Tom Aikens’ return is a hit January 16, 2012 Tom Aikens Restaurant 43 Elystan St, SW3 3NT T: 020 7584 2003 FOOD ***** SERVICE ***** ATMOSPHERE **** Cost per person without wine: £90 Popular culture can be a depressing economic barometer. In the 90s and early 2000s British music was all working-class swagger and barefaced ambition. It was a time when it didn’t seem [...]
Wine trade goes Burgundy mad January 16, 2012 HEAD SOMMELIER AND MANAGER OF LUTYENS RESTAURANT Last week saw one of the English Wine Trade’s odd annual rituals, the Burgundy en primeur tastings. For a week, we all traipse around assorted grand venues, tasting samples of wines from the new vintage about to be released. In many cases the wines have not even been [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS January 16, 2012 MUDDY WATERS’ SON TO PLAY BOISDALE If you’re a fan of Chicago blues, head down to Boisdale at Canary Wharf (pictured left) on 28 January to see the closest thing to the legendary Muddy Waters: his eldest son Mud Morganfield. Muddy Waters was the founder of the Chicago electric blues sound and his son has [...]
Homes more affordable as supply slumps January 15, 2012 HOMES are at their most affordable level for 14 years, according to data released today by Halifax, while figures from Rightmove suggest very low housing supply will prevent the market falling further. First-time buyers spent 27 per cent of their disposable income on their mortgage, down from the 37 per cent average seen over the [...]
MEADOWHALL CENTRE TO GO UP FOR SALE January 15, 2012 PROPERTY developer London & Stamford is close to putting Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping centre up for sale in a deal that could be worth as much as £1.6bn. London & Stamford owns half of Meadowhall, one of Britain’s biggest malls, with a Middle Eastern partner, while British Land owns the remaining half. The sale is likely [...]
Sleeping tight in NYC January 15, 2012 NOBODY needs an excuse to go to New York; the Big Apple is one of the few cities in the world to match London for sheer breadth of sights to see, entertainment to sample and scenes to explore. But the opening of a sprinkling of new high-class hotels that demand to be visited is as [...]
Take a walk on the wild side of the Maldives January 15, 2012 The Maldives: a honeymoon paradise where people take sunset strolls and spell out proposals of marriage in shells on powdery white beaches; where time slows down and life swims at the pace of the giant green turtles trawling the reefs. But there is another side to paradise – a side where the world’s top surfers [...]
TRAVEL NOTES January 15, 2012 Sundance Film Festival gears up The Sundance Film Festival starts on Thursday lin Park City, Utah. Sundance Film Festival started out in 1978 as an event designed to attract more filmmakers to Utah while staying away from the overpowering Hollywood scene. www.sundance.org/festival TAM invites passengers to get tipsy Brazil’s biggest carrier TAM Airlines is offering [...]
The Gresham, an art deco palace on the Danube, is Budapest’s finest hotel January 15, 2012 Budapest is sometimes compared to Paris. While very pleasant indeed – especially if you go in the summer and lounge by the vast 19th century public baths in the scorching sun – the city doesn’t really compete with Paris in terms of beauty, architecture or cultural riches. With its history of hardship and decimation, how [...]
Barratt sees first half profits rising January 12, 2012 HOUSEBUILDER Barratt Developments yesterday reported a surge in first-half operating profit and a rise in sales. A focus on margins is helping UK housebuilders recover their footing after several difficult years, supported by new and cheaper land and a shift from apartments towards houses, which is lifting average selling prices. Barratt, one of the larger [...]