August 15 at 10 p.m. ET/PT

It was love at first sight for me and Purl (so much so that I went there twice in one night – drinks before dinner than again after); it’s easily one of the coolest bars I’ve ever been to. You walk inside and it feels as though you’ve stepped into this hidden, underground cave with all these small nooks and secret alleyways one can’t help but want to explore. A piano adorned with candles and old photographs sits in one room; there’s a fire place with a Chesterfield sofa, antique table and two gorgeous leather arm chairs sat around it; semi-private booths lit up by antique chandeliers and lamps give the illusion of mini caves within the cavernous room; small tables are situated in various corners with old, leather bound books sprawled about as jazz floats quietly through the air. It really is, as I’m fond of saying, magical.

The bartenders are incredibly skilled; Purl is the first bar in the Fluid Movement which is “… a collective of mixologists… (who) create multi-sensory experiences that excite and captivate by experimenting with foams, fog, homemade caviar and liquid nitrogen…” The menu – and I mean the physical menu itself – is so unique and gorgeous, each one is printed on an old book (I believe mine was from the early 1900s) and it changes seasonally (however they do have standard cocktails year round). I’ve honestly never seen one quite like it and desperately wanted to take one home, however I did indeed refrain from doing so. Le sigh.

The only downsides to this, otherwise total gem: Waiter service was a bit on the slow side and we had to wait a while before ordering and then even longer to actually get our drinks (but to be fair, our server was the only one working the entire bar so I’m sure our wait was due to that). And closing time is far too early (Monday – Thursday: 5-11:30; Friday – Saturday: 5-12; Sunday: 5-10:30). I honestly don’t know why this is, it’s not the type of place where you get all rowdy and make a lot of noise, but it is the perfect venue to sit, talk and drink with friends until the wee hours of the night.

If you get a chance, I can’t recommend checking Purl out enough, but be sure to call ahead and book a table as they have a tendency to fill up.

50/54 Marylebone Street

London W1U 7HX

http://www.purl-london.com/home

So I’m back in my favorite city in the world, lovely London (sorry New York, I do love you and you are incredible, but I’m afraid London wins in my book) and what better way to start this week’s post than with two tracks from UK based Jamie Woon, a singer/songwriter whom I’m definitely digging. First up is “Night Air”, off last year’s EP (co-produced with Burial) and “Lady Luck” is the first single off his upcoming debut album Mirrorwriting; listen to both here. Also check out this video of Woon singing in a canoe in Cambodia; no bells, whistles or fancy camera work, just a simple video of Woon sitting in a canoe. In Cambodia. Singing. Awesome.

I have a confession to make… I totally love Mike Posner’s “Bow Chicka”. I mean, come on, how can you not love a song that’s so wonderfully cheesy and actually repeatedly uses the phrase “bow chicka wow wow”?! Plus, he totes gives a shout out to Red Bull. Paw fives. So after the remix with Lil Wayne a few weeks back, Posner has just released the official video! It’s basically everything you’d imagine from a song called “Bow Chicka”.

Be sure to check out “Will Do” off TV On The Radio’s forthcoming Nine Kinds of Light (out April 12). Excited these boys are back in action; really loving this track. 

LCD Soundsystem + the Muppets + Cookie Monster + Brighton?! This is too awesome on so many levels, I can barely handle it and am actually at a loss for words so I’m just going to let this video speak for itself.

Daft Punk is partnering up with Coca-Cola for limited edition gold and silver coke bottles to be released in March through clubs as well as a collector’s box set which will be sold exclusively at Colette. When I first read about this I was bit “eh…” but the bottles are actually pretty sweet looking… Might have to get my paws on these.

James Franco’s (almost identical… aka totally dreamy) younger brother, Dave Franco, and Emma Roberts star in the Patrick Hoelck directed “Supervideo” for The Cults “Go Outside”. “Supervideos” is a new series from MTV where actors and film directors team up to – you guessed it – make music videos! I actually really like this idea and was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying this video – err – supervideo; curious to see what other teams will pair up. Check it out.

I cannot get enough of Lykke Li these days (same thing happened when her debut album came out) and I don’t seem to be the only one this is happening to – seemingly every time I turn around there’s some new Lykke Li news. This week it’s a beautiful acoustic version of her latest single “I Follow Rivers” and a track “The Only” which is only available to those who ordered the Limited Edition Collectors Set. However – woo! for the internet because we can stream both here. Magic.

