Restaurants

It is hard to believe that 5 years have already elapsed since Le Café Anglais first opened, in the Whitley’s building in Bayswater, bringing some welcome Parisian brasserie bravado and cool art deco influences to the metropolitan dining scene. Uncompromising chef-patron and FT food writer Rowley Leigh is a keen oenophile, as well as a […]

‘Stay-up’ seems to be this year’s ‘Pop-up’ as restaurants that began as guests, have turned into squatters. I had heard good things about ‘Upstairs at The Ten Bells’ which opened last November intended as a three month stay, but whose success meant that they have taken up residence. A group of guys, aka ‘The Young […]

The Works Canteen (http://www.theworkscanteen.co.uk) is an exciting new addition to my home town of Frome’s gastronomic firmament so I was delighted to be invited by its entrepreneurial owners Phil and Liz to host a wine tasting and dinner there last Saturday evening. The Works Canteen is an upmarket café by day and sometime restaurant by […]

After 18 months of service to Yapp Brothers I was kindly invited to their bi-annual luncheon at Le Gavroche last week. 100 guests took over the entire restaurant keen to sample great wines matched to a seasonal menu prepared by Michel Roux Jr. Upon arriving in Waterloo we were advised by several other colleagues to […]

Being in the wine trade one is lucky enough to be able to taste and evaluate wines on a regular basis, and whilst on a recent holiday in the Padstow area, I was enthused enough to book a table at a restaurant that had been mentioned in glowing terms from several of our customers and […]

It’s a tough job but someone has to do it. Last Friday lunchtime I met with Silvano Giraldin, Michel Roux Jnr and head sommelier David Galetti at Le Gavroche to help select the menu and wines for our forthcoming Autumn lunch on Thursday 11th October. As ever we were spoiled for choice with a succession […]

Forget the Men’s 100m Final, the toughest ticket to get your mitts on is a lunch table at Oliver Dabbous’ eponymous Noho restaurant – currently taking bookings for some point in mid-2013. Mr Dabbous’ cv reads like a Who’s Who of great European restaurants – Noma, Fat Duck, Le Manoir, Texture - and this is […]

A couple of weeks ago during that hot time we fondly remember as ‘summer’ a new phenomenon hit the streets of Frome. Londoners will shake their World-weary heads when I mention the phrase ‘pop-up’ but for us Fromeys it was a real treat. Architect Terry Pinto (www.pa-ad.co.uk) is a Frome resident of Goan extraction (via […]

  I was delighted to revisit one of my favourite restaurants in the West last Thursday to host a Provençal extravaganza pairing some of Southern France’s lesser-known vinous treasures with a mouth-watering Mediterranean menu devised by chef-patron Peter Taylor. riverstation – do keep up - there is no ‘the’ or capital ‘R’ - is an […]

Twice yearly Yapp Brothers enjoys the great privilege of taking over the entire restaurant at Le Gavroche for our annual Spring and Autumn lunches. A fringe benefit of this is that approximately 2 weeks beforehand I convene with my old friend Silvano Giraldin under careful supervision from maître’ d Emmanuel Landre and chef-sommelier David Galetti […]