EXCLUSIVE – Matthew Steeples shares that “now is the time to drink” as Claude Bosi and Bibendum return to Brompton Cross in Chelsea in July after having been closed for a year
On Sunday 31st August last year, the acclaimed French chef Claude Bosi “permanently” closed his Bibendum and associated Oyster Bar restaurants on Brompton Cross citing that “despite our very best efforts, we were unable to reach a resolution with our partners and landlords that would allow Michelin House to move into its next chapter.” Bosi had run the restaurant since 2017 and had been preceded by Simon Hopkinson from 1987 until 1994.
Going further, in an interview for JancisRobinson.com a month later, Bosi cryptically commented: “The situation is complicated because the lease is held by members of the Conran and Hamlyn families and I do not want to jeopardise anything or antagonise anybody.”
Named after Michelin’s portly mascot ‘Monsieur Bibendum’ who, in turn, took his name from the latin phrase Nunc est Bibendum – “Now is the Time to Drink” – The Steeple Times can now exclusively reveal that the Bibendum restaurant will reopen with Claude Bosi at the helm in July.
Two Michelin starred Claude Bosi and his representatives were approached for comment, but had not replied by the time of publication. Meanwhile, the adjoining 31,750 square foot former Conran store remains shuttered and to let through agents Colliers. Whilst the rental figure for the space is not publicly available, the rateable value for the space alone is the astoundingly off-putting sum of £1 million per annum.
Now is indeed the time to drink. We join all raising a glass and say cheers to this truly great, rare piece of restaurant news.
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Of the restaurant premises, in September 2025, Claude Bosi told Nick Lander of JancisRobinson.com: “Although this is a building that looks wonderful from the outside and from the interior if you are a customer, what the restaurant trade refers to as ‘back of house’ was inadequate and getting worse. The kitchen staff needed a lot more space; the restaurant staff were having to store tables in the flower shop, and because it had originally been built as Michelin House, it included a tyre-fitting bay and a place where motorists could plan their journeys. The services [for a restaurant] were inadequate. The one downpipe for the lavatories and kitchen would overflow from time to time and the electricity supply was never sufficient. We tried to negotiate but sadly that failed and when it did I had no option but to close. It’s a beautiful building and one that needs to be looked after.” These problems will hopefully have been resolved prior to July 2026’s grand reopening.Designed by François Espinasse – who was also responsible for Michelin’s Paris headquarters – and built “as an ode to the glory of the tyre,” Grade II listed Michelin House, 61 Fulham Road, Chelsea, London, SW3 6RH stands at the northern end of Sloane Avenue and the start of the Fulham Road. It has a façade clad with green and white tiles and features stained glass windows based on the tyre manufacturer’s adverts of the time. The premises opened for business on 20th January 1911 and remained owned by Michelin until 1987 when it was acquired by Sir Terence Conran and Lord Hamlyn for £8 million. The pair redeveloped the site to provide retail, restaurant and office spaces and increased its size from 90,000 square foot to 118,000 square foot with the addition of a new steel and glass structure on the Sloane Avenue elevation.A tyre-fitting workshop within Michelin House, photographed circa 1912.The original Michelin Man mascot, introduced in 1898, was a slightly intimidating, mummy-like figure rather than the friendly marshmallow character known today. The design – also known as the ‘Michelin Tire Man’ or ‘Michelin Tyre Man’ and ‘Bib’ and ‘Bibelobis’ – reflected multiple stacked rings designed to resemble stacked rubber tyres. The ‘Michelin Guide’ itself was first issued in 1900 and awards up to three Michelin stars to a select few restaurants in certain geographic areas annually.‘The Steeple Times’ featured a party that was held at Bibendum on 7th June 2019 for a London to Monte Carlo car female only car rally that ironically sought to raise funds for victims of sex trafficking. The Cash & Rocket event in Michelin House was attended by heiresses including Paris Hilton and Chloe Green, but became infamous for being the last public sighting in the United Kingdom of the since convicted mucky madam sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell. The pension pot plundering ‘Bouncing Czech’s’ deviant daughter subsequently vanished before being located at the equally ironically named ‘Tucked Away’ on 2nd July 2020; she was then unceremoniously hurled into the clink and rightly remains there rotting.
As Prince Harry brings Pizza Express up in legal proceedings against Mirror Group Newspapers, shouldn’t the chain be given a royal warrant given Prince Andrew used it as an alibi also?
Now, with the Duke of Sussex becoming the first senior royal to be dragged in to give evidence in his case against Mirror Group Newspapers, comes yet another yet also surprising reference to a more ‘mass market’ chain, Pizza Express.
“What strikes me about this article in particular is the comment that a week before, I had insisted that one of my PPOs join me and a friend when we had lunch at Pizza Express. I’m unsure of how the Defendant’s journalists could have been aware of any private conversation between me and my PPO, but it is notable because it’s another example of the Defendant seeming to know where I was at a particular point in time.”
