Eating Out

  • Soho living

    A walk through Soho is an interesting experience. It exceeds its name for the diverse array of adult shops and nightlife that is able to be experienced here. It has and is a brand in itself.

    ‘Jack Solomons’
    Inside ‘Jack Solomons’

    The locals in London know it for all of the above and also a place to meet to eat and drink. There’s a Starbucks as well as individual cafe’s and restaurants that sell their own signature dishes.

    ‘El Camion’
    Inside ‘El Camion’

    It’s up to you to choose what you want but most visitors are enamoured by the adult store fronts and the openly free and ‘liberating’ atmosphere that meets most serious visitors.

    It’s a great corner of London for a bit of something different.

  • Retail insights

    A sight of increasing interest on the high street is the widening choice of international cuisine freshly cooked or pre-prepared and ready to buy. These brands have value overseas and also here.

    The convenience of “ready meals” and dried foods also has its appeal for those stuck for time. If a four day week ever makes it to reality it may change back our norms but for now, it’s a lifestyle stuck in our culture.

  • Innovating new ways to organise business: looking at pubs on site

    A new pub opening isn’t always a totally new event, if you consider that sometimes an old pub is reopened under new management.

    This is the case in Reading, Berkshire (a place I’ve reported from before), where The Sun Inn is due to reopen as The Rising Sun.

    It’s not just the new management that matters. As part of the Heartwood Collection, it’s also taking on a menu devised by Raymond Blanc, a famed name in the culinary world.

    This isn’t just a new venture here in the town, as it’s also something of a trend in the UK at large, where pubs are being reformed into eating venues as well as the traditional fare of drinking and casual musical entertainment, to make it a bit more of an experience.

    A side shot
    A sign
    Works at a side

    The pictures are only indicative of what it looks like now from outside, and its choice of graphic design points to a more shaped and relaxed appeal that is inviting as well as familiar for return visits.

    The site itself is allegedly an historic place of Reading’s oldest pub, and for a town that has a lot of them, it’s a good claim to fame.

    However, we’ll have to leave it to see if the proof is in the pudding

  • Casual celebrity dining enjoys a trend in London

    It’s not unfamiliar now to hear of a famous name cooking up a storm on TV.

    In the UK, we’ve enjoyed a wide array of chefs who’ve turned their talents to television and regaled us with their culinary skills. It’s a staple feature of a television schedule to learn about a new style of cuisine we can try ourselves at home, if we want.

    This is not the extent of it, however.

    We’re encouraged to buy their books, but we can also sample their inspired dishes in one of their own branded restaurant outlets, sometimes in our local areas, but also in our capital city, London.

    I’ve walked past more than a few of these and they always inspire for their choice of cuisine, such as Jamie Oliver: Catherine St.

    The front of the restaurant
    An A-board sign outside
    The menu board to look over
    An outdoor seating area

    It’s situated just near Covent Garden, and boasts a good ambience and small outdoor seating area.

    The menu is worth a good look, too, and I saw a few suggestions for typical British fair. It looks nice, a homely selection of meats and salads (and a few other things, like starters) to wet the appetite.

    It goes without saying there are plenty of other places to eat nearby, but this is one option that stood out to me.

    I guess it’s the name recognition, and I like television star Jamie Oliver’s choice of ingredients too. It fits my palate – and my stomach!

    Why not have a look around, and see the variety of ways food is advertised in our time, such as by famous names.

    It’s not just in the look, it’s in the signature style, as well.

  • Eat out to help yourself out

    Eating is a large part of any city’s culture, and a better moment is shared over a meal.

    Take for example an afternoon lunch, brunch, or a champagne booze-up and you get the point; these terms and conventions have entered our common mindset as acceptable, trendy and even expected in some quarter’s.

    It’s just ‘the done thing’ for many people to find themselves over a table, eating away at the tapas, or wining and dining with their friends.

    However, it’s an industry that comes under threat, from time to time, as news of foreclosures and a decline in ‘eating out’ indicate a ruining of our appetite for a more ‘alfresco’ type of lifestyle, at home or during work.

    Take for example the ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ scheme run by the Conservative Government of Rishi Sunak in 2020, a pledge to the hospitality industry that the Government would support its existence during very trying times, at the height of the Covid pandemic.

    Its success is hotly debated, but it showed a level of trust in restaurants in particular about their place in our society.

    As members of the public were able to take advantage of a Government-sponsored discount to cover a meal, the hospitality sector could take stock over its position as well as the welfare of its staff.

    It shows that even during a crisis that presses on all of us, we still remember what’s important.

    It isn’t a ‘feature’ of culture that rates highly in people’s imaginings of who they are, as if the rush for a carbonara ranks highly next to another person’s need for a boost in Universal Credit.

    It doesn’t, but it does to the person who isn’t aware of a person’s need for Universal Credit, so it makes sense to see it in a more practical way, than sensible.

    The ‘eating out’ industry is a vital part of our way of eating at all, and it makes sense for many people to enjoy it.

    Yet, it suffers losses like any other, and it won’t go away unless we want it to, which is highly unlikely.