Restaurant review: Hispania, Bank March 6, 2014 RESTAURANT HISPANIA72-74 Lombard Street, EC3V 9AYTel: 0207 621 0338 FOOD Four StarsVALUE Four StarsATMOSPHERE Four Stars Cost for two with wine: £110 COMBINING the words “Spanish” and “bank” in recent years has been enough to leave a bad taste in the mouth. Yet despite the somewhat portentous association, a group of brave Asturians have taken [...]
Mix it up: From the ashes of prohibition rose the phoenix of The Last Word March 6, 2014 @philip_salter ALTHOUGH cocktails are a global passion, there can be no doubting which country has dominated over the years: the good ol’ US of A. This is despite the highly destructive prohibition on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933. The unintended consequences of prohibition were profound – dodgy [...]
Where to drink February 24, 2014 North Greenwich has never been much of a destination for London revellers, but that looks poised to change following the opening of Brooklyn Bowl at the O2. The Big Smoke has essentially purloined one of The Big Apple’s more celebrated institutions, and done an accomplished bit of thievery at that. This baby is more of [...]
Restaurant review: Wright Brothers January 28, 2014 RESTAURANT 8-9 Lamb Street, Spitalfields, E1 6EA Tel: 0207 377 8706 FOOD Four Stars VALUE Three Stars ATMOSPHERE Four Stars Cost for two with nice wine: £180 A FEW years ago I came up with an idea for a new law: the meat licence. To get a meat licence – a legal document allowing you [...]
Mix it up: Pisco sour is a classic cocktail to celebrate, wherever it’s from January 28, 2014 @Philip_Salter Most of us manage to get through a night on the tiles without having a fight over who owns the drinks. But what is true of individuals isn’t necessarily true of nations. Disputes rage the world over about who first invented a particular beverage, where and how it should be made, and what it [...]
Restaurant review: Andina, Shoreditch January 21, 2014 @steve_dinneen 1 Redchurch Street, E2 7DJ Tel: 020 7920 6499 FOOD Four Stars VALUE Four Stars ATMOSPHERE Three Stars Cost for two with a fair bit of booze: £150 IF I could go back five years and give myself one foodie tip, it would be “never set foot in Trader Vic’s”. If I could give [...]
Why Madeira deserves to be saved from obscurity January 21, 2014 Bottle.opener@cityam.com Call it a busman’s holiday but I have just had a sunny week in Madeira, sampling the delights of… Madeira. I was lucky enough to meet Chris Blandy, the seventh generation of the Blandy family to run the Madeira Wine Company (MWC), the mainstay of the island’s remaining wine industry. Madeira is the most [...]
Review: Foxlow, Clerkenwell January 14, 2014 RESTAURANT WHERE 67-79 St John Street, EC1M 4AN Tel: 020 7014 8070 FOOD Three Stars VALUE Three Stars ATMOSPHERE Four Stars Cost for two with wine: £100 HERE at City A.M. we are big fans of private equity buyouts – largely because they give us something to write about. They’re also a cracking excuse to [...]
Mix it up: Drop the Jägerbombs for the sophisticate’s explosive drink January 14, 2014 There are two competing theories of the human condition. The first suggests we are rational beings acting on free will, while the second assumes the environment determines our actions. I tended to err on the side of free will – that was, until the invention of the Jägerbomb. You don’t like Jägerbombs, do you? What [...]
Review: Ballaro, Haverstock Hill January 7, 2014 RESTAURANT WHERE 154 Haverstock Hill, NW3 2AY Tel: 0207 586 1107 FOOD One Star VALUE One Star ATMOSPHERE Two Stars Cost for two with wine: £130 THERE’S a theory that the range of choices available in our modern, Western lives, while producing a wonderful aggregate effect of driving standards up and prices down, can be [...]