“Private visits to restaurants with friends were never publicly announced (in fact, our movements were always intended to be kept secret), nor did this kind of thing fall within any official duties, yet not only did the Defendant seemed to know where I was at all times, they felt able and entitled to report it to the public without any regard for my security or any private life I wished to have, even at the age of just 16.”
More infamously, back when he gave his juggernaut wreck interview to Emily Maitlis for the BBC’s flagship Newsnight show on 16th November 2019, the non-sweating second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II that is Prince Andrew relied on the Italian inspired chain as an alibi against allegations made by Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre concerning sexual shenanigans at the mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s London mews house on 10th March 2001.
Of an incident that supposedly resulted in a payout of circa £12 million from the former husband of Sarah, Duchess of York, Prince Andrew told Maitlis that he couldn’t have been in Belgravia because he had been in Surrey instead. Questioned as to why he so clearly remembered this, he bizarrely justified by stating:
“I was with the children and I’d taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at, I suppose, sort of, four or five in the afternoon. And then because the duchess [of York] was away, we have a simple rule in the family that when one is away, the other one is there.”
“Going to Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do; a very unusual thing for me to do. I’ve only ever been to Woking a couple of times, erm, and I remember it weirdly, distinctly. As soon as somebody reminded me of it, I went: ‘Oh yes, I remember that.’”
Subsequently, in February 2022, when the Woking branch of the pizza chain advertised for a new £8.91 per hour cleaner, Twitter users responded with one suggesting: “Luckily for Andrew, Pizza Express has vacancies” and another adding: “Prince Andrew could always apply… After all the publicity he gave them, he should be a cert – maybe even assistant manager material.”
According to a further report, shared in the Express in in February 2023, “Harry and Meghan broke tradition with their wedding food choice” on 19th May 2018. According to the paper’s Dorothy Reddin, “a huge delivery of Pizza Express pizzas [were] delivered to Windsor Castle at 7pm. [They] were believed to have fed Harry and Meghan’s 200 closest friends and family as they danced until the early hours. It’s not clear whether the pizzas were delivered due to a problem with the originally-planned catering or if they were ordered for the staff.”
Today, I ask, given that this chain – founded by the legendary lover of jazz Peter Boizot in 1965 – has provided employment for thousands of Brits and given that senior royals themselves clearly love it so much, isn’t it now time for a royal warrant to be awarded to Pizza Express? After 58-years filling up Brits, surely, after all, the ‘Sloppy Giuseppe’ finally must be deserving of regal recognition.
Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.
Today on Twitter, Matthew Steeples asked: “Isn’t it time, after getting repeatedly mentioned in legal matters and served up at bashes connected with both Prince Harry and Prince Andrew, that Pizza Express be given a royal warrant?” By 1pm on Wednesday 7th June 2023, the majority of respondents favoured the answer: “Yes; Reward Sloppy Giuseppe.”In his 24th February 2023 witness statement in the case of His Royal Highness Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex as claimant against defendant Mirror Group Newspapers, the husband of the mendacious menace formerly known as Meghan Markle references Pizza Express, a restaurant chain founded by a “wise man” and former Associated Press journalist named Peter Boizot in 1965 in London. At one point prior to the coronavirus lockdowns, the chain extended to 470 restaurants in the UK and 100 overseas in Europe, Hong Kong, China, India, Indonesia, Kuwait, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Saudi Arabia.The Italian chain got a royal shout-out previously on 16th November 2019 on the BBC’s ‘Newsnight’ when the Duke of York referenced it as part of his supposed alibi against Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s claims that he’d had sexual relations with her on 10th March 2001 at the Kinnerton Street, Belgravia, London mews house of the noxious nonce Ghislaine Maxxwell. “I remember it weirdly, distinctly,” the buffoon-like husband of ‘Feckless Fergie’ claim.Naturally, Prince Andrew’s claims about turning up at a mass market chain restaurant were subsequently ridiculed. One mock-up of him was accompanied by a message reading: “And this is my favourite… ‘The Big Whopper.’”Another, by Blower, added: “That’s our new one – the alibi” and had a chilli “spice guide” which featured options including: “No sweat, a bit sweaty and it’ll be pouring off you.”A cartoon by Paul Thomas depicting the Woking, Surrey eatery with the FBI outside and hovering overhead in a helicopter whilst ‘Don Chef’ stands next to a board declaring: “Dough balls – Not just our crusts are thick.” The image is amusingly captioned: “Relax, Fergie! I’m hiding at the ONE place they’ll never look!”Television stations, including Channel 4, got in the act also and in December 2022 to promote ‘Prince Andrew: The Musical’ turned up outside the Woking branch with a mobile billboard captioned: “If you miss it, you’d better have a decent alibi.” It seems the visitation and royal patronage of the chain restaurant at 65 – 67 Goldsworth Road, Woking, Surrey, GU21 6LJ didn’t do the business there much good. It is now marked on Google as “temporarily closed” and though no reason as to why this pizzeria where “striped T-shirts toss handmade pizzas in a relaxed space” is given, it is clear that the negative publicity the Duke of York and his antics brought were not exactly a hit in terms of public relations successes.On 15th September 2015, rival chain Pizza Hut Restaurants tweeted: “Happy Birthday Prince Harry! We recommend a less controversial fancy dress outfit for your do tonight…” clearly mocking the renegade royal rotter having dressed up as a Nazi for a previous fancy dress bash he’d attended.
