Coronavirus has proved a double blow to restaurateur Keith McNally: First he got the virus himself and now his original restaurant has closed permanently due to it
Currently recovering from coronavirus himself, restaurateur Keith McNally sadly will not be able to fulfill a wish he made in November 2019 of having his last meal at his oldest restaurant, Lucky Strike. He’s just shut it for the final time and blamed the global pandemic for the French-American bistro’s demise.
Of why the “Soho staple” at 59 Grand Street, near West Broadway in New York – which opened in 1989 – has closed permanently, McNally told Eater:
“Due to the COVID-19 crisis, I was unable to find a way to make Lucky Strike work financially. This decision was particularly difficult since many of Lucky Strike’s wonderful staff have worked for me for over 20 years, and some of the customers have been coming since the day we opened: 31 years ago.”
In the same interview last year where he talked about having one last “steak au poivre medium rare” before going to meet his Maker, McNally waxed lyrical about Lucky Strike more generally and in conversation with Food & Wine’s Regina Schrambling commented:
“When I opened Lucky Strike, it was far easier to build a restaurant than nowadays. There weren’t these absurdly strict health rules that are designed as much to rake in money for the city as to make eating in restaurants safer.”
In spite of McNally openly sharing knowledge that Lucky Strike didn’t make a profit as long ago as 2016, he was honest about why he kept it open. “I like the staff…I am fond of all of them,” he stated, but now, sadly, for these pour souls, they’ve only got left GoFundMe left as a means of survival. Meanwhile, on Instagram, of why Lucky Meal had served its last meal, the “Restaurateur Who Invented Downtown’ concluded: “Greedy landlord during lockdown syndrome.”
Criticism of the 29-year-old Duke of Westminster for quietly giving £12.5 million to the UK’s coronavirus response is most unfair; any anger should instead be directed at bailout demanding billionaires like Sir Richard Branson and Sir Philip Green
The richest under thirty in the world, 29-year-old landowner, Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster has shown generosity in giving £12.5 million to “provide support to NHS staff, key workers and their children and families.”
Quietly announcing his move without seeking any fanfare through his Westminster Foundation on Twitter, the seventh Duke – known to his friends as ‘Hughie’ and like his prison reform campaigner sister, Lady Edwina, credited for being both “low key” and “down to earth” – commented:
“On behalf of my family and everyone at the Grosvenor Estate, I want to say a huge thank you to all our amazing NHS staff and everyone providing critical frontline services. We are all humbled and incredibly grateful that you are working tirelessly to keep us safe and keep the country functioning.”
“NHS staff and key workers don’t work in isolation. They have children and families whose health and wellbeing will also be highly impacted by this crisis. As they keep us safe, I want to help provide as much support to them and their families as we can. Our donation will help create a Family Fund within NHS Charities Together to provide food, respite, rehabilitation and positive mental health support to NHS staff and their families.”
“While the impact of this crisis is being felt immediately, the virus will sadly also affect people’s lives long into the future. That’s why I’m keen to support the longer-term scientific and socio-economic response to the epidemic. Through these donations, my Foundation will work with a range of fantastic charities and organisations who are able to help vulnerable people in the difficult months ahead.”
We join those saluting the Duke of Westminster for his laudable donations and suggest others with similarly large bank balances follow suit. It is now time for the likes of the greedy pigs Sir Richard Branson and Sir Philip Green to take heed of this generous young man’s actions and put a stop to their nefarious demands for government bailouts; instead, they too ought to dip their hands into their very deep pockets and finally put their money where their almightily large mouths are.
Blow to British racing as Sheikh Fahad places his Longholes operation in Newmarket, Suffolk up for sale for £6 million to spend more time in California
Billed as a place for “preparing champions” and run by a “dedicated team” focused on pre-training and rehabilitation, Longholes was founded by the Accrington born “playboy” textile heir and racehorse breeder Sir George Bullough (1870 – 1939) in the 1920s and bought by Sheikh Fahad in 2013.
Sheikh Fahad Bin Abdullah Al Thani chats with David Redvers in 2016.Sheikh Fahad wiht his brothers Sheikh Hamad, Sheikh Suhiam and Sheikh Khalifa.Sheikh Fahad and his wife Sheikha Melissa with the late Roaring Lion.Sheikh Fahad won the Corinthian Challege at Leopardstown on the Gordon Elliott trained Brutal in October 2017.
