Picking the perfect wine for the City AM Awards May 14, 2025 The City AM awards was buzzing last week as titans of industry and charity, tech entrepreneurs, hospitality bigwigs and global leaders of finance stepped onto the red carpet and into the vaulted rooms of Guildhall. A band played as I swigged fizzing cold Crémant with the Naked Wines team before being gathered into the main [...]
Exclusive: Gaucho owner to shut City icon M Restaurant next week May 12, 2025 Iconic Square Mile dining spot M Restaurant is to shut for good next week after 10 years serving steak to the City. The move comes after founder Martin Williams left M’s parent company Rare Restaurants in October. City AM understands new chief executive Baton Berisha, who assumed the role in March following spells at The [...]
How to fly to New York in style (and why The Devonshire is overrated) May 7, 2025 Flying to New York to visit the Evolv Collection Restaurants last week, I was reminded that the British Airways loyalty scheme conditions had changed. For reference, here are my own (slightly tongue in cheek) rules for any self-respecting ‘City Guy’ visiting Terminal Five: 1. Arrive at the airport in a cab and ask for the [...]
The Vineyard in Berkshire is the perfect pre-summer holiday May 6, 2025 With the weather improving but summer holidays still a way off, it’s the perfect time to cast around for mini-break options closer to home. The UK’s luxury spa market has recovered strongly from the hospitality-wide hit at the beginning of the decade, but how to distinguish between the many options? The Vineyard in Berkshire has [...]
In memory of Richard Vines, a sage and a gentleman May 6, 2025 My friend Richard Vines, chief restaurant critic of Bloomberg for 25 years, passed away this week. A champion of both genius chefs and restaurateurs, he was a wonderful man who I admired hugely. Over the last few days, I have been reminded of some magnificent City lunches with Richard; at Kym’s by Andrew Wong, after [...]
Libby’s Naked Wines Diary: Quaffing Spanish wine in the Parisian Pulitzer April 29, 2025 Paris has often been described as “magical” but I experienced my own miracle this weekend. The Significant Other and I were dining at Le Patio, the restaurant of Hotel Pulitzer in the Opera Quarter of Paris. Over squidgy, crispy croquettes and pesto laden burrata, I realised I had lost an earring. An earring my late [...]
Kioku by Endo at the Old War Office: OWO might be troubled but this sushi restaurant is the real deal April 29, 2025 The Old War Office, or ‘The OWO’ to insufferable industry types, is the most perplexing London hotel opening in decades. After spending over a billion quid turning Churchill’s wartime Cabinet Office into a hotel, industry bigwigs speak in hushed tones of low occupancy. One exec told me the breakfast room had eleven guests one morning [...]
Here’s what to look for when buying Provence Rosé April 28, 2025 We all know what those first glimpses of warm sunshine mean for us Brits. Suddenly the green spaces of London are filled with pasty, sun-craving bodies jostling elbow-to-elbow for a hit of vitamin D. Pubs and cafes fortunate enough to reside on the sunny side of the street overflow come lunchtime. Rosé season is upon [...]
Lidl eyes Mayfair and Chelsea stores amid £500m expansion April 28, 2025 You could soon shop at a Lidl store in the swanky London districts of Mayfair and Chelsea as the low-cost supermarket plans dozens more store openings as part of a £500m expansion plan. The German-owned business, which controls 7.8 per cent of the UK grocery market according to latest Kantar figures, has published a list [...]
Libby’s Naked Wines Diary: Even students can enjoy great wines April 25, 2025 I feel for final year University students right now. When the world is just waking up to those stirrings of spring and longer, sunnier days, they are finishing lengthy dissertations or beginning to cram for exams. Undoubtedly, having left it until the eleventh hour, the next few weeks for many will be spent tangled in [...]