The segment from the now infamous Emily Maitlis interview in which the Duke of York revealed his belief that he couldn’t have been at Tramp and couldn’t have been at the Kinnerton Street, Belgravia home of Ghislaine Maxwell on the 10th March 2001 because of his supposedly having been told that he was “at home” and at a “children’s party” that day in Woking at “about 4pm or 5pm in the afternoon.” Questioned further, the non-sweating royal added: “Going to Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do; a very unusual thing for me to do. I’ve only ever been to Woking a couple of times, erm, and I remember it weirdly, distinctly. As soon as somebody reminded me of it, I went: ‘Oh yes, I remember that.’”
In 2022, a poet named Joe Williams penned a verse or two based around Prince Andrew and his ‘Woking alibi.’ He has previously supposedly told “tales about lost love, people in pubs, and the best ways to insult footballers in Spanish” and featured on the BBC and in ‘Viz’ also.
As ITV’s ‘Good Morning Britain’ Rachelle Ferron calls out Plantation Rum as a “horror” brand that “chokes,” Matthew Steeples asks if this is cancel culture crazy warbling by a woke wazzock?
Nobody with a moral compass would today come out in favour of slavery, but would even the cancel culture crackpot Owen Jones go as far as to seek to cancel anything mentioning the description “plantation” – meaning in essence “a large farm” – out of outrage over its past associations?
Though the answer to that question is a likely “yes” given the attention seeking Chavs author would likely have sought to whine if he’d thought of it first, ITV’s Good Morning Britain head of entertainment Rachelle Ferron was given acres of column inches to get in her thoughts on this noun yesterday. In an article for The Guardian, she ludicrously claimed to have been “choked” after seeing it on a visit to a branch of a Richard Caring owned restaurant, The Ivy.
Ferron, offended to find the “P-word” listed on the menu in the form of a “rum-soaked sponge” made with Plantation Rum, whined: “It matters that once you really see these things, it is difficult to unsee them.”
Droning on, a woman once proudly posed for a snap with Sean Combs – whose clothing brands have ironically been called out for operating “slave labour-like” working conditions – surmised: “Hmm (rather than ‘Mmm’). My dad is Jamaican. My ancestors were slaves.”
She added:
“Does this matter? Yes. It matters that all around us we see reminders of a painful past, and then feel the indignity of knowing that the words and images of historic colonial exploitation are being deployed, even offered to us, as brands and items produced for someone’s commercial gain. It matters that once you really see these things, it is difficult to unsee them. Either you come to terms with them, or you decide that this is not the way for diverse societies to behave, and resolve to act.”
“These brands and images, these indignities and slights, have perhaps always been there. But one night, on date night, I saw ‘Plantation’ rum on the menu, thought about the history and connotations, and thought: enough. It was my own little protest, but that’s how wider change often starts.”
Continuing, Ferron expressed objection at a property development in Battersea with the name Plantation Wharf and a pier of the same name operated for Uber Boat by Thames Clippers. Houses – such as those owned by Ben Affleck – with “P-word” history and the shutters they gave their name to, she argued are part of “[worshipping] a trend that glorifies plantation living.”
After complaining to the restaurant group about the ‘hurt’ she felt, the liquid that so outraged her has now been removed from at least 30 restaurants owned by bouffant haired billionaire Caring in spite of a pledge from Maison Ferrand, the owners of Plantation Rum, that they would be taking steps to “rebrand” in June 2020.
“We pride ourselves on making delicious rum for people to enjoy and never want any part of their experience to create feelings of discomfort.”
“To that end, we want to be on the side of actions and solutions. As you can imagine, evolving a brand name is a significant undertaking for a family business like ours. We humbly ask that everyone have patience as we move to make these changes as quickly as possible.”
Alexandre Gabriel, the company’s founder and master blender, previously added:
“As the dialogue on racial equality continues globally, we understand the hurtful connotation the word ‘plantation’ can evoke to some people, especially in its association with much graver images and dark realities of the past.”
“We look to grow in our understanding of these difficult issues and while we don’t currently have all the details of what our brand name evolution will involve, we want to let everyone know that we are working to make fitting changes.”
Though Rachelle Ferron most likely enthused the woke in Britain with her ‘victory’ over a noun describing a farm, I’d argue she’s instead secured nothing but making herself look like a hectoring harridan with a desire to damage a small family business that has already committed to making change. Now, I’d suggest, it is time for her to take her pitchfork off for a confrontation with her chum P. Diddy.
