Arabian ark an eccentric but brilliant getaway July 5, 2009 TWO cheetah brothers bask in the sunshine, panting as they stretch their lean bodies gracefully in the heat. Giraffes munch lazily on foliage while nearby a sand gazelle with her young jumps among the trees. The only sound to pierce the silence is the peacock’s call. I am lost in the scene until my driver [...]
Hell’s kitchen for Ramsay’s restaurants July 2, 2009 CELEBRITY chef Gordon Ramsay has found himself in hot water after his UK restaurants suffered a near 90 per cent drop in profits, forcing the foul-mouthed chef to pump his own money into the business. Gordon Ramsay Holdings filed accounts showing that the TV chef and Chris Hutcheson, his father-in-law and business partner, were forced [...]
Failure to take tourism seriously is a big mistake July 2, 2009 WHICH industry is worth £114bn, is responsible for 2.65m British jobs and represents 8.2 per cent of UK GDP? Perhaps surprisingly the answer is the tourism industry. So, given the clear importance of this key economic activity, it is surely worrying to consider that tourism bosses believe their business interests are not taken as seriously [...]
PREMIER TAX EXPERT STILL IN THE LEAGUE July 1, 2009 IT WAS au revoir (but not goodbye) last night at a leaving party at City restaurant Manicomio for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ John Whiting, the popular tax adviser who’s often been dubbed “Britain’s most quoted accountant”. Whiting – who’s known as “Mr T” on his regular stints on the BBC 2 Working Lunch sofa – has already started [...]
La Vie en Rose July 1, 2009 SOMETHING is up with rose wine. Its image as the cheap and cheerful, distinctly low-brow summer tipple is evaporating like water on a hot summer’s day. It’s gone from being the sort of thing you’d drink on holiday in Great Yarmouth or Blackpool while getting sunburned to the colour of a lobster to the drink [...]
A City restaurant in the crypt of St Paul’s spells an identity crisis June 29, 2009 THE RESTAURANT AT ST PAUL’SST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, ST PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, LONDON EC4M 8AD (entrance through north-west crypt door)Tel: 020 7248 2469Web www.restaurantatstpauls.co.uk Cost per person without wine: £20 ONCE, stepping down into the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral must have been a spooky experience. All those corpses and bones – even if they do belong [...]
OTHER HOT SUMMER MOROCCO IDEAS June 28, 2009 VINEYARD TRIPMorocco is an Islamic country, but away from the major northern cities it is fairly relaxed about most things, wine included. In the hills of Meknes in northern Morocco there are acres upon acres of vineyards, and 35m bottles of wine are produced a year. Wine-lovers can now take a four-day tour, which includes [...]
GLAMOROUS DRAGON HAS SIGHTS ON TV DEN June 24, 2009 ENTREPRENEURIAL types and their brave backers packed the Institute of Directors yesterday for the fifth bi-annual Entrepreneur Country conference, hosted by BBC Dragon, Ariadne Capital chief executive and City A.M. columnist Julie Meyer. Meyer was proud to introduce her new protégé, Warren Cole, to the investors in the room, after he became her third investment [...]
IRC to launch 2.1m cash call June 22, 2009 Piccolino owner, the Individual Restaurant Company (IRC), is to raise £2.1m through a share offering to pay down debt. The restaurant and bar grill chain will give investors the opportunity to subscribe for 4.1 shares for every 10 existing ones. The AIM-listed chain said the fundraising would help reduce its borrowings and may enable it [...]
GLAMOUR GALORE AT ASCOT’S LADIES DAY June 18, 2009 IT WAS Ladies’ Day yesterday at Royal Ascot, traditionally the most hotly-anticipated event in the calendar for dressing up to the nines. As usual, the racegoers didn’t let us down – among the extravagant hats on show were a blackbird, a giant ice-cream cone, a creation made out of 800 marshmallows, and even a headdress [...]