Clerkenwell’s new Zetter Townhouse offers a slice of Georgian-themed escapism

Good things, they say, come in small packages. (Did we mention that we’re talking about venues, bars and hotels here? Well we are. So minds out of the gutter please.) What really matters is that there’s a package at all — and that it’s done well.

There’s something, for example, about the Spuntino package (children, really) and the consistency of everything from the pencil-behind-the-ear uniform to the cocktail glassware. Because in these over-hyped days, when a restaurant or bar door closes behind us, we want to be embraced by an experience. We want to be wooed into something so immersive, considered and complete that we get to forget the everyday humdrum outside. Over in Clerkenwell, for example, there’s something promisingly tight in the Zetter’s forthcoming sister, the Zetter Townhouse …

Is it the 13 Russel Sage-designed, Georgian-inspired rooms? Is it the 69 Colebrooke Row-honed cocktail bar? Or Aunt Wilhelmina – the hotel’s fictitious, dotty, globetrotting sometimes-resident?

What about the cute navvy uniforms (think neckties and naval blue coats) or bespoke cocktail bitters in the hotel rooms (use them to battle hangovers, invoke an aphrodisiacal nudge, or, I dunno, get drunk)?

On their own, it’s none of these. On their own, these are just press hooks. But pull them all together into one considered package and something significantly tighter emerges: a complete world, where Aunt Wilhelmina sends postcards back from her travels, where we drink and rest and dance and the drudgery of our real world slips away. And that should be the goal of any good bar, restaurant or hotel.

Join UJ at the launch for the Bombay Sapphire Imagination Installation

Fancy attending an evening infused with imagination? Bombay Sapphire (whom we already know and love from the gorgeous Tom Dixon-designed ‘Dusk Bar’ pop-up on Somerset House’s river terrace in 2009) has always had imagination in their DNA, and this year they’re looking forward to an ‘Infused with Imagination’ summer. We have 25 pairs of tickets for UJ subscribers to attend the launch event with us, where you can enjoy a free Bombay Sapphire cocktail and admire an amazing 3D Swarovski sculpture made up of 75,000 crystals. The Imagination Installation depicts the ten hand-selected botanical ingredients gathered from some of the world’s most exotic locations that make up the gin in Bombay Sapphire’s signature blue bottle, and the lucky winners will be amongst the first to see it before it’s revealed to the world. Fancy joining us there? Simply tell us one of the ten exotic botanicals which make up Bombay Sapphire at competition@urbanjunkies.com.

12th April, from 7:30pm. 16-18 Berners Street, W1T 3LN.

Win a SonyVAIO laptop and be our trendcaster for a month

As you’ve probably heard by now, we’ve teamed up with Sony VAIO to offer one lucky UJ reader the chance to be our trendcaster for a month as Sony’s ‘VAIO Visionary’. The response has been great and we’ll be making a decision soon, but you still have a few days to enter: we’re looking for someone who’s in the know and can dig up what’s making London town tick. So, reckon you’ve got something to say, be it about art, fashion, travel, nightlife or dining? The winner will get four features published with Urban Junkies, mentoring and a few invites to some industry events for inspiration. Sony is even throwing in a lovely new, sleek, VAIO S Series laptop to the winning entrant to make tip-tapping those reports that much easier.

Click through to find out how you can enter.

CHECK OUT – The Deutsche Borse Photography Prize contestants battling it out for £30,000. 11am-6pm. Ambika P3, 35-100 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LS. Free.

CHOREOGRAPH – At Showstopper’s one night only musical created from scratch by you. 8pm. Ambassador’s Theatre, West Street, WC2H 9ND. £15-£25.

CASH IN – At Paul Smith’s Warehouse Sale with big discounts for him and her. 6th-8th April, 8am-7/6pm. 37 Kingsway, WC2B 6TP. Free Entry.

CELEBRATE –  With Circolumbia’s gritty, urban take on traditional circus acts to a reggaeton soundtrack. 7:30pm, Roundhouse, Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8EH. £20.