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The dinner party waiting at platform one...
Elizabeth Hopkirk, Evening Standard30.10.07
It's the YouTube video that's become an underground hit.
Dressed to the nines, a group of diners turn a Jubilee line carriage into their very own buffet car.
Nearly 200,000 people have logged on to the video-sharing website to watch the group of London students enjoying a formal three-course meal as other passengers watch with amusement.
But how easy is it to host a dinner party on the Underground and what are the chances of getting through a meal without spilling wine on your fellow travellers?
To see if it really is possible to recreate something of the Orient Express experience on an Oyster card budget, the Evening Standard organised its own dinner party on the Tube, complete with lobster and champagne.
The challenge was simple. Boarding at Kilburn at three in the afternoon, could we set up our table, dine on our £179 Harrods hamper and then pack everything up by the time we reached Stanmore, eight stops and 20 minutes away?
Our four hungry diners set to work immediately. Before the train had even left Kilburn, the table was up and covered in a linen table cloth. By Willesden Green it was laid with china plates, glasses, cutlery and a candle.
Then out came the food. On the menu were dressed lobster, salmon mousse, smoked chicken breast, potato salad and coleslaw, followed by fine cheeses, grapes and truffles - a wonderful spread given added piquancy by the threat of it ending up on the floor.
As the journey continued, the mousse slid across the plates and with every jolt a little more champagne was lost.
But by the time we reached Kingsbury we were happily chatting away and enjoying the food, the company and the reactions of other passengers, wishing we had been doing the whole thing on the Circle line instead.
The responses were mixed. Seasoned commuters did as they always do when confronted by something extraordinary - they pretended not to see it.
Others were distinctly unimpressed. "Why are you doing this on the Tube? It's so dirty," said Michelle Gilmartin, 24, from Harrow - as her children tucked into the truffles we gave them.
"I guess it's a novelty to see people relaxed and enjoying themselves." However, insurance broker Kevin Ward, on holiday from Hull with wife Joanna and daughters Yasmin and Eve, said: "It's great fun. I've never seen anything like this. The Tube is so impersonal no one even looks at each other. It's very different in Yorkshire where people do talk on trains."
Suddenly, the train was at Canons Park, leaving just three minutes to clear away the dinner party. Plates and glasses were swiftly returned to the hamper with the leftovers and the table was folded into its case.
As the doors opened at Stanmore, our group could have passed for regular commuters, although a trace of salmon mousse around one diner's mouth was a bit of a giveaway. So, now you know, if you can't get a table at the Ivy, there's plenty of room on the Jubilee line.
You can watch the original YouTube hit here:
Reader views (2)
Absolutely fantastic! Very creative, these young people have really provided food for thought if you ask me. I only wish I could have been there. People really do take themselves a little bit too seriously in London and particularly on the Underground. This really does scoff in the face of all of that pretence. I love it! When is the sequel? Let me know and my Oyster card and I will be at the ready!
- Sally Ann, London
Lovely. People, having fun and hurting no-one. Wish I'd been there.
- Anon, Weybridge, Surrey
