From hotels to hearty, classy bistros August 1, 2011 Bistro du Vin 40 St John Street, EC1M 4DL www.bistroduvinandbar.com FOOD *** SERVICE *** ATMOSPHERE *** Cost per person without wine: £35 IT’S hard to get excited about the name. If I didn’t know better, I’d bracket “Bistro du Vin” along with generic, naff, budget chains like Bella Pasta and Café Rouge, particularly upon learning [...]
BETFAIR’S IRON LADY IS ON HER LAST LEG July 31, 2011 FOUR down and one to go. No, not the number of top-level scalps claimed by the News Corp scandal, but the feats of endurance completed by Betfair’s Susannah Gill, the Iron Lady of the City, as part of her five-part “ultimate challenge” between April and September. Gill, who is making the original iron woman Margaret [...]
THREE OTHER RESTAURANTS WITH FORAGED AND ORGANIC PRODUCE July 25, 2011 PETERSHAM NURSERIES CAFE The only garden centre cafe with a Michelin star, Petersham uses ingredients from the nurseries themselves to draw on. Dishes such as red and golden beetroot with heirloom tomatoes, marjoram and purple basil, and sardines with spinach, shaved fennel, rocket and sauce vierge are among chef Skye Gyngell’s creations. Church Lane, TW10 [...]
Hits and misses in US company results July 22, 2011 America’s biggest companies have delivered a mixed bag of earnings news, with a disappointing update by heavy equipment maker Caterpillar offset by forecast-beating news from GE, Schlumberger and McDonalds. Caterpillar, which updated the market after the bell last night, said its second-quarter profit was $1.02bn (£629m), 44 per cent higher than the same quarter in [...]
Mitchells & Butlers suffers as its sales growth slows in economic uncertainty July 21, 2011 PUBS and restaurants group Mitchells & Butlers said yesterday sales growth had slowed in the last two months and that the outlook was rocky because of the economic climate. M&B, whose chains include Toby Carvery and All Bar One, said underlying like-for-like sales were up 2.8 percent in the nine weeks to 16 July. Underlying [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 20, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BLACKSTONE STRIKES €700M DEAL TO BUY GERMANY’S JACK WOLFSKIN Blackstone has agreed to take over outdoor clothing company Jack Wolfskin in a €700m ($995m) deal that underlined the rapid transformation of the sector from local businesses to international brands. The US buy-out group will announce on Thursday that it will acquire the German [...]
POACHERS TURNED GAMEKEEPERS SNARE GOLDMAN WITH BEST BREW July 18, 2011 SHARP-suited, discerning of taste and with a generous disposable income they can easily take elsewhere. Yes, the Goldman crew are a tough crowd – but even the investment bank’s most hard-nosed deal-makers are being won over by the new Italian opposite the Goldman Sachs fortress on Fleet Street, which is gaining a reputation for the [...]
FTSE 100 CHAIRMEN BACK DRIVE FOR MORE WOMEN ON UK BOARDS July 13, 2011 THE DEBATE about how to get more businesswomen into the boardroom continued last night at the Lansdowne Club, as FTSE 100 chairmen came to hear BAE Systems’ chairman Dick Olver outline his plans for reform. “It is not a matter of quotas; it is a question of better decisions in the boardroom,” said Olver, who [...]
REVEALED: THE CITY’S BEHIND-THE-SCENES BOARDROOM LUNCHES July 11, 2011 THE DAYS of conspicuous client entertainment are over, as the City’s fattest cats rein in their largesse in the fallout of the financial crisis. Or are they? Just days after the Bribery Act came into force, The Capitalist hears business is booming for a high-end catering service recreating City restaurants in the boardrooms of investment [...]
Focus on Ealing: West is the best July 10, 2011 Office Space WITH the clamour and disruption of Crossrail making itself known across central London, investors can seek consolation in turning their thoughts to its profitable prospects in one of London’s most tranquil outposts. Ealing, dubbed “Queen of Suburbs” by no less an authority than Nikolaus Pevsner, will benefit from not one but two Crossrail [...]