Let’s face it: we have all been having quite a party in London for the last 10 years. There has been exceptional creativity, and the rewards have been prolific for the best, but the sheer quantity of eating out venues has been mind-boggling. The current model of highly leveraged operations reliant on packing people into …
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The Costs of Fraud
There has been substantial publicity around the bankruptcy of Patisserie Valerie. The chairman Luke Johnson is an experienced business man with a high profile and had invested a substantial amount of his own money in the company; retail and catering outlets are generally seen as fairly transparent and straightforward activities. So there is a fair …
Comme Des Garcons and Rose Bakery
All my life I have loved fashion. This does not mean shopping. Having to go out and find a dress for a particular occasion, or even far worse, idly trawling round clothes shops in the centre of London is not my idea of fun. However, having a tightly curated core wardrobe of beautiful clothes which …
Eating in and out in Paris
These days London is acknowledged to be a hot contender for food capital of the world, thanks to its diversity and the creativity of its concepts. And although we blasé Londoners may think that the bubbling cauldron has reached saturation point, foreign investors re still looking to join the party. The rate of enquiries in …
Baltic Bakehouse Liverpool
I have just spent a year in Liverpool off and on, dispersing and disposing of my late mother’s house and effects, and re-acquainting myself with the city. It is a place beguiling and infuriating in equal measures, and over the decades I have known it, prone to peaks and troughs which don’t necessarily chime with …
La Ferme London
In case you thought there were more than enough restaurants at the Farringdon road end of Exmouth Market, let me introduce you to another one. Quietly over the last 2 months a Chinese takeaway has metamorphosed into la Ferme, a small stylish but not-at-all-trendy restaurant and shop. It couldn’t be more French if it tried. …
Restaurant Sound
An architect designs an empty restaurant, that’s for sure. There are no people getting in the way, no piles of messy food and no wine glasses to knock over. There is also no sound. Lunchtime, it is acknowledged, is for talking, perhaps business or gossip. But functionality prevails. In the evening it’s all about the …
The Greek Larder
Theodore Kyriakou is an old hand, with great taste in spectacles. He was instrumental in 1999 in introducing Londoners to a world of Greek food away from the standard kebab, chips and salad formula, sensibly choosing bargain sites. The Real Greek opened in Hoxton Market when the area was edgy. Before this, Livebait in 1995 …
Babaji Istanbul Pide Salonu
Since Wagamama, Hakkasan and Yauatcha, Alan Yau seems to be making it increasingly tricky to pronounce the names of his enterprises. The last one, a Bangkok cafe called NaamYaa, maybe even suffered from this, although most seem now to have got their tongues round the Thai chain Busaba Eathai. Until we have the opening of …
