Social and delicious in one June 22, 2011 THERE are restaurants that open with whimpers and others that open with bangs. Ex-Ramsay super-protégé Jason Atherton’s new eaterie, Pollen Street Social, was always going to open with a bang – and, two months in, continues with a clamour. The clamour is not of chaos, plates smashing or chefs shouting, but of the throngs trying [...]
Nintendo’s Wii U is as insane as a microwave on wheels June 13, 2011 Seeing Nintendo’s new Wii U console for the first time brought to mind an episode of NBC’s 30 Rock, in which a team of TV producers work through the night to design a new microwave. They come up with a four-door contraption with wheels and twin-mounted cup holders, which, when compared to the Wii U, [...]
HAVE YOU NOTICED AN INCREASE IN FOOD PRICES? June 7, 2011 DARREN LOCK | KIRKLAND AND ELLIS “I haven’t really noticed a large increase because everything in the City has always been expensive. I try to use cheaper brands which are just as good as expensive ones, rather than cutting down.” ELAINE NUTTALL | BLACKMORE BORLEY “Yes, I have found the price has increased a lot, [...]
REVEALED: HOW RICHARD DESMOND FIRST DRUMMED UP NEW BUSINESS June 1, 2011 EVERYONE has to start somewhere. Even Richard Desmond, the media baron with a personal fortune of £950m who bought Channel Five last July with some spare change he found down the back of his sofa. Desmond started on the road to founding his media empire early – aged 13, in fact, when he took his [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 31, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES UK CONSUMER RECOVERY SET TO BE SLOWEST IN 180 YEARS The UK economy is set to experience the slowest pick-up in consumer spending of any post-recession period since 1830, according to a Financial Times analysis of official forecasts. Families are expected to spend just slightly more by 2015 than they were before the [...]
East meets west with this fresh take on the brasserie May 30, 2011 RIDING HOUSE CAFE 43 Great Titchfield St, London, W1W 7PQ, 020 7927 0840 www.ridinghousecafe.co.uk FOOD **** SERVICE *** ATMOSPHERE **** Cost per person without wine: £32.70 THERE’s a sense of familiarity when you walk in to the Riding House Café. Parquet flooring, tick, exposed brick walls, tick, hospital-style white tiles, tick, communal booth tables, tick [...]
An exclusive way to sample the simplest, best Gallic food May 25, 2011 AS dinner parties go, this one’s a bit different. Over to my left sits double Michelin-starred chef Claude Bosi of Hibiscus, on the right is Joel Antunes of South Bank’s acclaimed Brasserie Joel and opposite him is Russell Norman, the rising star of London’s restaurant scene with his hugely popular “Venetian tapas” joints Polpo, Spuntino [...]
Lavishness amid the lonely splendour of the Welsh coast May 22, 2011 SOUTH Wales is home to a duality like nowhere else in the British Isles. It’s a land of timeless verdancy, endless summers and persistent rain. It’s a land torn apart by poverty, and before that the machinery of heavy industry. It is also my favourite place on earth. On the train eastwards from Swansea, this [...]
Eat, drink, enjoy May 12, 2011 ALL that Polo watching can be thirsty work, but thankfully there’s a wealth of treats and champers on offer. City A.M. checked out the best to come. HARRODS HAVEN Fans of Harrod’s fine food section will find a home away from home this year. The iconic store is opening its first ever pop-up food court. [...]
Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside… May 12, 2011 DON’T let the weather-beaten face of John Fowles’ French Lieutenant’s woman staring out from the Cobb in Lyme Regis colour your perception of this seaside town. The area’s boutiques, deli food shops and sandy beaches make it as quaint as British seaside towns come. It is the sort of place that you actually want to [...]