Comprising of 217 acres of paddocks, schooling grounds and a 6-furlong gallop, the “renowned Newmarket stud farm” – which is 16 miles from Cambridge and 70 miles from London – includes not only 88 boxes, but also what has been described as a state-of-the-art “feel good factor” spa with hydro and water treadmill facilities amongst other things. There is a stud manager’s house, a guest cottage, a pair of staff bungalows and a pair of workers’ log cabins also.
“Sheikh Fahad purchased Longholes in 2013 with a view to turning the attractive and historic stud farm into a state-of-the-art pre-training and rehabilitation establishment servicing the requirements of his own Qatar Racing and also the wider training centre of Newmarket. Seven years later and Longholes boasts an incredible array of modern facilities, an outstanding team of committed and highly trained professional staff and a client list that boasts many of the most recognised names in horse racing, eventing and show jumping.”
“Sheikh Fahad is proud of what has been achieved at Longholes but a change in his own personal circumstances means that the farm’s exciting future now needs to be in another’s hands.”
Speaking to Nick Luck of Racing TV in April 2019, Sheikh Fahad remarked:
“We love horses, we’ve grown up with horses, me and my brothers. The idea was always to build something for the future, hopefully the long-term future, for generations to come. I’d like to see my kids grow up into a dynasty of breeding operations, of racing operations that they can take on from there.”
“I watched I think, my early memories… I watched Channel 4 Racing, I think the Cheltenham Festival. It was very different to racing back home. We only had one racetrack and it was flat racing and they go round in the circle. My dad was the leading Arab racehorse owner in the country, so he won everything. It seemed like it was that easy to do and I started watching racing here and I saw all the different racecourses and National Hunt. And we don’t have National Hunt back home, so I was very curious about the whole industry. I wanted to learn as much as possible from every angle of it.”
“I think the quality of racing, as you watch racing around the world, the biggest quality of racing is in England and Ireland in terms of top-class racing… It is good for the breed, it shows the best horses to breed onwards. The classics in Britain always prove to be the best source of that.”
Of the flaws of British racing in general and perhaps hinting at a move to spending more time participating in American racing, the Sheikh continued:
“It needs to up its game. It needs to find ways to attract more people into the sport. At the moment we are very grateful for the Sheikh Mohammeds in the business… Without Sheikh Mohammed [Bin Rashid Al Maktoum], this year would have been a disaster for a lot of people. The thing is that British racing needs to find more ways to attract quality. I think quality is very important.”
“If you look at, for instance, Japanese racing, they have got a two-tier system. They have the JRA and the NRA. The JRA is the elite class of racehorses and horse racing and I think if you don’t break your maiden as a three year-old, then I think, that horse is not allowed to run in the JRA anymore. They have to go down to the NRA. Why can’t that some way be explored in British racing? We can’t be racing, I think you’re asking people to race for two grand or three grand… whilst in Australia they have Saturday races with a minimum of a hundred grand a race. And in America, maidens are worth a hundred grand. And in California, I’ve got horses, and it seems ridiculous that, if you are taking a business point of view of racing and you open your books, that it would be ridiculous to have horses [in Britain] in comparison to there. The only reason we’re racing here is for the quality and prestige that we have at the moment, but you can’t rest on that. You have to change.”
Later, in September 2019, the Sheikh’s Californian trainer, Simon Callaghan, told TheRacing Post:
“Sheikh Fahad is upping his interest in racing in America. He’s spending more time in California, so he wants to go after some of these high-end colts and go down the road of the Derby, we hope… I think his Californian wife has something to do with it.”
Agents Windsor Clive seek £6 million ($7.5 million, €6.8 million or درهم27.4 million) for Longholes and offer it as a whole or in two lots. For the firm, George Windsor Clive remarked: “We’re still bringing Longholes to the market in these strange times [in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic] so that buyers can react quickly once restrictions are lifted.”
For now, the other European racing operations of the Sheikh and his brothers and their Qatar Racing Ltd. company – which includes a presence at the David Redvers owned Tweenhills Farm in Gloucestershire and their own Spring Lodge stud farm in County Limerick – remain unaffected.