Pictured top – The Whitney Plantation in Louisiana, a place which now seeks to “educate the public about the history of slavery and its legacies” rather than celebrating or erasing memory of its past (left); the rum that so offended Rachelle Ferron (right).
Maison Ferrand “Cognac maverick” Alexandre Gabriel’s rum’s name is due to be changed, but nonetheless Rachelle Ferron chose yesterday to get unnecessarily outraged about seeing the brand on menus at one of the premises of the chi-chi restaurant group, The Ivy. Though she claimed to seek to cause “a downturn in custom” by complaining and then got Richard Caring’s restaurant to “remove all ‘Plantation’ rum products (including that offensive pud) from its restaurants, bars and menus, what has she actually achieved? “I’m still digesting the news, but, wow – I did that. I forced change on a British institution,” she crowed, but isn’t she just putting jobs at risk at a company that has already agreed to what she wanted in 2020?Previously, in May 2017, Ferron happily posed for pictures with Sean Combs (AKA P. Diddy, Diddy, Puffy and Puff Daddy), the face and “equal-share venture” collaborator of the Diageo vodka brand Cîroc. She declared of a man who was previously called out for involving himself in “sweatshop labour” with the clothing brands he associated with: “Come back for an interview on GMB. We had so much fun before,” yet today attacks others for a word she associates with slavery.Can Ferron not just accept that the noun actually primarily defines “an estate on which crops such as coffee, sugar, and tobacco are grown”? She might call such “places of horror,” but what does she actually achieve by seeking to erase a word?Antebellum style Destrehan Manor House in Louisiana was used in the 2013 Steve McQueen directed, Brad Pitt produced film ‘12 Years A Slave’ starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender. Will Ferron next demand this architecturally important building be demolished because of what she views to be the “outrage” associated with its past?
As Minor International force restaurateurs Chris Corbin and Jeremy King out, loyal diners unsurprisingly back the dynamic duo and slam the tenacious Thais for their takeover
Minor International Public Company Limited (MINT) is a vast company. It operates many frankly soulless businesses, but now with news that it has forced Chris Corbin and Jeremy King out of the much-loved restaurant group they founded, they have been rightly called out as nothing but profiteers lacking in passion and panache.
In response to news that Minor International has now acquired the entire business in spite of a bold bid from its founders – reported on in The Steeple Times in January – on Friday, Jeremy King remarked to CODE:
“We took part in the auction to try and buy the business and assets of Corbin & King that we didn’t already own, including of course all the restaurants.”
“Regrettably, that attempt failed and Minor Hotel Group was the successful bidder, buying the entire business.”
Responding this morning in The Observer renowned restaurant critic stated “King [is] regarded by many in the hospitality business as the capital’s leading restaurateur” and mused:
“The future of the restaurants he opened may be unclear, but it’s certain King will be back.”
Going further, Rayner added:
“[King is] famed for his eye for detail and for his daily tours of his restaurant dining rooms, for stopping by the tables of regulars and newcomers alike to check they were being looked after. The difference between a restaurant owner and a restaurateur, he said once, is that one runs it from the boardroom and one runs it from the floor. King was always on the floor. Now he was out, banned from even entering any of the nine restaurants he had created.”
Though Jeremy King has also stated he “no longer has any equity” in the business he created, one thing remains certain and that he was the heart of that business. King stated previously: “I’m too young to retire” and today we join all those looking forward to his revival with whatever wonder he ultimately decides to create next.
Jeremy King and his business partner Chris Corbin were undoubtedly the hosts with the most. As one regular customer and reader of ‘The Steeple Times’ often says: “The best restaurant is the restaurant that knows you best.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdYlN82nGP8
Reactions to Minor International taking control of the business:
Landlord of The Guinea Grill Oisìn Rogers commented on the development on Friday. He remarked: “If I’m reading the Minor statement correctly, they allude to intending to continue to use the name, which if true, sounds a bit odious, at best.”Going further, Rogers added: “[King] looked after his guests… A very tough morning for him, Chris and his team. I wish them well.”Critic Jay Rayner described the news as being “in bad taste” and a “bitter” development.Others suggested the business will now go into decline and “the same way as The Ivy” – a business that the perma-tanned tycoon Richard Caring has effectively turned into a franchise-like operation.Old Etonian nightclub operator Charlie Gilkes went further and suggested “customers will gradually stop going and Jeremy and Chris will be back with yet another exceptional and hugely successful restaurant.”Of staff at the restaurants, Dillip Rajakarier, CEO of Minor International, supposedly “kept referring to us as a brand.” They “never thought of [themselves] as brand.” Supposedly, according to Jay Rayner, “that was when he completely lost us.”The Duchess of Cornwall’s son Tom Parker Bowles rightly concluded of what occurred: “This is very, very sad. Corbin and King are restaurant masters, and The Wolseley one of the world’s greatest. This group is nothing without them.”
