The Gaul the world loves June 30, 2010 I’VE visited a lot of restaurants in London: flashy ones, rustic ones, refined European ones, rooftop ones, flamboyantly ethnic ones and ones that closed after not very long at all. My favourite, on many levels, is Sketch – less a restaurant than a pleasure dome. I love that an eccentric man greets you and speaks [...]
Spirits high at SSG after vodka boost June 27, 2010 STOCK Spirits Group (SSG) has turned in a record profit – fuelled by sales of the fastest growing vodka brand in the world. The company’s annual revenue soared by 17 per cent to €262m (£216m) in 2009 compared with the previous year. Earnings – before tax interest, taxes and amortisation – were up 46 per [...]
Thriller machine Patterson is back with another gripper June 23, 2010 Private by James Patterson Century £18.99 It’s fair to say that James Patterson is to thrillers what McDonalds is to food: a fast-paced outlet for easy, tasty matter. Except, unlike the fast food chain, Patterson is a brand associated with sophisticated fare, as well as one that nourishes the mind and the human appetite for [...]
Premier Inn gives a boost to Whitbread June 22, 2010 A RISE in bookings and higher room charges at Premier Inn helped first-quarter sales at owner Whitbread grow 7.6 per cent year-on-year. The group, which also owns Costa Coffee and the Beefeater and Brewers Fayre pub-restaurant chains, said comparable sales at Premier Inn were up 10.5 per cent in the 13 weeks to 3 June. [...]
Board shake-up at Mitchells & Butlers as finance chief quits to join Rentokil June 22, 2010 PUBS and restaurant group Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) has appointed Interserve’s Tim Jones as finance director replacing Jeremy Townsend, who will join Rentokil as chief financial officer at the end of August. Meanwhile, Interserve said Tim Jones, who has handed in his resignation in order to take up the role at M&B, will remain at [...]
Managers buy out Searcys June 21, 2010 SEARCYS, the operator of the restaurant at the top of the iconic Gherkin tower, has been bought out by its management team in a deal valuing the business at around £8m. The deal will see the upmarket restaurant group return to private ownership three years after it was bought by Alternative Hotel Group (AHG), the [...]
Flawless food from a French master June 21, 2010 FLASH back five years. I’m in the new Covent Garden Market with Alexis Gauthier, then the chef patron of Gallic jewel Roussillon, researching a feature. It’s 4AM and Gauthier is getting very excited indeed. Never mind the fact that it’s pitch black and freezing, even under the market’s neon lights – no, he has just [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS June 21, 2010 SUMMER OFFER ON FRENCH CITY DINING Le Café Du Marché, the atmospheric French restaurant in Smithfield and firm favourite among City folk, is offering three courses for the price of two for lunch until the end of the summer. Hidden up an ancient cobbled lane off Charterhouse Square, there’s nothing ersatz about the place’s romantic [...]
Celebrating all things pretty, pricey and rare June 17, 2010 Fancy getting your hands on a 1932 Bugatti Grand Prix car? How about a magnificently ornate Victorian billiards table? Alternatively, you could furnish your living room with a pair of stunning globes from the 17th century. Of course, you’ll need to stump up over a million quid to own any of these – £3.2m in [...]
Claridge’s owner in talks with Deutsche Bank to refinance £610m of borrowings June 14, 2010 THE owner of some of London’s most luxurious hotels is in talks to refinance £610m of debt, it was confirmed yesterday. Maybourne Hotel Group, owner of the Claridge’s, Connaught and Berkeley hotels in London, is in talks with Deutsche Bank about a refinancing that needs to take place by the end of the year. The [...]