Paul Chappell, Fred Dunlop,
Ant Saunt, Simon
Cook and Alex Read
Eat, drunch
and be merry
Gabriella Valentini, Ben
Robson & Georgie Killik
It’s 11am and you’ve already downed a bottle of
Prosecco and taken your jeans off. You must be at a
drunch party. Lucky you! By Giorgina Ramazzotti
S
troll down Kensington High Street
on a Saturday afternoon and you
may be forgiven for thinking that the
bright young things cowering from
the sunlight at the entrance to Bodo’s Schloss,
cigarette in hand, have been there since a lock-in
the night before. The reality is MUCH more
debauched. For drunching – drunk-brunching
– is taking over the Saturday party scene as
enthusiastically as a pissed-up day tripper
in Brighton.
Forget boozy kitchen
suppers on a Friday night
– so old-school. The thing to
do now is embrace daytime
drinking on a Saturday in
various hangouts across
London. The best part?
Collapsing into bed by 9pm
means a full night’s kip and
an escape from a blinding
hangover the next morning.
British buddies Jonny Boud, Tori Cook,
Hugo Heathcote, Alex Potter and Tom Carr
spotted the drunching trend in New York
while living there several years ago and brought
the party to London. Now in its fourth year,
Love Brunch is a global hit, with events in
Ibiza and Miami and more to launch in Dubai
and Spain this year. Whether it’s at Kensington
Roof Gardens (sunglasses and hotpants
applauded), Bodo’s Schloss (après-ski wear
de rigueur) or Supperclub (rock-chic only),
the premise is that you turn up with friends
at a prebooked table (£50 a person minimum
spend; general tickets cost
£15–20), pig out on brunch
classics – largely bacon butties
and eggs Benedict – and then
dance until early evening.
‘People have more energy
during the day,’ says Boud.
‘So the parties are more fun
and everyone peaks before
we throw them out at 6pm.’
The drunchers range in age
from 25 to 40 years old, all cheerfully doing
their bit to ensure that the events descend into
organised chaos by teatime. Saxophonists and
electric violinists are common. Amid the
You’re feeling
horny. Should
you send that
smutty text? Why
the devil not?
00 T a t l e r A U G U S T 2 0 1 3
Chelsy
Davy
Adrian Forster
and Tom Carr
A bou t Tow n
Tori Cook
and Tom Carr
Mags Denman,
Camilla Mackintosh
and Alexandra Bayley
Hugo
Heathcote
Lettice Rowbotham
plays for Dayzed
Pia Austin-Little
facing the camera
Lucia Roberts
and Jonny Boud
Laura Lewis,
Idris Elba and
Sophie Miranda
Cara Delevingne
and Tktk Tktk
Tat l e r AU G U S T 2013
00
A bou t Tow n
carnage, life-sized bunny rabbits, naked
chandelier swingers and Versace models
have been spotted. Sienna Miller and
Matthew Williamson danced on tables at
one party; at another, Henry (Superman)
Cavill and Jack Fox nursed Bloody Marys
while eyeing up the Delevingnes. Prince
Harry was spied looking furtive underneath
a Love Brunch baseball hat last October,
and Idris Elba egged on the girls from behind
the DJ decks at Kensington Roof Gardens
in April. So riotous did the afternoon
become that the resident flamingos had to
be led away to safety. They had seen enough.
In Fulham, drunching event Dayzed &
Confused is the yin to Love Brunch’s yang.
It was started a year ago by former Leeds
students Sam Tidswell-Norrish and Tom
Liddell, who wanted to make the most of
their weekends by getting all their friends
under the same roof. After stumbling across
Amid the carnage,
life-sized bunny
rabbits and naked
chandelier swingers
have been spotted
Broadway House, a private members’ club
stacked with outside terraces, they set about
organising drunches that have proved to be
so popular that each of their six events has
sold out weeks in advance (tickets from £8).
‘Tom and I have full-time jobs, so it was
never about the money,’ Sam says. ‘We had
a vision of hosting day parties that weren’t
in nightclubs – where the music is too
loud and it’s pitch-black – but almost like a
party at your mate’s house.’ An upscale house
party is certainly how it feels. Think
Downton Abbey meets Fabric, and you’ll be
halfway there. With a crowd of yuppies in
loafers and almost the entire cast of Made in
Chelsea in attendance, it is unsurprising that
in the days before the event, tickets exchange
hands at inflated prices on increasingly
desperate-sounding Facebook statuses.
From Jamie Laing swigging champagne
on Oliver Proudlock’s shoulders at Dayzed
to James Blunt downing tequila shots at
Love Brunch, misbehaviour is wildly
encouraged. And somehow it just seems
so much naughtier to be stripping down
to your smalls and jumping off a table
while, outside, people go about their
normal, boring Saturday activities. That’s
the real thrill of drunching. (
ABOVE, Tom
MacDonald and
adam reeve.
BELOW, NINA
CHANH AND NINO
SOPROMADZE
India Whalley, Oliver
Proudlock, Jamie Laing,
Spencer Matthews and
Hattie Clarke
DRUNCH
timetable
11am
You’ve arrived! Shovel
down a plate of eggs
Benedict – but then
stay away from the
buffet. Wholemeal
muffins are not going
to help you do the
Harlem Shake on the
banquettes in a gimp
mask. Concentrate on
the Prosecco. Focus.
12.42pm
You’re feeling horny.
Should you send that
smutty text? Why the
devil not? But if they
reply and suggest
meeting up and you
have egg yolk on your
chin and cannot stand
unaided, you may find
yourself feeling
regretful. Keep sexual
advances within the
drunch circle of trust.
3.30pm
This is the drunch
equivalent of the
witching hour. Anything
can happen. Drunch
apocrypha tells of an
enthusiastic reveller
who once lobbed a
Kensington Roof
Gardens flamingo over
the wall to see if it
could fly...
6pm
Your hair is stuck
to your neck, you’ve
forgotten your
name and all the
buttons have popped
off your lederhosen.
Go home.
Cheryl Hooper
and Bam Bam
Henry Cavill
Poppy Delevingne,
James Cook
and Tori Cook
Sienna Miller and
Matthew Williamson