Jared Kushner – New York’s answer to the 1960s London slumlord Peter Rachman – shown to be unable to pay his debts just as he sticks his mucky mitts in over coronavirus
Quite rightly branded an “daddy’s boy, total nerd, unelected slumlord” and “sleazy” and “unqualified” by rising star men’s swimwear designer George Sotelo on Instagram, Jared Kushner – the dimwitted Rachman-like husband of the self-serving wench Ivanka Trump – was exposed last week by Guest of a Guest as being unable to pay his debts “right now.”
Kushner – whose father is a convicted tax evader and witness tamperer – has defaulted on the mortage of 229 West 43rd Street, the former New York Times building, and now he’s totally without justification “playing politics” with coronavirus.
Of his input into something this thick-as-pigshit imbecile knows zilch, zero, nada about, many are rightly asking: “Why is Donald Trump allowing this moron to stick his oar in?”
Whilst Guest of a Guest suggest that their “main takeaway” from the finance problem issue is that “if the Kushners can’t afford their payments, we’re all truly screwed,” we’ll take a different tack. Instead, we’d argue, if the Kushners are indeed f**ked, the world would be a far better place. It’s most certainly time to get this ratbag family off the stage.
Pictured top: Slumlord Jared Kushner and slumlord Peter Rachman (1919 – 1962). The word ‘Rachmanism’ entered the ‘Oxford English Dictionary’ as a synonym for the “exploitation and intimidation of tenants” and today ‘Kushnerism’ will enter it as an updated example also.
Lindsay Lohan sinks to a new low during the coronavirus crisis and attempts to relaunch her tawdry self on April Fool’s Day; the washed-up wench claims to be “evolving”
Loathsome leech Lindsay Lohan once curiously claimed she was a “normal, nice person, a good person” and that she “[didn’t] have any bad intentions.” She then proceeded to prove herself totally wrong in leaping to the defence of the now convicted sex abuser Harvey Weinstein in 2017.
Jailed for 90 days in 2001 and put in rehab in 2008 (and on many other occasions since), this often violent, deranged, on-off druggie has now decided to revive her music ‘career’ at quite possibly the most inappropriate time – that being on April Fool’s Day during the coronavirus crisis. You simply couldn’t make it up, but, as we all know, ‘Loopy Lindsay’ can’t actually get a PR advisor for toffee.
Some might argue that this move is reflective of this trashbag’s position in society, but that Lohan – whom the term “celebutard” was created in her very honour by Michael Musto some years back – issued a cryptic video on Instagram that ends with the wastrel weirdly stating: “I’m back!” about says it all. Frankly, the public will be the judge of that love and given past performance tends to be a guide to the future, we all already know where this almighty mess is going to end up next.
Here we go again, Lindsay: Another car crash that’s headed to be washed away down the gutter. Next!
A Twitter user aptly summed up Lindsay Lohan’s April Fool’s Day 2020 actions.In her video message on Instagram, the self-absorbed mess showed a message that stated: “Evolution of Lindsay Lohan.”
New Haven, Connecticut born Sarah Winchester became one of the wealthiest women in the world after the death of her Winchester Repeating Arms Company heir husband, William Wirt Winchester, in 1882. With a 50% holding in the rifle making manufacturer plus a legacy equivalent to £426 million ($529 million) in 2020, this true eccentric – whose only child died aged just one – took the advice of a medium and moved west to California.
Here, in San Jose, this grief obsessed and beyond superstitious, American equivalent of Queen Victoria spent the remainder of her life constructing a mansion that she believed would appease the spirits of her relatives and those of the victims of Winchester weaponry. Known as ‘The Winchester Mystery House’ and built (but never completed) between 1884 and 1922 at a cost estimated at the equivalent of £57 million ($71 million) today. Starting from an 8 room farmhouse, the property grew to 24,000 square foot and eventually included 10,000 windows, 2,000 doors, 160 rooms, 52 skylights, 47 stairways (some leading absolutely nowhere), 17 chimneys (some that didn’t even reach the roof), 13 bathrooms, 6 kitchens and a séance room (that was once used by Harry Houdini).
Described as being a “woman of independence, drive and courage,” Sarah Winchester died of heart failure in her sleep in September 1922 leaving a will written in 13 sections that was signed 13 times and a safe that contained a lock of her infant daughter’s hair. She was portrayed by Helen Mirren in the 2018 horror film Winchester.
