Late twenties: fourteen names, each with a table she returns to
FOURTEEN NAMES, AGED 25 TO 29. The largest band the house keeps, and the one where the answer to where shall we go comes back fastest. By this stage a woman generally knows which evenings suit her and will say so without hedging, which is why a plan agreed on Tuesday for Thursday holds.
So the card is written as fourteen standing tables. Not reservations the house holds, which would be a fiction, but the address each one returns to often enough that the staff nod her in. If you want an evening arranged with no research of your own, start here.
Late twenties, tonight
Everyone listed under late twenties, taken from her file rather than a guess. Open a card for rates and a message with her name.
Cindy
Danielle
Karolina
Laura
Liana
Michelle
Milena
Nora
Patricia
Rosa
Samanta
Thea
Tina
Vanessa
The quiet end
Liana, 167 cm, returns to the small patisserie on Greek Street for late afternoon tea and walks back through the square afterwards. Rosa, 160 cm, returns to the Berwick Street racks and whichever nearby table takes its bread seriously, Sunday through Thursday. Patricia, 172 cm, returns to the big bookshop on Charing Cross Road and to a late screening after it.
Counters and grills north of Oxford Street
Vanessa, 173 cm, returns to a townhouse dining room in Fitzrovia for a dinner with no stated end. Thea, 165 cm, returns to the ramen bar off Berwick Street for two bowls and a cold beer apiece. Cindy, 168 cm, returns in daylight to the photography galleries behind Regent Street, camera in the bag as usual.
Rooms with a stage or a screen
Karolina, 174 cm, returns to the theatre on St Martin's Lane and the supper that follows, arranged a few days out. Samanta, the same height, returns to the candlelit concerts near Trafalgar Square and settles dinner plans by three. Danielle, 170 cm, returns to the repertory cinema off Leicester Square for a late double bill and supper afterwards.
Bars that know how a drink is built
Michelle, 173 cm, returns to the art deco room below Sherwood Street, and her confirmations tend to arrive within minutes. Tina, 158 cm, returns up the staircase to the grand bar above Regent Street for something stirred. Milena, 175 cm, returns to the peacock booth and its champagne button. Laura, 169 cm, returns to the narrow Italian counter on Old Compton Street from midday. Nora, 166 cm, returns to the flower stall by the department store doors and then to somewhere with an ice bucket.
Why a standing table is worth something
Because the parish is small and the good rooms are full. A woman who has eaten somewhere thirty times knows which table the kitchen noise reaches, what time the room turns over and whether a Thursday is worth the trouble. Most of these fourteen will have an alternative in mind before you have finished explaining that the first choice is fully booked, and none of them will make a performance out of the change.
What the band is like across a table
Less proving, more listening. Most of the fourteen have decided what they are eating before the menu is open and spend the rest of the evening asking about you instead. A four hour dinner date at £900 fits that manner best: something to start, a proper table, and a last drink somewhere quiet enough to hear one another. Three hours at £700 is the same evening with the aperitif removed.
Neighbouring bands
For later starts and a diary still filling with new rooms, compare early twenties. For an evening with no hurry in it at all, see thirties and beyond. Deposits are identical across the three: a quarter by bank transfer holds an ordinary evening at a hotel or residence, and half is taken in advance for overnights, events and travel, the travel portion of that half non refundable.
Late twenties on the list
Choose a name above or ask the host who is free tonight.