Corbin & King co-founder and restaurateur par excellence Jeremy King declares “business as usual” and boldly vows to buy his company back out of administration
London’s top restaurateur without a shadow of a doubt, Jeremy King OBE, boldly took to YouTube yesterday in response to the majority investor in his company, Bangkok based Minor International, attempting a “power play” for Corbin & King after they forced it into administration.
In a 3:09-minute video uploaded to the video sharing channel, Bristol driving Mr King – who with his partner Chris Corbin OBE has created and successfully run wonderful restaurants including Colbert, The Wolseley, Brasserie Zédel and The Delaunay – emphasised that it was “business as usual” and in a dignified fashion “reassured” his customers by declaring: “Please don’t be concerned.”
“In the Corbin & King estate we have fourteen other companies that actually run the restaurants. I can assure you that all the restaurants are fully solvent, trading well and all our staff and suppliers are secure, fully paid. It is very much business as usual.”
“Minor claim they took the action because Corbin & King couldn’t meet their financial obligations, but the only obligation we failed to meet were payments in respect of a £30 million loan from Minor themselves. That loan was part of the transaction that saw Minor buy into the company and Minor told us then that they would be refinancing it.”
“Minor also claimed that we had major liquidity constraints throughout the pandemic. We didn’t. We got through it without any financial support other than the government furlough scheme.”
“Finally, Minor claim that I declined a cash injection. They don’t mention that the conditions attached to that small amount that they proposed were in the best interests only of themselves. The truth is Minor haven’t put a penny into the restaurants since buying into the business and the further truth is that we are as busy and as profitable as ever. In spite of all the difficulties of the last two years, we are in rude financial health.
“I’m afraid we do have a fundamental difference of opinion with Minor on how restaurants should be run and what are the best interests of our customers, staff, landlords and suppliers.”
“I will never change my principles to those essential elements of a successful restaurant, so, today, we are under siege from our investor which puts its own interests ahead of us all.”
“I plan to buy back the holding company out of administration, pay back all the monies so that we can get back to doing what we do best. I thank you for listening and I hope to see you soon.”
Elsewhere on Brompton Cross, SW3 this morning, another much loved restaurant, La Brasserie, remains empty and unloved after its purchase by the company controlled by the “Supermarket Sweep-style” empire builder Richard Caring.
Asked by The Steeple Times yesterday as to whether they still had intentions to install an outpost of Scott’s there, a representative from another of the helmet haired business tycoon’s nearby restaurants remarked: “There are no plans for any developments there for the foreseeable future due to market conditions.”
Speaking to The Steeple Times previously in 2020, one of the nation’s favourite actresses, The Good Life star Felicity Kendall CBE, enthused of the news of Scott’s coming to the neighbourhood and welcomed the prospect of the Mount Street institution bringing its seafood bar to the SW3 postcode.
Today, as we did in the case of La Brasserie’s late, great Peter Godwin’s sadly ultimate unsuccessful crusade against his greedy landlord, we join all those backing Jeremy King in his fight against the avarice of his greedy investor. This suave legend deserves to be back, as he correctly said his very self, doing what he does best – without interference from meddling and at the helm of a deservedly loved restaurant group.
Chris Corbin OBE and Jeremy King OBE are restaurant legends. Their venues are much loved and deservedly so and they deserve success in their quest to rid themselves of their clearly unwanted and clearly unhelpful appendage, Minor International.All-day café restaurant in the grand European tradition is the flagship of the duo’s restaurant empire. Opened in 2003 and considered ever since as one of the most iconic places to dine in London, The Wolseley is open seven days a week, attracts over 1,000 customers per day and numbers distinguished figures including Amanda Eliasch and Sir Martin Sorrell amongst its roster of regulars.
Finickity ‘Angry People in Local Newspapers’ Facebook group members get it completely wrong in attacking a restaurateur fined for putting up a poster advertising work at his Italian in Bristol
Riccardo Damiani runs a “rustic” Italian restaurant in Bristol that serves food that looks simple yet delicious. He clearly is someone actually trying to be successful and someone who wants to employ people, but in doing so he’s pissed off the people of the finickity Facebook group Angry People in Local Newspapers.
His venue, La Panza – which has a charming Georgian façade and is named rather charmingly and honestly for “rounded abdomen, in other words a big, full, happy belly” – struggled to get staff no doubt due to the repeated coronavirus lockdowns and Brexit and as a result he placed a poster on a lamppost offering people work.
In any sane society, people would be delighted to see opportunity being offered, but this was not case with the goons at Bristol City Council. They responded by giving Mr Damiani a fine of £150 under the Highway Act 1980 for illegal flyposting in July 2021.
Speaking to Bristol Live yesterday, Damiani remarked:
“It’s absolutely insane how many people just leave a flyer saying my cat is missing or advertising nights out. It happens all over Bristol, Stokes Croft is the epicentre of it, and I can’t believe that this has happened.”
