Greig's in Mayfair is a traditionally British steakhouse established in 1959 by renowned restauranteur Alistair Greig. It has maintained its charm through sourcing premium cuts from a local family butcher and serving classic British dishes like shepherd's pie alongside the signature Scotch steaks. The restaurant has around 3,000 bottles of wine displayed on its oak-paneled walls and attracts well-off clientele interested in its high-quality ingredients and dining experience. Bounce is located on the same site where ping pong was invented in 1901. The game was first created and patented by Jaques, the oldest games makers, as an indoor version of tennis called Gossima. It later became a huge
3. Tucked away on one of Mayfair’s exceptionally
smart streets, this restaurant is tremendously
traditional and proudly British. You can’t really
expect anything less from an eatery that was
established by 1950’s renowned restaurateur, Mr
Alistair Greig, and rapidly developed a reputation
for serving the best steaks in London. Back then, his
signature dish was a prime Scotch fillet steak sourced
from a fantastic family butcher and cooked to order
on an old-school coal grill. Today, Greig’s upholds
its charm by sourcing premium cuts from the same
brilliant butcher. Just try to keep that smile off your
face.”
Quietly nestled on a mews between Berkeley Square and Bond Street, Greig's has a reputation as London's best steak
-Telegraph restaurant. Founded by Alistair Greig in 1959, its philosophy remains; the best ingredients cooked simply. Popular stalwarts
on the menu are great British staples as shepherd's pie and roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Floor to ceiling oak-panelling,
thick white linen, £1000 Rothschild wines, this is typical Mayfair restaurant, naturally attracting well-off 40-something with a
weakness for family-butcher Scotch steaks. Should you wonder how many wine bottles that line the restaurant walls, the
answer is around 3,000 - most of them French, all seriously good. We leave you with another plus point: not a table-turning
place, book a table at Greig's and it’s yours for the night.
-Toptable
6. Bounce is verifiably located on the very same site on
which the game of ‘ping pong’ was first created and
patented in 1901.
Founded in 1795, Jaques – the oldest sports and
games makers in the world, created some of the finest
indoor and outdoor British family games including:
Croquet, Snakes and Ladders, The Staunton Chess
Set and Tiddledy winks, to name but a few. In 1891
John Jaques II invented Gossima – a game made for
the dining room, born from the frustration of tennis
surpassing croquet at the then Wimbledon Croquet
club. This game was essentially indoor ping pong, but
it proved unpopular with UK audiences.
In 1901, John Jaques III re-launched Gossima as Ping
Pong at Hamleys and the game became a huge
overnight success.
The official rules of Ping Pong were based on the
game rules written by John Jaques II’s Gossima.
Jaques owned the copyright to Ping Pong, but as the
world grew more competitive the table tennis
association was born because Jaques would not allow
them the use of the trademark ‘Ping Pong’. By 1910
everyone was playing and in this year Slazenger also
launched a rival game called Whiff Whaff.
Ping Pong however was the very start of table tennis
as we know it today, and all created on the very same
site on which Bounce sits.
7. The Plan
- Eat at the rather grand Greig’s in Mayfair (not the
popular bakery)
- Take a taxi to the newly opened Bounce
nightclub/bar/ping pong club
- Enjoy a ping pong competition while drinking, drink
some more (and a little bit more) before braving the
dance floor