The Lowdown: Black Friday
Black Friday. The one day of the year that people have a ruckus over cheap TVs from unknown brands. What’s it got to do with restaurants though?
More than you’d think. The famous shopping day in the US that comes directly after Thanksgiving may have its origins in retail but now anyone who’s got something to sell wants a piece of the action, and that includes restaurants.
Like whom?
Where do we start. London-based steakhouse brand M Restaurants is celebrating with its Blackmore Wagyu Friday offer, available at both M Victoria Street and M Threadneedle Street, where diners can get a 30% discount of the high-grade beef at lunchtime. City restaurant Darbaar has gone one better, offering a 50% discount on its lunchtime a la carte menu to people who quote ‘Black Friday’ when booking or on arrival and Galvin Restaurants has a veritable banquet of deals for the day, including a free dessert at its The Green Man pub in Great Waltham, £5 takeaway hot dogs at Galvin HOP in Spitalfields and 25% off lunch or dinner at Bistrot de Luxe on Baker Street.
These are all good deals. But hardly ones to fight over...
We hear you, but don’t despair. One restaurant that’s really getting into the Black Friday overindulgent spirit is Aster in Nova Victoria. Its bottomless bin end party kicks off at 7pm on the day and offers unlimited bites and all-you-can-drink bin ends chosen by sommelier Marco Marcuzzo for one and a half hours. At just £35 a ticket, guests with a bit of stamina can truly get their money’s worth here.
That’s more like it. Anything else happening?
Well, in true Black Friday style more tenuous offers abound, such as those places encouraging people to consume black food and drink on said Friday (see what they’ve done there?). These include Ella Canta with its charcoal cocktail; Daisy Green Collection and its avocado on charcoal with charcoal bread; and Redemption Bar’s activated charcoal martini.
That is stretching it a bit
There’s more. For people who fancy some Black Friday action but don’t want to partake in a six-person scrum over an iPhone X then OpenTable is offering what it is describing as the ‘most relaxing’ Black Friday experience’. The bookings company has joined forces with the egregiously named Scoff & Banter Tea Rooms, located just off Oxford Circus, where it is placing iPads at the tables so that diners can shop from the comfort of the restaurant (there’s also high tea and a bottle of prosecco as part of the offer).
How very civilised
Yes. Not half as much fun as a dust up over a Dyson V6 cordless vacuum cleaner, one suspects.
