Britney in the City. Uccello at The Ivy.

As someone who doesn't work in the city, being in the CBD on a school weeknight is exciting and novel.  While everyone else is commuting out of the city after a day at work, I'm (so I feel) brazenly city bound for dinner and drinks.  Or more accurately, drinks and dinner.

So brazen in fact that I stopped off at Priceline on my way to meeting Mr SSG.  Primarily to borrow the mirrors near the make up testers to see that my eyeliner hadn't melted in the evening heat and buy some Christmas cards.

However, I found myself strangely drawn to the Britney Spears fragrance collection near the check out.

I left with my cards in a cloud of Fantasy - of the Britney Spears variety.  Any misadventures I may have gotten myself into last night, I blame solely on my spritz of Britters.

Mr SSG and I were invited to a shopping evening at Autore on King Street.

With a seemingly bottomless glass of champagne in one hand and a catalogue in the other, I was more than up to the task of exploring 3 floors of South Sea pearls and diamond jewelry.  There were numerous sea food based canapes to keep my energy levels up.

If the stairs were too much of a challenge (for whatever reason), there was this handy lift.

Dress - Review. champagne - Perrier Jouet.

 Which doubled as a conference room for Mr SSG and I to debate items of interest in the catalogue.

I tried on a strand of pearls but was whisked away in the nick of time by Mr SSG for our dinner reservation.

At the CBD land of after work escapism better knows as The Ivy.  I hoped to blend in with the black and cream decor.

If not the glamorously blonde and tanned crowd.

Part of the line extending out the main entrance waiting for the lifts to get up to various venues in The Ivy complex.

Coolness is just one of those things I'll never master.  Just as I get the hang of an aspect of fashion, the rules change.  Black in the evening appears to be so 1997.  I'll tell  you a bit more later about why all those people outside are all dressed in white.  Thankfully, the efficient ladies and gentleman at the door were also wearing black so I didn't entirely look out of place.

Very cute cover to the drinks list - 'chirp, chirp, slurp, slurp.....'.

Mr SSG had booked dinner at Uccello, where the head chef is Eugenio Riva.  I have to be honest and say that yes, I really like the pool side asepct of the restaurant.  Yes, it is a very 'so hip it hurts it's fine to wear sunglasses indoors at 7pm', 'be seen and be heard, change the register of  your natural speaking voice on entry' kind of place but it is a pleasant escape from the greyness and noise of the real world at street level down below.  All the staff are very friendly and helpful (even if you're not 6 foot tall, very blonde or very tanned).  I had a lovely evening, perceived physical inadequacies not withstanding.

The beginning of the cocktail list.  Always a good place to place the Bellini.

The Uccello Bellini.

Now, about all those people dressed in white down in the foyer.  There's more of them here.

It was of course, some A-list Sydney Equivalent of PDiddy's best work, The White Party.  From where I sat, I could sort of feel the Hamptons.  The Sydney party is a digital industry event, from what I can gather from my good friends at google.

This is a view of the poolside bar.  I like the cane light fixture and the panelling of the walls.

Inside Uccello, to the left of where I was sitting.

There aren't enough restaurants in Sydney brave enough to have all white dining sets.

I was relieved that even the Sydney Confidential set love good Italian carbs.  With olive oil on the side.

Due to our rather large pre dinner canape and champagne snack, Mr SSG and I decided to share an entree.

San Daniele prosciutto with buffalo mozzarella, pequillo peppers and basil

It was deluxe.  I'm not normally big fan of prosciutto (the cold meat that always gets me thinking about prosecco, for obvious reasons) but this was in a class of its own.  Not greasy but also not leather, well flavoured without being too salty and it was served with such cleanly flavoured cheese and peppers.

I spied a Pope and an Elvis in the sea of white clad digital industry types.

Then, nature called and I needed to descend the stairs to the pool to find the bathrooms in the infamous Cabana area.  So infamous that it has its own name plate in the lift.

Which were actually non gender segregated combined shower / changeroom / commode rooms somewhere behind these doors.  You have to get past a bank of lockers first.

It was difficult to tell which were vacant or engaged (I am sure there are more 'Ivy appropriate' terms for these) so you did have to try each door in the semicircle around the round sofa and floral arrangement.  A kind girl helped me find one.  Thanks, hun!

I managed to find my way back to dinner past the sea of happy, golden people (must be why they chose white, it sets off a tan like no other colour).

Mr SSG had a pasta main.  The famed angel hair pasta with crab was off this month's menu, unfortunately.

Our waitress advised that this was the next best thing.

Squid ink tagliolini, sautéed cuttlefish, prawns, broccolini, chilli and garlic

While I addressed my iron deficiency with some meat.

Grass fed eye fillet of beef, braised radicchio, mushrooms, gorgonzola butter

Both mains were delicious.  At the pricy end of things  but delicious.  Is it possible that pasta can taste so light?  The pasta is handmade on site. The gorgonzola butter on the beef had a pleasant cheesy stringiness to it.

Around us, the sun set on the pool.  The lights from surrounding office blocks shone like fire flies over the open air pool area.

My mind turned to dessert.

Tiramisu with Amedei chocolate

As the party really got started just past the white roped area.

Dessert was gone in about 60 seconds.

These are some photos from the bench tops at the front of Uccello.  The bread and meat slicing areas are open to the dining room.

With a pleasantly full tummy and a bit of love for glamazon Sydney, Mr SSG and I took the lift down to the real world.

But not before getting a glimpse of these pimped up bottles of Moet at The Ivy bottle-o.