Yesterday evening we disappeared up, not down, the rabbit hole and reappeared in a magical place – Chambord Chapter Eight Games. And if you are quick, you can, too. But you have to be really quick. Rabbit quick.

Chambord have transformed the roof top of Proof on top of the Hothouse Building in London Fields with the help of East End design duo Benny and Tom in to an Alice in Wonderland inspired, well, wonderland and if you ever dreamt of playing croquet with flamingo mallets like Alice against the Queen of Hearts, now is your chance. Of course no real flamingos are being harmed.

You will be serenaded by French songs and chansons and there is fantastic food available from Le Bun, serving French-American burgers. We’re not sure if they will be the same for the duration of the pop-up, but we had the wonderfully gooey blow-torched goats cheese burger ‘ Le Chèvre’ with a truffle mayonnaise and the divine (and I’m not using this word very often) ‘Le Duck’ – a pulled duck burger with a béarnaise spread. Both were served with champagne slaw and on brioche buns.

The fine people of Chambord are providing the cocktails – the Chambord Royale (Chambord with fizz and a raspberry) and the Chapter Eight (Chambord with gin and grapefruit). Both lovely! And we have to say, the guys behind the bar didn’t muck about. They certainly knew what they are doing and there was never a queue.

I love Chambord and even used it to make my own very special birthday cocktail with it – Chambord, Cointreau and Crème de Cassis with pureed strawberries and blueberries, topped up with pink cava and served over ice. Wonderful. For those of you who have never heard of Chambord, it is a black raspberry liqueur made from raspberries and blackberries, flavoured with blackcurrants, Madagascan vanilla and herbs and blended with cognac. Rumour has it, that is was first invented for Louis XIV at Château de Chambord, although Chambord, as we know it, has only been around since the 1960’s.

As we mentioned at the beginning, you’ll have to be quick to catch it; it opened today and runs until Sunday, September 13^th 2015.

Opening times: tomorrow – 6pm to 10pm, Saturday & Sunday – 1pm to 10pm

You can book tickets to play croquet (online, £5 plus booking fee) and every ticket also includes a complimentary Chambord Royal cocktail. But you can just come along and enjoy the atmosphere, food and drinks.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/chambord-chapter-eight-games-tickets-17937705159

Field Works

Martello Street
London Fields
E8 3QW

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