‘You try and make it sound really disgusting so by the time they eat it they’re like, “F***ing hell that was amazing!” ‘I’m too busy to be serious about Great British Menu, putting stuff on record players and stuffing them in CD cases and all the gimmicky f***ing nonsense so I just turned up and Read More
Naming your debut event ‘Q’ is a canny move. It’s redolent with possibilities, with just the right amount of inscrutability: try as you might, you’ll struggle to scrute it. For years, ‘Q’ meant the monthly music magazine, and especially the eager wait to see which hapless soul had wandered into Tom Hibbert’s ‘Who The Hell..?’ Read More
Ah. ‘Chain’. The ‘c’ word. After my unenthusiastic review of The Coconut Tree, a few took issue with my description of them as ‘a chain’ and all the dilution of aims and standards that often involves. They’re not materially different from our own Bar 44, they reasoned: a similar number of branches from small beginnings, Read More
Free food is great, isn’t it? This isn’t another jaundiced glare at the ‘Ooooh I love your food, can I have £200-worth free for me and my seven best mates please, and we’ll absolutely guarantee some lovely Insta stories?’ subculture of blogging. Like it or not, that is the ecosystem we live in: but perhaps Read More
Disclosure: I didn’t pay for either of my visits here. The first was at their launch event, when I went as another blogger’s guest; the second was at a friend’s invitation. The Coconut Tree didn’t know who I was, although you may argue that our ‘invitees only’ table at the opening night would presumably guarantee Read More
Grady Atkins’ Paysan residency at Canton’s Bloc Coffee has been a big hit this summer. Former head chef at Le Gallois, (late Arbenning, now Heaney’s) and named in interviews as ‘mentor’ by the man the Guardian called ‘Britain’s Hottest Chef‘, Tomos ‘Brat’ Parry, he has vast experience of kitchens the world over. Friday nights have Read More