‘The Winchester Mystery House’ was sold five months after its creator’s death and has been open to the public for tours since June 1923.
The vast Winchester Mystery House, 525 South Winchester Boulevard, San Jose, California, CA 95128, United States of America.
Quirky 1970 Subaru 360 police car to be sold at auction; unlike anything Colin McRae drove it’s as slow as a snail
Advertised quite accurately in the United States as “cheap and ugly” by its importer Malcolm Bricklin, the Subaru 360 was the first car produced by the Japanese transport conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries.
Exempt from normal safety standards because it weighed less than 1,000 pounds, the car was branded “not acceptable” because of safety concerns and lack of power, but now one of the few left – many were “tossed overboard” off boats or “shredded to pieces” due to their unpopularity – is now headed to auction via RM Sotheby’s in May.
The car to be offered by RM Sotheby’s is nothing like the vehicles that Subaru later created in terms of their abilities to drive at speed; in the 1990s the company became renowned for its wins at the World Rally Championships courtesy of the likes of the late Colin McRae MBE – the Subaru 360 would not have even have got off the starting block in such rallies.
The fibreglass monocque construction car to be sold, an example from 1970, comes in the form of a police car complete with the livery of the New Zealand Ministry of Transport. It has a siren, light bar and included also are bobby hats according to the auctioneers.
They will offer the vehicle as part of their single owner Elkhart Collection sale on 1st and 2nd of May in Elkhart, Indiana and remark: “[It’s] unlikely to catch any speeders.” Like most of the 230 cars to be auctioned, no reserve set.
Toy manufacturing billionaire Ty Warner has most generously turned over his 368 room hotel free of charge for New York’s medical workers for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic
Ty Warner is a billionaire with a difference in that he doesn’t hoard his fortune. He’s given millions to charity and once, when he stopped a woman to ask for directions in California and discovered she needed a stem-cell procedure, he gave her the £16,000 ($20,000) required to save her life.
This week, yet again proving his selfless nature, Chicago born Warner – whose fortune comes from making the Beanie Babies range of toys – turned over a hotel he owns, the I. M. Pei designed Four Seasons New York, for the use of the city’s medical workers, doctors and nurses treating coronavirus patients.
Of why he decided to do this, Warner told Town & Country magazine:
“Many of those working in New York City have to travel long distances to and from their homes after putting in 18-hour days… They need a place close to work where they can rest and regenerate. I heard Governor Cuomo’s call to action during one of his press conferences, and there was no other option for us but do whatever we could to help.”
We join those saluting this very, very generous man and urge British business tycoons to follow Ty Warner’s lead. To date, amongst those who’ve failed in that regard in Blighty are Mike Ashley, Sir Richard Branson, Sir Philip Green and Tim Martin.
Since she cannot be physically found, alleged madam and daughter of ‘Bouncing Bob’ Ghislaine Maxwell has now been served by email
As lawyers for Annie Farmer, a woman who accuses Jeffrey Epstein of sexual assault, have been unable to physically locate Ghislaine Maxwell, they have now managed to persuade a judge to allow them to serve the alleged procurer of girls by email.
Last week according to the New York Post, in a most unusual step, Judge Debra Freeman acknowledged that Farmer has “adequately demonstrated that personal service would be impractical” and now Maxwell has been given until 6th March to respond. If she does not, a default judgment will be placed against her.
At least one other civil suit also looms for Maxwell in a federal court in Manhattan, but once again we join those asking: “Where is this murky madam?” It is indeed time that this rat came out of her hole and it is time Prince Andrew also travelled to America to answer some questions also.
Owned by the amusingly named Darren Chick, a Brit living in America, Nigel disappeared from his home in Torrance, California in 2010 and was presumed dead.
Nigel, it turns out, was found four years later in 2014 by Julia Sperling, a dog grooming parlour owner. Nobody knew where he’d been but his accent had gone. It was replaced with him: “Singing without control [and barking] like the dogs” in a Spanish accent.
Sperling handed the bird to a vet who realised ‘Larry’ – as the parrot kept calling out – had a microchip. He traced Mr Chick and returned the errant bird to its rightful owner.
You just couldn’t make it up and frankly on a day when we’re stuck with yet more Brexit woes, thank goodness for a bit of lighthearted amusement.
