China’s answer to Vegas is Eastern gambling paradise September 4, 2011 OF all the improbable consequences of China’s headlong rush into beating capitalism at its own game, Macau is the weirdest.In common with nearby Hong Kong, the former Portuguese colony returned to Chinese ownership in 1999, but remains largely self-determining. As a result, gambling is legal. And not just legal: Macau is known as the Vegas [...]
YO! Sushi tastes success despite big debt costs September 1, 2011 RESTAURANT chain YO! Sushi has increased sales by a fifth after opening more UK stores and increasing its income from foreign franchises. The firm’s parent company, Sushi Holdings 1, hit sales of £50.31m, up from £41.7m, for the year to 28 November, after increasing its number of branches in the UK by 10 to 54 [...]
Restaurant Group piles on an 8pc profit September 1, 2011 RESTAURANT Group has shrugged off concerns related to rising input costs and lower consumer morale by posting an eight per cent rise in its first-half adjusted pre-tax profit, and said it expected to make further progress this year. The company, which owns the Garfunkel’s and Frankie & Benny’s chains, said yesterday year-to-date total turnover was [...]
The only way is Essex for hidden gems September 1, 2011 ROLLING countryside, boutique shops and country pubs – but most importantly not a vajazzle in sight. Essex has a whole lot more to offer than the controversial The Only Way is Essex TV series would like to portray. The area has all the charms and convenience of the most-desired Home Counties of Surrey and Kent. [...]
RESTAURATEURS FLOCK TO RENT 1 BISHOPSGATE IN CITY’S DINING BOOM August 22, 2011 IT IS not big enough for the new headquarters of the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority, which requires a capacious 100,000 square feet. But the four vacant office units at 1 Bishopsgate have attracted a “healthy level of interest” from insurance, finance, shipping, software and law firms – even a handful of hedge funds [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS August 22, 2011 BIGGEST FOOD EVENT OF THE YEAR: FRENCH LAUNDRY TO COME TO HARRODS Before Noma and the Fat Duck, the restaurant that usually vied with El Bulli for the “world’s best” title was California’s French Laundry. It’s still seen as one of the greatest places to eat on the planet (by the few who’ve managed to [...]
Make like Bond with an Aston in the Alps August 21, 2011 AMERICAN novelist Mark Twain wrote that rambling in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland was incomparable to any opiate, legal or otherwise. Imagine the rush, then, to be booming an Aston Martin V8 Vantage S round the picturesque, vertiginous Alpine passes, past crystal-clear glacier lakes and verdant valleys where cow bells jangle for miles. I’ve been let loose [...]
FOCUS ON: BOW, E3 August 18, 2011 COBOURN STREET Price: £1,395m This Victorian terrace house retains many of its period features. It has four bedrooms arranged across four floors. The interiors are well designed throughout. Contact: Foxtons’ Shoreditch office on 020 7033 1414 or go to www.foxtons.co.uk MEDWAY ROAD Price: £499,995 Located close to the Medway Conservation area, this four-bedroom Victorian town [...]
TAXI TYCOON RETURNS FOOT MESSENGERS TO SQUARE MILE STREETS August 17, 2011 HAS THE City returned to 1975? Foot messengers, once a familiar sight on the streets of the Square Mile before computers killed them off, returned this week to deliver documents by hand as “the most environmentally friendly couriers in town”. Harbottle and Lewis, SJD Accountancy and Maxxim Consulting all signed up for the service, which [...]
The gastropub kings with their sights set on the City August 17, 2011 IF you’re the sort of person who appreciates London’s classier pub offerings, the chances are you’ve been a customer of Tom and Ed Martin. The brothers, a pair of gangly good eggs who exude bonhomie and serious business ambition in equal measure, are the operators of an impressive number of the capital’s upper echelon public [...]