The constituency of Kensington today does not quite match its reputation as a playground of the rich and the plush backdrop for the dinner parties of David Cameron's Notting Hill set.
At bottom, simple Burgundian whites, especially from the Macon region and Chablis -- which can see little or no oak, or old, neutral oak -- are more versatile at dinner than plush, woody counterparts from Long Island, California and Australia.
Curiously, there is a link between plush Siro's and the plain dinners in the workers' tent: several of Siro's society mainstays were pivotal in starting them.
Soon I was reclining on an embroidered cushion, the only guest, sipping hot tea in a plush, carpet-lined yurt and waiting for dinner to arrive.
Freedman, who died in 1915, had been an owner of the New York Giants baseball team and a financier of New York's first subway lines, and his unusual will created a retirement home as palazzo, with plush carpets, plentiful servants and formal dress required at dinner.
When dinner was served, Mert and Marcus emerged, dressed in plush white terry-cloth robes.
Nearly six hours (including intervals, not including dinner break) is a long time to be stuck in a plush seat, but it's worth a little numbness.
Paul Gardner, the front office manager at the $250-to-$250-to-$250-to-$at Peresortbin, atplush watheside resort at the far end of town, said, "We've had Rumsfeld in for dinner".
The Soho, Covent Garden and Charlotte Street hotels are all offering lunch, dinner, champagne tea or cocktails and bar snacks, plus a festive-themed movie in their plush private cinemas for £35 (Sat & Sun, visit firmdale.com).com
But the broader goal of staging is to achieve a visceral pull, an aspirational promise to would-be buyers: This is the place where you will finally color-code your sweaters, host elegant dinner parties and unwind from the workday in a luxurious bath complete with fancy soaps and plush white towels.
