Birthdays in our house, you’ll not be surprised to learn, are opportunities for eating out. Last weekend was my husband’s 40-something birthday and we celebrated by having lunch at the Dean Street Townhouse. As Nick Jones’ (he of Soho House and Babington House fame) latest offering, The Dean Street Townhouse has been getting quite a bit of attention so it was our way of pretending we are entering that fourth decade still as hip and on trend as ever.

If you’ve been for a post-work or first date drink in the Lobby Bar at the Trafalgar Hotel you will, at this point, be thinking that it is indeed a pretty cool bar to hang out in but no one in their right mind would bring a baby. Well, you would be right. And wrong.

We had been out and about one weekend with Jack when he was just a few months old and he desperately needed feeding and I, equally desperately, needed a coffee and refused to go a step further. We hoped the Trafalgar would be up to the challenge

My pre-baby experience of Claridge’s had been the bar (for business drinks), the Ramsey restaurant (for business lunches) and the Foyer for cocktails and afternoon tea with the girls. Dan’s desire for a quiet life proved stronger than his initial reservations when I suggested Claridge’s for lunch after Jack’s first trip to see Santa at the Harrods grotto and so it was that we found ourselves in a cab winging our way to Brook Street