Haven’t heard anything from Natasha Khan (Bat For Lashes) since her duet with Beck for the Twilight: Eclipse soundtrack last year so was an excited little musical pandanerd to check out her cover of Depeche Mode’s “Stranglove” (to be used in Gucci’s Guilty Pour Homme campaign). Once again, she just completely blows me away. Stream / download here.

Alright all you party people, that’s it for this week!

Have a great weekend.

Peace, love and Red Bull.

Mandy

I dipped into a number of galleries this week but the following are my favorites.

Maurice Einhardt Neu Gallery

30A Redchurch Street E2 7DP

As my friend and I were walking to grab some lunch at Shoreditch House the other day, we passed by this small building on Redchurch Street with these photographs that literally made me stop in my tracks. In the windows were two beautiful 3ft x 4ft lenticular photographs of lingerie-clad strippers dancing on a pole that demanded further investigation. The exhibition, it turns out, is entitled “I Want To F*ck You” (brilliant title) by Derrick Santini and “…is a filmic, playful and voyeuristic series of works that are provocative with an innocence aesthetic.”

My favorite piece was “I Love You,” a close up of a woman mouthing “I love you” to the viewer, comedically, this was positioned across from an identical photograph, except this time the woman was mouthing “I want to f*ck you.” This particular gallery is definitely not for everyone, but I found the work to be absolutely exquisite, I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Yes, it’s provocative, some more so than others, but it wasn’t done in a crude manor, quite the opposite in fact. Every piece was incredibly shot and even the more “shocking” ones had an elegance to them. I looked into purchasing “Red Pole” for the boy, however at £6,000 it deemed a bit steep for my panda pockets. Luckily though, there were two smaller 5×7 prints for sale (at a far more affordable £50/each) that were signed by Santini, so I picked up “Gratification In White #1”, a lingerie clad brunette spinning around a stripper pole. (And in case you were wondering, yes I did win “Girlfriend Of The Day” award for that). “I Want To F*ck You” is running until January 29^th. If you’re in the area, I highly recommend checking it out.

Pure Evil Gallery

108 Leonard Street EC2A 4RH

I was recommended the Pure Evil Gallery after a friend of mine purchased a piece from their pop up venue. The gallery itself is rather small and cluttered but if you’re into street art it’s definitely worth a look around. There’s this stigma with street art – which I place full blame upon Mr. Brainwash – that it’s all pretty much the same stuff, just with different names and a high price tag. Granted, the high price tag is true, but when one is looking at art from a particular genre, doesn’t it go without saying that a lot of it is going to look similar? So I say, drop the pretentiousness and just enjoy the pieces for what they are. And if you dig them and they make you feel good, or cause you to think, or make you laugh, or gross you out, then awesome. Don’t let anybody yuck your yum. Plus, stencilspray painting is not as easy as it looks! I attempted to spray paint a sign earlier this year for a friend running the New York City Marathon and the outcome was less than desirable, I couldn’t even read what it said.

As for Pure Evil, here’s some comedic insight to the chap (per the website):

To understand a bit about Pure Evil it is illuminating to know that he is a descendant of Sir Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor who wrote the controversial work Utopia and who was later beheaded by King Henry VIII. With this busy background (Sir Thomas was later canonised) it is only natural that Pure Evil should explore the darker side of the wreckage of Utopian dreams and the myth of the Apocalypse, a belief in the life-changing event that brings history with all its conflicts to an end.

In 1990 PURE EVIL left the Poll Tax Riots of London behind and went to live in California where he spent 10 years ingesting weapons grade psychedelics, thinking about stuff, making electronic music and printing t-shirts. Inspired by skateboard culture and west coast character graffiti he returned to London and picked up a spraycan and started painting weird fanged vampire bunnies everywhere.

It was kind of hard to pick a favorite piece, I mean the vampire bunnies are totally adorable, but my top two were definitely “Mad Max” and “Pandas Rock” (of course). “Mad Max” (see lead image) is a 30 x 42 piece which features a stencil spray paint of Max (from Where The Wild Things Are) and one of the “wild things” over 19^th Century French book pages in a gorgeous black painted ornate frame. “Pandas Rock” is a set of 4 stencil spray paint pandas emulating the rockers from Kiss. Genius. Had it not been a cool £2500, I totally would have bought it.

