Four at thirty and beyond
Four names, and between them they take more of the long dinners on this site than the rest of the roster put together. Two of them turned thirty this year and two are into their early thirties, and all four have arrived at the same useful place: nothing left to prove, and no interest whatever in proving it.
This is the shortlist people come back to. The evenings are quieter, the pauses are comfortable, and nobody is filling a silence simply because one has turned up. If you have been disappointed by a busy hour with somebody younger, start here.
Thirties and beyond, on the board
Limehouse, composed by the water
Margo is slim at 166 cm, dark brown hair long and straight, brown eyes that settle on a thing rather than dart about. She wears one colour at a time, well cut and quiet. She talks in complete thoughts, is comfortable with a pause, and can tell you what came up the Thames to these wharves and when. She is away until the middle of October.
Aldgate, and a boat at an unreasonable hour
Sonya is athletic at 162 cm, compact and strong, dark brown hair worn straight, hazel eyes that take their time. Early thirties, restrained in everything she wears, and always the least decorated person at the table. She rows on the Thames before the City is awake and is very hard to impress on purpose, which is a considerable relief after a week of people trying.
Dalston, thirty this year
Nancy is curvy at 170 cm, golden blonde, blue eyed, and has the look of a woman meeting somebody she actually likes, which is a useful trick on a wet Tuesday. A properly serious film habit, the late screenings and the old prints, and the patience for a real conversation. She works E8 and N1, mostly late, and stopped auditioning years ago.
Whitechapel, thirty and the tallest here
Violetta is tall and slender at 178 cm, black hair sleek and straight, dressed in a column of dark fabric and flat shoes. She speaks in an unhurried register and has the calm of somebody who has already heard most of it. Old buildings and old films, traced at length and with real knowledge. She is abroad until the nineteenth of October and taking dates after.
What the band says and what it does not
It says which decade she is in. It says nothing about energy, which two of these four have more of than half the names below them, and nothing about how an evening will run. Age is recorded on this site the way height is: once, accurately, and without a word of commentary attached.
Where the four also appear, and how to book
Margo and Violetta are on slim and slender, Nancy on curvaceous and Sonya on toned and athletic. Sonya works Aldgate and the City edge as a matter of course, the other three cross town without complaining about it, and all four take dinner bookings. Write to booking with an hour and an address; the figures begin at £250 on rates.
Other shortlists
The trains stop. We do not.
One message with the date, the time and the postcode, and the rest of the night is arranged quietly, anywhere from Hoxton down to the basin at Limehouse.