HEINZ TESTS OUT ITS NEW CAFE IN THE CITY January 12, 2010 FOR those City workers already missing their comfort foods after the Christmas break, food group Heinz has come up with the ideal solution. Just three minutes walk from Liverpool Street station, Heinz is trialling a cafe this week whose power lunch is the well-known staple of baked beans on toast. This is the first restaurant [...]
BANKERS STAY QUIET ON UNITED BOND DEAL January 11, 2010 CITY bankers are not usually backwards in coming forwards when it comes to getting publicity for their transactions, so why the reticence yesterday when it came to taking the credit for Manchester United’s £500m bond issue. United’s initial press release was as brief as could possibly be, with no mention even of the banks involved [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK January 10, 2010 A NEW gastronomic haunt to grace the column this week, as this group of diners headed off to restaurant, bar and entertainment venue Circus in the West End. After a magnum of Laurent Perrier to kick off the evening, they enjoyed starters of langoustines and pulled pork, mains of Cajun tuna, fillet steak and schnitzel, [...]
E-book readers, 3D TVs and tablet PCs compete to be top dog of 2010 January 10, 2010 HYPE and prototypes dominated the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week. From the Ford car that lets you send Twitter messages while driving, to the scuba diving mask that can shoot high definition video at depths of 130 feet, the vast majority of products on display will not hit the mainstream. The [...]
Stars and spas in California’s flashy south January 10, 2010 THE Southern California sunshine danced on the ocean off Newport Beach as we stepped aboard the boat where we would be eating our lunch. We opened the champagne, tucked into the picnic, and took it in turns at the helm to guide the boat, silent as a whisper around the bay. This was a brilliant [...]
Cold weather helps to boost Domino’s January 6, 2010 DOMINO’S PIZZA said yesterday people staying in because of the cold weather helped its sales beat City forecasts. The fast food delivery chain, which has 608 stores in the UK and Ireland, said in a fourth quarter trading update like-for-like sales rose 8.6 per cent in the 13 weeks to 27 December, despite the downturn [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 5, 2010 WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING FINANCIAL TIMES ALWALEED’S CITI SHARES TO BOLSTER KINGDOM Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud, the Saudi investor, revealed on Tuesday that he plans to shore up the balance sheet of his investment vehicle by “donating” SR2.24bn (€416m) of shares in Citigroup into it. Prince Alwaleed said the initiative would [...]
M&B appoints Joe Lewis man to board of directors January 4, 2010 MITCHELLS & Butlers (M&B), the pub and restaurant group, said yesterday it will appoint Ronald Robson, a representative of rebel shareholder Joe Lewis, to its board from 22 January. The appointment will need to be ratified by shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting on 28 January, it added. Lewis’s investment vehicle, Piedmont, which is [...]
The river views in Istanbul are fit for a Sultan January 3, 2010 IF you have never been to Istanbul, then this is the year to do it. the Turkish capital is one of the two European Capitals of Culture for 2010 it is sharing the privilege with Pecs, in Hungary. Istanbul is an interesting choice: it has long been considered the meeting place between east and west, [...]
London is the big smoke for cigar connoisseurs January 3, 2010 Those resolutions are going up in flames in the city’s new breed of smoking terraces, writes Timothy Barber SITTING back on a luxurious sofa with a glass of fine champagne in one hand and a cigar in the other, I’m among a group of around 25 men and a couple of women sending up a [...]