Opera Gallery London

143 New Bond Street W1S 2TF

Yesterday was “culture day” for Mandy which included a stop at the swanky Opera Gallery in Soho. The first thing you see upon entering the gallery (well, it’s visible from the street too) is a giant sculpture of a gorilla made entirely out of silver painted coat hangers by David Mach entitled “Silver Streak.” To say this piece is impressive barely gives it justice. How Mach was able to create it completely boggles my mind.

Opera Gallery recently finished the exhibition “Bling Bling” (which featured works form Vincent Poole, Laurence Jenkell, Meredith Ostrom and Marcelling Lapouffe) and seemed to be in a bit of a transitional period however pieces from “Bling Bling” were still up along with several pieces from David Mach’s previous show held in October. My favorite pieces, along with “Silver Streak,” were these giant candy wrappers with various logos on them (“Coke”; “Gucci”; “Cartier”) by Laurence Jenkell and a crystalized gun-toting colorful skeleton kickin’ it in a chair by Marcelline LaPouffe, which was equal parts ridiculous and amazing.

Opera Gallery has several locations throughout the world (New York; Miami; Paris; Geneva; etc.) and are known for their impressive collections of “Masters” such as Picasso, Dali, Gauguin and others of that elk along with contemporary artists making their mark on the international circuit. Honestly, if I hadn’t happened to be in the area yesterday, I would have missed this gem. Seriously worth seeing, if anything for “Silver Streak.” Can’t express how much I loved that giant coat hanger gorilla.

Regrettably, my camera decided to stop working yesterday so I don’t have any photos of the above, but head on over hereto check out some of the pieces.

Keep checking back here for more London adventures from yours truly! Coming up will be a review of some great, hidden away bars, tales of the “horrible pubs pub crawl,” “Mandy Finally Goes To The Tate Modern!” and more.

Peace, love and Red Bull.

Mandy

Described by various critics as an ‘experimental pop rock’ outfit, Micachu and the Shapes are an eclectic bunch. Although there’s a world of difference between the two in sound, their ambition reminds me a bit of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ early days, when they were molding their own classic Bromley contingent punk rock sound into something weirder, like a fusion of punk/pop/hard rock/carnival jelly. There’s a bit of a clash between the instruments and their players, but they’re so wonderfully in sync with each others’ personalities, and that’s what makes it so fun to listen to. That clash surfaces not only in sound but in composition…these are stick close to the tried-and-true punk rock formula of short songs (many of them are under two minutes, if not shorter) and  Whereas many bands like to play in harmony, Micachu cordially extends their middle fingers to any notions of what music is and should sound like. It’s a nice and refreshing twist on what I used to think pop rock should sound like. And Micachu (real name Mica Levi, who composes most of the music) ain’t no hack — she was trained at the Guildhall School of Music before deciding to go in this stranger, blatantly anti-conformist direction. You can hear her entire set on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.

I was staying in Croydon – a neighborhood Id never heard of until being dropped off in its guts by my coach. All I can tell you about this place is it’s very far from London and Kate Moss lived there before she made it. Also, this is precisely why you should not book hotels through budget travel agencies. Fortunately, a train station was a short walk away, making escape somewhat convenient. So to London I went.

At night, everything changes. There is something to be said for visiting usually populated tourist areas after dark, when everything is closed and the employees have gone home. You get a glimpse into the secret lives of buildings and the city itself. My first London evening was spent walking through an almost empty Trafalgar square, passing sleeping monuments and wondering why there was no one there to enjoy the streetlights and the silence.

Words and photos by Zoetica Ebb

Camden Town has been London’s subculture mecca since the 60′s. The Roundhouse Theater made its name as the home to countless goth and punk shows back in the day. Open air markets, including famous Camden Lock, draw alternative fashion hunters and tourists alike. The World’s End Pub is now my favorite place to lose a few hours to cognac, and my new favorite place for people-watching, fresh mint tea-drinking and baklava-chewing is a tiny Moroccan tea house situated in front of Horse Tunnel Market. I can’t think of a better way to spend a cloudy Camden afternoon. Other than at Proud, that is.

Proud Camden is a gallery and venue located inside the old horse hospital. At night Proud is a party house, with concerts, DJs and lots of beautiful people on parade. Open to the public all day, this huge space has bars, stables-turned-private rooms [horse name-plates intact above entrances] with couches, LCD screens, video and arcade games. I even found a room with a stripper pole! Now that’s hospitality.

Words and photos by Zoetica Ebb