Subsequently prosecuted and summoned to the local magistrates’ court earlier this week in spite of having offered to pay the fine in August 2021, an adjournment has sensibly been made, but this simply set off members of Angry People in Local Newpapers.
Responding furiously, 27 members of the group have thus far put fingers to keyboards and one, Jeremy Twiggs, mocked: “Yeah, if everyone else jumped off a bridge, would he do it too? As my nan used to say: ‘Probably,’” whilst another, Ste Biram, added: “I can only imagine the quality of staff you’ll get from advertising on a lamppost.”
Amusingly, however, making a mockery of Boris Johnson’s current travails, one Dave Jackson concluded: “Should have advertised a cheese and wine party.”
On Instagram, La Panza describes itself as a “traditional trattoria and Italian restaurant serving regional food, pasta, wine and cocktails.” It is open from 12 noon until 10pm, Tuesday to Saturday for aperitivo and music.Images of food and drink served at this restaurant suggest a venue that serves simple, yet delicious items in a relaxed setting. That keyboard warriors on social media and a local council that frankly should be supporting not hindering local businesses get angry about its patron advertising to offer members of its local community work is nothing other than ludicrous we’d suggest.In the past, we’ve lauded members of ‘Angry People in Local Newspapers’ for their amusing finds, but on this occasion they are wrong to condemn a businessman for trying to find staff for a place clearly serving perfectly decent grub at perfectly reasonable prices.Last March, when APILN members had a pop at a clearly ropey hobbit-like couple named Mr and Mrs Kipling, they were spot on. This Aston Martin driving dweller of a Grade II listed cottage thought he could get away with adding a hideous UPVC carbuncle conservatory to his home without planning permission. When he failed and was told to tear down the hideous structure, he bombarded everyone from Boris Johnson to Prince Charles and when that failed, he complained angrily to the ‘Banbury Guardian.’ This clear lunatic remarked: “We feel that our lives are being dictated to by people that haven’t even seen our house or the conservatory – would they eat their meals off a tray 24/7 – I don’t think so. We are both lifelong members of the National Trust so there’s no way we would damage our property. The inspector is saying that we are hurting the wall… But we’re not causing any harm. We have emailed Boris though he is otherwise engaged at this time, Jeremy Wright MP who did reply, Robert Jenrick MP housing minister who has not replied and the Prince of Wales who immediately sent a letter of support but stated he was not allowed to intervene. We are going to keep going on with this until some form of common sense prevails. We’re not very good with Facebook and Twitter, and we would like to start a petition to allow us to have it remain for the next eight years.”
Nikolay Kalinin celebrates the ‘Daily Mail’s’ campaign to encourage restaurant customers to take doggy bags home with them and joins those slamming Wetherspoons decision to refuse to participate
Food waste is a big problem in today’s society, not only because it’s damaging to the environment – a fifth of Britain’s gas emissions come from food waste – but also because it’s highly inconsiderate to waste food when an increasing number of Brits find themselves homeless and hungry.
Fortunately, the Daily Mail has set up a campaign to help tackle this issue called ‘War On Food Waste,’ which has been led by many prominent restaurants such as Pizza Express and Wagamama. The campaign’s mission is to normalise taking home leftovers as part of the eating out routine.
Despite 81% of the British public supporting restaurants offering bags for taking leftovers home as standard, an investigation conducted by The Mail on Sunday – which analysed more than 20 dining chains – concluded that the venues were failing to encourage people to take leftover food home.
One of the worst examples of such malpractice is Wetherspoons, which refuses to allow taking leftovers home at all. According to a spokesperson from the company, there “isn’t a demand from customers” for such an option, which, in my view, is absolute tosh.
They further added: “The only takeaway packaging is for pizza, though a customer would have to ask for this. Doggy bags are not appropriate for all pubs and restaurants as they create a large amount of packaging waste.”
In contrast, Ellie Besley-Gould of the somewhat ritzier steak chain Hawksmoor enthused about customers taking away what they don’t consume whilst dining out and remarked: “It’s brilliant that The Mail on Sunday is taking on food waste. For lots of people it is half the treat to know you’ve got a steak sandwich for lunch the next day. Many of our customers even come with actual dogs in mind – taking home bones for their canine friends.”
By contrast, in the US, such practices have been in place for years, with takeaway bags going back to the Second World War. In France meanwhile, it will be required from July 1st for all restaurants, cafes and bistros to supply bags for taking away leftovers if requested.
This campaign very much reminds me of Lotti Henley, an Austrian-born philanthropist who created Plan Zheroes, an organisation linking businesses with charity organisations in order to provide food for those in need, and who was the subject of a feature in The Steeple Times back in 2017.
It’s honestly great to see the Daily Mail, for once, contributing to a good cause instead of sharing misleading headlines such as Didsbury being a ‘no go’ area for white people, and I really hope that more restaurants join a scheme that everybody other than the ghastly windbag Tim Martin quite rightly supports.
