QUAFFER’S CORNER November 7, 2011 HEAD SOMMELIER AND MANAGER OF LUTYENS RESTAURANT With Thanksgiving fast approaching, I’m devoting this week to helping my American readers select a wine to have with their turkey. It’s not a festival that we celebrate in New Zealand but, as my sister-in-law is from New Mexico, I’m familiar with the palate of flavours and the [...]
Washington DC October 23, 2011 Food DC’s West End lies within an easy stroll of the White House, so there are plenty of opportunities for “power dining” among the area’s officials, lobbyists – and visitors alike. The Old Ebbitt Grill’s Oyster Bar is rightfully renowned, has an authentic Victorian interior, and being two blocks from the White House was a [...]
Shake it up with London Cocktail Week October 9, 2011 F Scott Fitzgerald did it for me. He immortalised the mint julep in the Great Gatsby and ignited an ongoing appreciation for the craft of the cocktail. This may have been the turning point where I realised there was more to cocktails than kahlua and milk, and that the trusty barometer of sophistication was not [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 29, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES INVESTMENT BANKING FEES FALL TO TWO-YEAR LOW Investment banking fees from mergers and acquisitions and capital raising have slumped in the third quarter to lows not seen since the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse. Market volatility and worries about European sovereign debt prompted a third consecutive quarterly decline in M&A activity, while [...]
Jazz, cigars and pop stars come to Docklands May 11, 2011 WITH finishing touches being made to Battery Club in Canary Wharf, the owners are not resting on their laurels. They’re in the midst of launching Alphabet City, a hip new members only dining room, bar and lounge at the O2. With all manner of pop star after-parties in the mix, locking down a founder membership [...]
It’s all about the thick end of the wedge with this summer’s footwear May 5, 2011 ONE of the great joys of summer is having an excuse to splurge on footwear. Nothing improves bare legs like a majestic heel and an open toe. Whereas every year the gladiator makes its appearance, this spring/summer’s “seventies story” is a happy one for those who like heels without the agony of the stiletto. Wedges [...]
GOING GREEN AS GREEN GOES AWOL February 8, 2011 “HEAVY business” in the House of Lords detained former HSBC chairman Stephen Green, but the British-Israel Chambers of Commerce partied on anyway last night at the British-Israeli business awards dinner. Universities minister David Willetts stepped into the breach with Green’s speech in hand to extol the UK economy’s virtues as an exporter of everything “from [...]
Mount Gay, Barbados: a tour round rum’s natural home January 30, 2011 THE heart of the Barbados rum trade is perched at the northernmost tip of this small Caribbean island. High in the mountains in the St Lucy district sits the Mount Gay refinery, surrounded by a nine feet tall sugar cane plantation and gazing out over wild Atlantic waves which crash into the Florida coast 1,600 [...]
Festive drams December 15, 2010 A FINE bottle of Scotch whisky makes a terrific Christmas present for anyone who appreciates a dram of the good stuff. But finding the best bottlings isn’t easy, and there are thousands to choose from. So we asked Neil Ridley, whiskey expert and the brains behind the CaskStrength.net blog, to select the whiskies that he’d [...]
Lady liberty has found her sense of humour – PJ O’Rourke checks in November 29, 2010 POLITICIANS,” growls PJ O’Rourke, “don’t understand finance at all – even the last little bit. Yet they’re increasingly in charge of it.” America’s greatest living satirist is back in town and training his anger on the political enterprise. His new book is titled Don’t Vote! It Just Encourages The Bastards. The idea of politicians setting [...]