cocktails Archives - Lani Kingston

Curries, scones + peach cocktails in Soho.

Husni was signing his lease for his new flat today, so we head over to his new ‘hood, known for its coffee, and sat around in a coffee house / barber shop while we waited for him. The Barista was from Australia, so we discussed Melbourne coffee for a while and he told us London is the global hub of coffee at the moment. I think our Melbourne-snob hackles got up a bit – he explained that while the London coffee scene is at the forefront with technology, the scene is saturated in Melbourne so anywhere you go will have good coffee. That pacified us a little… (even though we know he is probably right.)
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Brisket sandwiches, sledding in the snow + pear cinnamon cocktails.

Packed up and checked out of my hotel today, as I was moving to the Hampton Inn by Hilton downtown. Once I’d moved out, I wandered the main street to all the little boutiques.

Stopped in for lunch at Roast Public House for BBQ brisket on a roll with slaw. Sourcing all their bread, meat and cheese locally, and everything of course is from scratch.
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Friends in New York + a secret underground bar.

Up early this morning, I head to the airport to make the long trip to the other side of the country. Off to New York today, and it’s been a long day of travelling. I finally made it in, through snowy Chicago, and the sun came out just as I flew over Manhattan for a glorious welcome.
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Burmese Pork Stew, Portland’s Distillery Row, Pok Pok’s chicken wings + kava cocktails.

Tasty n Sons is known city wide as perhaps Portland’s best brunch location, with a table for 6 on a saturday morning being a prized possession. We were meeting up with a few people, and so we head towards Tasty, put our name down and then head towards Ristretto Roasters for a coffee and a doughnut while we waited.

Soon, we got our call and head over to claim our table.
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Hello Portland, with your maple bacon doughnuts + Coconut Key Lime Pie cocktails.

It’s been a long, incredible day.

I was sad to leave Phoenix and all my friends and family behind – second big goodbye I have done in as many months. But now my solo journey really starts. I left home at 7AM this morning: first stop on my adventure, Portland.

I have been excited to visit here for years, but have never gotten around to coming. My older brother lives here, and I’ve promised to come stay for years. From what I have heard, Portland is the US city most like Melbourne. And I hadn’t yet found a place I am willing to live when I get my US citizenship. I thought Portland might be it.

And it totally is. I’ve been here 14 hours now and it feels like it could be home. Nowhere else in the world besides Melbourne have I had the sort of day I have had today. Portland is full of all the cool things I love. Nowhere else am I able to play pool, drink local chocolate porter and dance to Major Lazer’s Bubble Butt and then Talking Heads directly after one another.

But I am getting ahead of myself. I landed at 11:30AM – from a balmy 25 degrees in Phoenix, I was dropped into rain and sidewalks covered in snow. I love it. I missed weather that wasn’t just sunny and blue every day. While it is lovely I need diversity! And Portland’s snow covered parks definitely provided that.
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My new ‘local’, banana bread beer, coconut cocktails + a new hip taco joint.

So my stuff arrived in Arizona from Australia. We picked it up yesterday, running around the airport area getting Customs stamps and paying import fees, and then finally being allowed to load my 400 pounds of cookbooks and a few assorted clothing items into the car.

After unpacking a few boxes and realising how sleep deprived I must have been when I packed the boxes, I gave up and left everything all over my room and went out. It was friday after all! My friends were amused by the stuff I had deemed necessary to bring to America. I was a little confused myself when I found wheat sandwich wraps, seaweed, dried ginger and scrap pieces of paper in one box. My friend Mike sent this picture around, just so everyone knows how crazy I was… thanks.
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My Farewell Melbourne Party.

My farewell party (and last 24 hours) in Melbourne is something I will remember forever. I was so amazingly lucky to have so many people come together to create such an amazing farewell from my beloved home.

Earlier in the day we had all brunched, eaten cloudberry jam on ice cream, visited Swedish Christmas markets – when finally it was time to head home, pack my last few belongings into my bags and boxes, and get dressed to head over to the venue for my party. You can read about the earlier part of the day here.

I put on my party dress while Eric and Peter played Rockband, and Angela set up our wine and cheese lunch. After a glass of wine and a Daisy snuggle we all piled into the car to drive up to Brunswick to Habitat Lounge for the party.
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