One can always rely on the total twerp Tim Martin to go against any sensible campaign.Richard Caring, owner of some London’s grandest dining spots, has encouraged takeaway for years. At 34 in Mayfair, he even went to the length of getting the artist Tracey Emin to design the box such food could be taken away in. Whilst the slapdash, plain stupid ‘Loose Women’ presenter Janet Street Porter remarked of takeaway boxes: “I look down slightly on people who [ask for one],” whilst the revered restaurateur Russell Norman suggested those that are embarrassed “just lie and say it’s for your dog.”
The ‘Daily Mail’ deserves credit for encouraging diners to takeaway food they haven’t eaten and restaurants really should encourage it. Including a note on menus mentioning such and the training of staff to mention takeaway of leftovers as perfectly feasible is something that will harm nobody and benefit everybody.
‘Tatler’ magazine called out for suggesting a Chelsea restaurant that closed down in August 2016 as a “hot spot” post ‘Lockdown 3.0’ ending in May 2021
A “tattler” is an “observer or spectator… a gossip who tells tales,” whilst ‘THE’ Tatler is defined by the Oxford Learners’ Dictionary as “a British magazine, published once a month and containing articles about upper-class and upper-middle-class social events, fashion and the arts.”
Given the Condé Nast lifestyle publication’s staff – amongst them previously the current editor of the Daily Mail, Geordie Greig, and the ex-editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, Tina Brown CBE – have variously included many Oxbridge alumni, one would assume they’d be a little better at fact checking than the notoriously sloppy seconds employed by the MailOnline (which is rated 1 out of 5 by the Microsoft Edge browser given its propensity to share fake news), but instead a recent edition of the monthly society bible featured a complete balls-up.
“[Brasserie Gustave at 4 Sydney Street, London, SW3 6PP is] located at the exact point where South Ken meets Chelsea (and on a site that has seen more restaurants than Ramires has had yellow cards), this French bistro is a keeper. If the art-deco posters look a bit hackneyed, not to say banal, the food is anything but. It’s fresh and lively, classic French dishes prepared with punctilious attention to detail. Confit de canard is superb and you won’t find a better plate of kidneys in London. Great wines too, managed with gusto by experienced sommelier Richard Weiss.”
Whilst of their thirteen selections, the loathed by Dan Wootton magazine prattled: “We’ve eaten our way around Chelsea’s top restaurants… We’ve got you covered,” a comment on OpenTable from as long ago 22nd August 2016 reads: “I made a reservation and got there and the restaurant was closed.” Plainly, anyone with half a brain would have realised five years ago that Brasserie Gustave turned out actually to be anything but “a keeper.”
In the time since, Tatler’s editorial team also missed their very own one-time contributor Giles Coren’s visit to 4 Sydney Street on 15th July 2017. At that time, he lauded “pan-Asian” Zheng Chelsea as “the sort of places foodies go in quest of the new and wonderful.”
Pictured top: 4 Sydney Street has been various restaurants over the years including Carpaccio, Sette, Marco Pierre White’s Sydney Street Grill, Brasserie Gustave and most recently Zheng Chelsea.
The magazine’s May 2020 feature on Brasserie Gustave – a restaurant that closed in August 2016.In August 2016, an OpenTable user commented: “I made a reservation for [Brasserie Gustave] on Open Table and got there and the restaurant was closed.”The front elevation of Zheng Chelsea, 4 Sydney Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 6PP.The interior of the restaurant as it used to be during the era that Brasserie Gustave (left) occupied the site and as it has been since circa 2016 as “pan-Asian” Zheng Chelsea (right). Of food there, in July 2017, Giles Coren remarked: “Food this good and this unusual would normally never be found in Chelsea… Chelsea is not absolutely the last place in the entire world that I would go looking for brilliant authentic Malaysian cooking, but it comes close. What with the well-upholstered complacency of the locals, the lack of any significant oriental population, the high throughput of tourists and idle shoppers in need of plasticky chain food, the sky-high rents and concomitant historical lack of any decent restaurants here at all, Chelsea is perhaps the second last place in the known universe that I would go in expectation of fiery, original, challenging but entirely successful Straits Chinese cuisine.”The society go-to title was previously accused of a “swathe of inaccuracies and false misrepresentations” in May 2020 by Kensington Palace after it published an article about one-time friend of its current editor, Richard Dennen (pictured together right), the Duchess of Cambridge titled “Catherine the Great.”
Legal challenge to Boris Johnson’s government’s completely illogical refusal to allow indoor hospitality venues to open whilst allowing indoor retail to open to be decided on this week
In spite of venues with outdoor space being allowed to serve customers on their terraces and in gardens, the hospitality sector in the UK will continue to lose around £200 million per day until the government allows them to serve indoors in mid-May.
