LONDON

Dazzle your colleagues in luminous London.

An enigma of a city that manages to effortlessly combine refinement and a sense of exhilaration, London boasts plenty of corners made to order for meet-ups with colleagues or for hosting a private business confab. For a space to impress, book a private room at 3 Henrietta Street in Covent Garden. While the streets may be bustling, the interior of this beautifully restored 1780 townhouse offers a calm sanctuary. More importantly, it’s home to a trio of marvelous restaurants by three renowned chefs: Pivot British Bar & Bistro by Chef Mark Greenaway; Hawai‘ian street food at El Ta’koy by Chef Luis Pous; and Lilly’s Café by pastry chef Kimberly Lin, the former head pastry chef at Claridge’s.

While you can book private meeting spaces, a power breakfast in the ground-floor glass conservatory at Lilly’s may leave your clients and colleagues smiling. The décor was inspired by the zodiac and magical elements including gemstones, reflected in the blue velvet chairs and walls colored a deep shade of carnelian orange. In addition to a creative all-day menu that includes banoffee toast with date caramel, granola and sliced banana, or rice pudding prepared with seasonal fruit compote and Lilly’s granola, there are also large-plate choices. Afternoon tea service comes with sweet tooth-satisfying bottomless cakes, served, if you like, with Champagne. During colder months, discuss contract negotiations while sipping mulled wine or cocktails on Lilly’s Winter Terrace, where heated seats, plush blankets and melty fondue keep the atmosphere warm.

Show off your London insider knowledge by planning your meeting over lunch and tapas at CAVO, one of the most anticipated new restaurant openings in the city. It’s on the fourth floor of the Now Building in the Outernet, adjacent to Tottenham Court Road underground station in the city’s West End entertainment district. In addition to service in

the main restaurant, you can book tables in the Roof Top Gardens. Need to keep your discussions on the QT? Enjoy the menu of rustic Mediterranean dishes in a light-drenched private dining space.

Japan House, located within a historic Art Deco structure in the Kensington district, was created as part of a global enterprise under the guidance of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The venue showcases Japanese culture, design, art, technology and innovation offered via events, workshops and rotating exhibitions. This striking space features exhibits and artist demonstrations on the main level and multiple additional event options elsewhere able to accommodate small private meetings or gatherings of up to 140 people.

The private Tatami Room, located within Japan House’s AKIRA restaurant, or the Gallery, Hall and Library on the lower ground floor can be configured for small cocktail receptions, product launches, meetings or conferences. A dedicated Venue Hire Team helps organize the details.

Just down the street from Japan House in Kensington, the elegant Milestone Hotel & Residences offers meeting spaces of various sizes and configurations.

Score some points with your London-based colleagues by dropping a few tidbits about the hotel’s storied past. It was, for instance, named for the historic cast iron milestone which still stands next to the building and, in the mid-19th century, served as the private residence of Russian Ambassador to London Count Peter Grigoryevich Chernyshev, whose daughter was immortalized in a short story by legendary Russian poet Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin.

If your creative juices are at their best in the morning, awe prospective business partners with a pitch delivered over a motivational breakfast at Hide, located at 85 Piccadilly. A curving wooden stairway straight out of a fantasy film leads down to the dining room, where wide-plank wood floors and a rustically serene ambience belie the sheer magic of the menu. The Broken Room, The Shadow Room and the Reading Room private meeting spaces occupy subterranean vaults in The Bar Below. You can nibble a slice of banana bread glazed with smoked maple butter or sip a blueberry and rose petal smoothie while your colleagues press you for details on how you knew the restaurant even existed. Everything from bread to jams is made on site, and the kitchen team works closely with the U.K.’S small farmers and local food purveyors. Along with birch sap croissants and morning ricotta with blackberries, crystallized hazelnuts and lemon verbena, the breakfast menu includes caviar and oysters. Service? Impeccable.

For more formal meetings requiring accoutrements such as flip charts, plasma screens or video chat capabilities that still need to be high on style, contact the ohso-elegant St. James’s Hotel & Club in Mayfair. Meeting spaces with a traditional British ambience include The Library, Granville and Wellington Boardroom. Located just off Green Park in a peaceful cul-de-sac, it’s also a wonderful option for a meeting over afternoon tea served in Executive Chef William Drabble’s Michelin-starred Seven Park Place dining room.