Words: Liv McMullen / Photography: Lydia Wakelam

It’s Christmas time, there’s no need to be afraid!

After the success of our Christmas showcase, where we revealed our divine new menu, debuted our delicious festive hot cider and gifted our lovely guests with some top-notch mission mars prizes from under our tree, we can no longer pretend that Christmas is not upon us! And the weather outside IS frightful, so sue us for being ready to cosy up, Christmas style.

As we’ve come to expect from him, our Gary cooked up a storm, throwing out some tasters of our entirely re-imaged Christmas menu offering.   There was Vegan buffet stuff: all brand new for 2019 and so delicious, including little sage, squash and black olive stuffing balls, baby beetroot tarts and *drumroll* VEGAN CHOCOLATE DESSERT.  Guests were also presented with a plethora of highlights from our non-vegan selection including Stilton & Brie beignets, Mini Yorkshire puds’ filled with rare beef and horseradish mousse, Turkey popcorn and the show-stopping Roast gammon and ham hock terrine.

Kurtis let us loan his Christmas tree, the studio was covered in candles and fairy lights, and our festive playlist of indie Christmas bangers was pouring out of the speakers.  Everyone left a little tipsy, with full bellies and ready for a nap, so everything went according to plan.

In other news, our team recently got decked out in their finest festive regalia for our own mock Christmas where we revelled in some good old Christmas nostalgia. There was jelly and custard, mistletoe make-outs, badly wrapped prezzies, big ol’ Christmas jumpers, and you even slipped into a food-induced slumber, Classic Frank!  The only thing missing was a nice traditional drunk festive row, we all just love each other too much!

The theme of Gorilla 2019 Christmas is nostalgia, so we revelled in all the lovely stereotypes of British festivities with tinsel, board games and booze, calorific treats, naptime and tonnes of people around a table on chairs that don’t match. And didn’t we have a ball?

Also, while I’ve still got you, and we’re on the topic of festive wistfulness, the much-anticipated second coming of our supper club ‘In yer mouth’ lands on the 28th of November. We’ll be celebrating Christmas day rituals in all their glory. Think childhood and warm cosy feelings, before the world was big. Predictable, while being completely unpredictable.

And by the way, Christmas is now 70 days away x

Big Love, Gorilla x