pharmacy2

Dying for a coffee we finally crawled into the infamous Newport Street Gallery. We knew there was a Damien Hirst restaurant inside the Damien Hirst Gallery yet we weren't sure if the prices suit our budget. To save the energy, instead of straightaway going up the stairs leading to the restaurant-conneissour Mekka we asked the front desk dudeman about the price of a cappuccino and it turned out to be the price of a Costa! Excited for a sensual experience of a lifetime we hopped up to the first floor and awaited for our seat allocation. The attractive waitress pulled out the chairs for us and brought tap water.
The flat white and cappuccino we ordered were very skillfully decorated. We drunk them with appreciation. We were delighted to see the sparkly fine grain brown sugar inside a china sugar pot with nice handles. The seats were comfortable, having a decent back support and cushioning that kept us alert yet relaxed.
Still, nothing can be perfect... Damien chose an absolutely hideous xmas tree made of white plastic with skulls (shock!) hanging off the branches. It was standing on the pill-decorated bar with a neon "prescriptions" in front of pharmacy crosses in a butterfly pattern (shock!). To the sides of the crosses stretched pictures of the random reoccurring motif of "earth sky fire and water". Everything was really cramped inside the restaurant with paintings apparently critical of capitalism with corporate logos and silver butterfly collages assembled on top of a dense pill-pattern wallpaper. The furniture was an eclectic mix of cheap-faux wood-office looking chairs and Pizza Hut like sofas with chemical compounds embroided on top.
The whole experience was rather a let-down failing because of being an environment that wasn't theatrical enough. It was a cold, modern pharmacy yet the light was dim and cosy. We expected the music to be catwalk style house but what we got were covers of unknown chart hits from early 2000s and shopping centre tunes. You would think the waiters would wear white aprons instead it was just the boring waiter look.
Following what we read about Pharmacy1 we expected Pharmacy2 to be immersive and peculiar. Sadly it's just a posh, overfilled cemetery of Damien Hirst's, not even pharmacy related, artworks with a predominant atmosphere of a restaurant

experienced by Ola and Coral on a sunny December day