We're here in Portland for meetings at the W+K deathstar/mothership/head office.  Above is Paul Colman, loitering outside the front door, girding his loins to step over the threshold and venture into the very heart of Wieden-ness.

Everyone here in Portland wears special woolly hats that not only keep their brains productively warm but also contain electronic circuitry designed to amplify mental waves and beam out creativity. Using Hat Power, Colman was able to transmit the latest in management theory directly into the brain of global COO Dave Luhr, above. Luhr left the room, delivered an inspirational speech that revived the morale of a demotivated project manager and then immediately secured a major new client contract. Colman and I are bringing back a couple of these hats and the patterns so that we can start knitting our own in London.

In other news, when we ordered breakfast in our hotel this morning (toast and eggs) we were asked, 'Do you want any meat with that?' Apparently in Portland, if it doesn't contain meat, it doesn't constitute breakfast.

 

W+K have been working with up and coming chef, foodie and writer James Ramsden for some time now but we’ve never actually tasted his cooking. Last night Alex and Nicole got the chance to see if James can actually deliver the goods at pop-up restaurant The Hart and Fuggle off Brick Lane. James put on a wonderful Moroccan themed spread including spiced flatbread with moreish baba ganoush and a superb chestnut and chorizo with saffron soup. Mains saw a colourful platter of lamb tagine, pomegranate couscous and some sweetly spiced roast carrots.

The crescendo to the meal came after mains, sometime around the completion of a second glass of world class Hermitage red wine, in the form of dessert: a fabulously moist Tunisian orange cake with rose syrup served with whipped cream and dried rose petals. Sublime. We were then served fresh mint tea on beautiful English fine china with some yummy home-made Rocky Road.

Back to the wine…The Hart  and Fuggle is a great place to meet people as you’re seated at shared tables laid with beautiful spring blooms. We met the lovely Emily and her friends. Emily is a sommelier at the world class River Café and also runs her own blog Women Know Your Wine.  This meant we were fed a steady stream of five star reds from the wine tasting session Emily had just attended. Thanks Emily. Emily is also a doppelganger for our very own Helen Foulder. Not only do they look the same but they share a love of red wine. Spooky!

A big thank you to James and proprietors and chefs Georgina Fuggle and Alice Hart who are donating half of all profits to Centrepoint. Good luck with the rest of your run. The Hart and Fuggle serves its last meal on Valentine's Day. Places are all booked up so email  [email protected] for any last minute cancellations. You never know.