Desk openReel 06 · OfferingsFrom £250
A companion for the City's business evenings
The Square Mile works late and entertains later. Client dinners at long tables near Bank, awards nights in rooms the size of a livery hall, receptions high above Bishopsgate: all of them go more smoothly with a guest at your side who can talk to strangers, remember names and know when to let the table get on with business. That is what this offering provides, and nothing more.
Most business evenings fit the four-hour dinner date at £900, which allows for an aperitif, the meal and a little time once the coffee arrives. Longer events, a gala that runs past midnight or a conference dinner followed by a late bar, can go onto the overnight line or be quoted in writing; the whole ladder is published. These bookings want a day of notice, so that the brief, the dress code and the timings can be settled calmly.
Chosen for Business events in the City
The companions the desk puts forward first when this evening is requested. Anyone on the reel may be asked.
The brief
The better the brief, the easier the evening. Tell the desk the venue, the dress code, who will be at the table and how you would like her introduced. A first name and a plain description is usually enough, and she will hold to whatever you choose all night. If the table includes visitors from abroad, or a subject she should keep well away from, say so. She reads the room and follows your lead, and she never talks about her own work unless you raise it first.
Weeknight dinners, weekend galas
The rhythm of the City shapes these bookings. Monday to Thursday brings client dinners that start at half past seven and finish before eleven, often in private rooms near the Royal Exchange. Fridays bring the larger events, awards and charity dinners that spill into a late bar. Weekends are rarer but grander, usually a gala in one of the old halls. The later and larger the event, the more notice helps.
Rooms she already knows
Much of the City's entertaining takes place in a small number of rooms: the restaurants inside The Ned, the private dining rooms of the hotels near Liverpool Street, the upper floors of the towers along Bishopsgate, and the old halls that are hired out for dinners across the City of London. She knows how these buildings work, from the security desk to the cloakroom, and she arrives dressed to the stated code, black tie included.
Discretion among colleagues
She does not photograph the evening, post about it or mention it afterwards, and she will quietly move out of frame whenever a camera comes out. Business overheard at the table stays at the table. The desk holds your booking details only for as long as the booking needs them, and nothing about any evening is ever written on this site.
After the last speech
When the formal part is over, the evening is yours again. Some guests end at a hotel bar near Bank and Monument with one last, unhurried glass; others go straight back to their room and the remaining time runs there. If the event overruns and you want her to stay longer, the desk arranges it first, at the following step of the fees, provided her night allows.
Four suited to a working room
Karolina plays the piano most days, loves opera and knows the City's architecture better than most of the people who work in it; she is 174 cm and prefers weeknights. Samanta has a violinist's poise, reads grammar books for fun and takes a professional interest in well run hotels. Margo, in her early thirties, knows contemporary art well and keeps her composure in any room, useful at an evening among collectors. Patricia is warm, listens properly and is never late. Karolina, Samanta and Patricia are in their late twenties; Margo is the one in her thirties.
Business events in the City, answered
A day is comfortable, and two or three days is better for black tie or a Friday. Same-day requests are possible when the dress code is simple and the venue is close.
The aim is that nobody at the table gives it a second thought. She keeps conversation broad and friendly, follows your introduction and takes her cues from you.
Her presence at your side through the booked hours, plus her cab within Zones 1 and 2. Tickets, the meal and anything at the bar are part of your hosting, as they would be for any guest.
Yes. A long City lunch is booked like any other length on the ladder, and the same brief applies. Midday rooms tend to be more formal than evening ones, so mention the venue and she dresses for it.
Read first
- 6 min readThe old Midland Bank on Poultry: The Ned by weekday and by weekendA Lutyens bank turned hotel, its old banking hall now a row of restaurants, with a vault beneath. How an evening at The Ned changes between a loud Thursday and a slow Sunday.
- 5 min readSouth of the arches: small hotels and warehouse stays around Bermondsey StreetBermondsey Street has galleries, tapas bars and Georgian terraces, but almost no hotels. The small stays around it, and why guests who dislike marble lobbies often end up preferring them.
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Describe the plan in a line or two. The desk confirms a companion, a fee and the time she arrives.