Oh I do like to be beside the seaside (with billionaires) July 19, 2009 IT’S mid-morning, and having got a crack-of-dawn BA flight from London City Airport, I am now in a helicopter flying from Nice to Monte Carlo. Out of the window, the warm sunshine and blue sea provide a stunning backdrop to the hotels and villas carved out of the white rocks. As a helicopter virgin I [...]
Oh I do like to be beside the seaside (with billionaires) July 19, 2009 IT’S mid-morning, and having got a crack-of-dawn BA flight from London City Airport, I am now in a helicopter flying from Nice to Monte Carlo. Out of the window, the warm sunshine and blue sea provide a stunning backdrop to the hotels and villas carved out of the white rocks. As a helicopter virgin I [...]
Impeccably sourced City sarnies June 8, 2009 FARM91 COWCROSS STREETEC1M 6BHTEL: 020 7253 2142 Cost per person without wine: £3-£8 IT’S hard to imagine a lunch enterprise that is more on message, on trend, on the pulse and on just about anything else you can think of. The Farm (not to be confused with the good restaurant and bar in Fulham, a [...]
Bag a bargain and get some late summer holiday action August 16, 2009 THAILANDAnantara, on the north of the island of Mai Khao Beach, is wonderfully tucked away from the main tourist areas of Phuket and Kuoni is now offering seven nights for the price of five, a saving of £366 per person. Each of the 82 villas comes with its own 33 square metre pool, set either [...]
Frugal food hits the top table June 24, 2009 A RESTAURATEUR who grew up in the South of France once told me that the reason that French cuisine is superior to English simply because the produce is better. In the Mediterranean world, he led me to believe, tomatoes as big as your hand grow effortlessly, exotic fish jump straight out of the sea and [...]
Some daisies in your soup, sir? Yes, please May 18, 2009 ANYONE for cheese-stuffed tulips, salad with rose petals or violet creme brulee? If it sounds odd or just plain wrong to eat flowers rather than just ogling them from a distance, think again. The Chelsea Flower Show marks the beginning of a period in which the city’s best chefs turn to flowers to spruce up [...]
Southwest is best for the ultimate seaside bolthole June 18, 2009 EARLIER this week, a beach in Cornwall came up for sale. On 13 July, the 76 acres of Gwithian beach will be sold by property consultant Colliers CRE in its Portman Square auction house, with the price expected to be in the region of £50,000. A bunch of dunes might not be your idea of [...]
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 [...]
VETERAN BAR OWNER HANGS UP CITY APRON June 3, 2009 AFTER a lengthy 48-year spell in the City, it’s finally time to say goodbye to ship broker-turned-restaurateur David Hughes, who’s often been described one of the friendliest bar owners in the world. Hughes first came to the City in 1961, aged 15, working as a ship broker at the Baltic Exchange on St Mary Axe, [...]
It’s vulgar and brash but perfect for a big old all-American blowout July 6, 2009 PLANET HOLLYWOOD60HAYMARKET, SW1Y 4QXTel: 020 7437 7639www.planethollywoodlondon.com FOODSERVICEATMOSPHERECost per person without wine: £20 WHEN I think of Planet Hollywood, I think of family-themed nights – sticky floors, screaming babies, hassled staff. But London’s new PH, a revamped affair just down the road from the old one, is trying to go for a different demographic. “Our [...]