This week, following a perfectly sensible legal challenge by Sacha Lord, the night-time economy adviser for Greater Manchester, and Hugh Osmond, the founder of Punch Taverns, the government could be forced to bring forward the date for indoor opening for bars, pubs and restaurants.
Lord and Osmond together quite sensibly argue there is no justification or scientific basis for indoor hospitality to be kept closed for five additional weeks after non-essential retailers in England were allowed to serve customers indoors from 12th April. Their call is correct and the continuation of this illogical set of double standards is doing just one thing: Dealing another body blow to an already devastated sector.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning of their challenge to the crackpot crazy decisions of borderline bonkers’ Boris Johnson’s Tory government, Osmond remarked:
“This is something of a David versus Goliath battle. We are reassured that David won in that instance.”
“At the start of this pandemic there was a totally understandable assumption that hospitality venues might be responsible for the spread of infections. The vision of drunken people in crowded pubs is an easy and obvious target that people understand.”
“The data [now] definitively shows that hospitality was not the major source of infections.”
Elsewhere on Twitter on Friday, Lord remarked: “The government’s defence is just in… They must be concerned, they’ve put their No. 1 legals on the case, Sir James Eadie QC, the First Treasury Counsel.”
Going further this morning, he added: “Thank you for all the good luck messages. It’s not necessarily today, the Judge has said: ‘The week commencing the 19th.’ Again, a real long shot, but as soon as there’s news, I’ll post it here. Enjoy the sun.”
Today, all at The Steeple Times join those supporting the logic of allowing indoor hospitality venues to reopen and reopen now. Let’s get the indoor show back on the road.
Pictured top: Restaurants such as Fifty Cheyne in Chelsea, London have tables that are very clearly separated from one another. As shown in this image, diners can be socially distanced in a manner perfectly reasonable. Why shouldn’t such places – which lack outdoor dining areas and thus cannot even benefit from the currently allowed outdoor opening rules – not be able to get back to business whilst small, cramped shops with little-to-no precautionary measures are allowed to trade?
Hospitality vs. Headbangers – Echoing scenes from December 2020 reported on in ‘The Steeple Times,’ on Sunday the ‘MailOnline’ reported on yet another swarm of maskless, tempestuous teenagers descending on Harrods on Saturday. Sharing the article on Twitter on Monday, Hugh Osmond remarked: “It is surely clear that all-seated, licensed hospitality venues, with table service only, cannot present more of a risk than non-essential retail… Open indoor hospitality now.”Hospitality vs. Headbangers – Giuseppe Turi, who owns Enoteca Turi on Pimlico Road, London, SW1 with his wife Pamela, is currently just serving people on his two outside tables “after loyal customers begged him to reopen,” the ‘Daily Star’ last week reported. Speaking to the ‘Mail on Sunday,’ Mr Turi added: “It doesn’t really make financial sense with just two tables, but our customers are so desperate to come back. We are now fully booked until May 17 when we can open inside. We are very excited to connect with our regulars again, but unfortunately we’ve not been able to accommodate everybody.” The chances of this business making a profit from such activity stand in the area of “zilch-zero-nothing,” but provide proof that it is businesses that are showing initiative and not the illogical, rudderless, incompetent government of Boris Johnson.Hospitality vs. Headbangers – Last October, Richard Caring, owner of many of London’s best-known high-end restaurants, stuck up two dummies of Boris Johnson (in spite of having previously given over £510,000 in donations to the Conservative Party previously). At the time of the lockdown then in place, Caring raged: “Make no mistake, this is a disastrous decision, taken by people who do not understand what terrible damage they are doing to the country.”
As the City of London Corporation’s Catherine McGuinness shares confidence about office space in the city, the Bow Wine Vaults announces its terrace is reopening from 12th April
This morning on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Catherine McGuinness of the City of London Corporation spoke of how planning applications for the development of new office space have surprisingly “surged in the city in 2021” in spite of the coronavirus pandemic.
Given those that have returned to their desks will be able to enjoy outdoor but not indoor dining options from 12th April, veteran restaurateur Philip Lawless yesterday announced he would be reopening the terrace of his renowned Bow Wine Vaults from that date.
Speaking to The Steeple Times, Lawless, proprietor of this much-loved City institution since 1987, enthused:
“The public are excited to be able to finally socialise outdoors once again and we are very much looking forward to serving customers old and new in line with government measures.”
“With better weather on the way as a bonus, we have already had a phenomenal number of bookings. People do really want to be outside and I look forward to welcoming many of your readers in April and beyond.”
Bow Wine Vaults, 10 Bow Churchyard, London, EC4M 9DQ. Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7248 1121. Reopens weekdays from 11am from 12th April 2021. To make a booking email [email protected]
Philip Lawless is very much looking forward to welcoming customers to the Bow Wine Vaults from 12th April.The Bow Wine Vaults is famed not only for its “truly blistering wine list,” but also for serving delicious traditional food and continental favourites. Its terrace will be a perfect spot to enjoy outdoor dining from 12th April.
