THE MAN BRINGING CHELTENHAM TO THE SQUARE MILE NEXT WEEK March 9, 2011 IN 18 months, Simon Parker Bowles’s Cornhill restaurant, Green’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar, has become a firm City favourite, mixing time-honoured qualities – simple but sumptuous food, clubby surroundings, a very well-stocked cellar – with a theme that reflects Parker Bowles’s own particular passion: horse racing. The Runner Bar takes its name from the sport, [...]
Gadgets for lovers of RETRO CHIC March 9, 2011 LEICA M9 German camera company Leica has set the whole aesthetic of its top range, M-series cameras around the sturdy look of old-fashioned snappers. Don’t let the dated look fool you: this is a spectacular piece of photographic kit, and a true luxury item, as its price suggests. £4,550, www.uk.leica-camera.co.uk FUJIFILM FINEPIX-X100 Due in shops [...]
WHAT’S NEW IN GADGETS AND TECHNOLOGY March 9, 2011 SPOTIFY HITS THE MILLION USERS MARK While Charlie Sheen has made tech headlines as well as tabloid ones for drumming up a million Twitter followers in just 24 hours, music streaming service Spotify has taken a bit longer to reach its own seven-figure landmark – a million paying subscribers. The company, which allows users to [...]
Gizmos that can make the commute a bit more fun March 9, 2011 Shouting into your mobile on the train during the morning commute may be frowned upon, but there’s nothing to say you can’t watch telly. AverMedia.com’s Hybrid Volar dongle will turn your laptop into a digital TV recorder, so you can watch 50 digital Freeview channels. Or listen to the cricket commentary on the radio. The [...]
OUT OF OFFICE March 9, 2011 PLAYBOY CLUB LONDON: OPEN FOR NEW MEMBERS There seems to be a rule with casinos in London that they must either be lowest-common-denominator hellholes or so smart and snooty you can barely raise a smile without being stared down. Well, that should all change with the soon-to-open Playboy Club, a “retro chic” affair if ever [...]
Vive la difference March 8, 2011 DRIVING the Peugeot iOn is certainly unusual. Until now the only electric cars I have driven have been the excellent Tesla sports car that looks like a Lotus Elise, and the considerably less good G-Wiz which looks like Noddy built it on his weekends from a kit. These cars exist at opposite ends of the [...]
CAR TALK March 8, 2011 Mini Rocketman Ok, so it’s an awful name but this is the coolest Mini since Alec Issigonis penned the original. Unlike the Minis in the current range, this one – called Rocketman – is a real mini Mini at last. Launched last week at the Geneva motor show, the car has a 3+1 seating layout [...]
Episode four: pass the parcel time March 7, 2011 I PRESS?play. “Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.” The parcel wends its way in a clockwise direction. Noel. Emma. Billy. Maria. Me… This morning I was at Heathrow, waiting for a flight and buying shirts in case I had to be away for a couple of days. I certainly couldn’t have left the house with [...]
The sweet smell of success March 7, 2011 AMONG the unexpected things one discovers at Ormonde Jayne, the swish private perfumery with outlets in New Bond Street and Sloane Square (plus a Harrods concession), two stand out: men make up the greater number of clients, and hemlock (the poison that did for Socrates) is an excellent perfume ingredient. As is whale vomit. Actually, [...]
Old school glam, new designers March 7, 2011 THE doors close at the E Tautz men’s fashion show during London Fashion Week, and the hustle and bustle of outdoor crowds immediately fades. There’s no bank of spotlights in the Royal Opera House’s opulent room, only a small group of photographers, no standing crowd of students and hangers on, just a few fashion writers [...]