Alpe d'Huez Apres Ski Report: 25th February 2010
Early on Thursday evening The Boyfriend asked me if I wanted to go and see MC Smartzee at bourgeois French bar, The Sporting. This isn't his usual preference for a Thursday night so I was curious. Fliers and posters around town were promoting his appearance, fresh from performances with Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre. The Sporting isn't a usual haunt of mine as its DJ loves to play disco, cheese and early-90s heart-stopping hits... not really my cup of tea! But a world-class MC was definitely of interest.
To give you an example of the resident DJ's set-list at The Sporting, Anastasia's Outta Love and Shania Twain's Man! I Feel Like A Woman are dancefloor fillers. It's a great place to watch the resort's high-profile French visitors strut their stuff but you'll feel out of place if you're between 20 and 45 years old; this really is a bar where French teenagers and their parents throw shapes and flirt shamelessly within and without their age group. We endured two hours of the DJ's limited fade-in/fade-out skills before Smartzee and his DJ hit the decks. They started with some mainstream hip-hop over which he rapped but – to be honest – it was nothing special and I was too tired by this stage to fight for space amongst the white patent Moon Boots on the dancefloor. It was still quite an experience though, and reminded me just how French Alpe d'Huez can be.
On Saturday night we braved the snow for dinner at the O-Bar. As I said last week, I've heard great things about their menu and have been keen to try it out myself. We started with an order of olives and feta, with ciabatta, homemade hummus and red pepper dip. Divine! For his main course, The Boyfriend tucked into a huge handmade beef burger with the best chips in town. I had one each of the veggie options on the tapas menu: mini spicy peppers stuffed with feta, vine leaves and rice and a Greek salad. For dessert we managed to squeeze in Sky's sponge cake with butter icing and some of Vicky's banana and oatmeal cookies. The whole meal was delicious and we really struggled with the three courses.
O-Bar is rapidly becoming my favourite bar in town. The atmosphere is so laid back and it's one of the only bars in town where it's possible to hold a conversation after 10pm without the need to shout. Vicky, Vito and Sky are great with the customers and while we were there we found the clientele to be a good mix of seasonaires and holidaymakers, most of whom come back to the bar every holiday. I'd definitely recommend the homemade hummus and am looking for an excuse to sample one of their hummus and cucumber ciabattas with chips one snowy lunchtime. The cake and cookies were also amazing so maybe I'll start popping down for afternoon tea and free wifi? The bar can be a little chilly though, so make sure you take a jumper!
Last night I was out for the Show Love Tour at Smithy's Tavern. The event, which was organised by seasonaire website Natives, is usually a big draw for seasonaires as Natives has become famous for the amazing goodie bags available on the Tour. However, this season the giveaways seem a lot smaller than in the past with just the odd t-shirt and hoodie up for grabs, and a few magazine subscriptions thrown in for good measure. Despite this it was a great night with DJ Northey belting out the hits.
And in news just in – diaries at the ready please – Angelos Epithemiou of BBC's Shooting Stars is coming to Alpe d'Huez for a night of comedy at Smithy's Tavern on Thursday 11th March. Last year's Comedy Night went down a storm and I strongly recommend you book your ticket in advance at the bar. The price is 15€ for tourists and 10€ for seasonaires. I'll be reserving mine this week!
For a full list of this week's events, check out our What's On Calendar. You can also find full Bar and Restaurant listings in the Dining and Going Out section of the site.
