Gary Marshall

there be reviews on here somewhere.

suspect she's not expecting to find a 8.99 bottle of pinot grigio on the list but the fact that the first utterances out of the sommellier was to try and sell them what would be on any wine list a top end wine, which sets the tone doesn't it?

So that's a refinancing of existing debt, which wouldn't have been paid otherwise. So there was no working capital left. Ever since Claridges, the GRH model has been for Blackstone (a big, terrifying New York private equity house) to pay for the hotel then install a Ramsay nameplate on the restaurant with a ten-year lease. The Camden Folly is a different prospect entirely, not least because of the capital requirement. And it has quite clearly ended up biting R on his much-discussed bollocks. ← ramsays principal bankers up until now have been the icelandic bank kaupthing.

have a look at northcote manor website, they've some history and recipe for hotpot.

it's a big private dining room, sure they'd use it if they couldn't accomodate you otherwise. my last visit was ingrained in my mind as the last free weekend we had before we bought the pub, lunch with bapi and rosie it wasn't great but that said i've got a lot of time for the guellers and when it's on song it can be excellent, closest you'll get to MPW style french food, and simon must be one of the few old mates of marco's not to have fallen out with him!

don't forget 'taste of' is first and foremost a business that happens to involve food, it is not a few producers/ suppliers/restos getting together as used to happen it is basically a big event promotion company. they are even in spain now doing taste of bilbao and madrid i think. i would have given it a wide berth but got in free and met a few friends, however i did think it was very professional and was quite impressed, though i'd not want to pay to get in.

did the stagg not change hands a while ago ? is it still starred?

i thought marco only dined in his own restaurants?

slagged off by giles coren today. concept sounds absolutley bang on for these wallet tightening times but it appears to be what i had suspected at a flat 3.50 some are complete rip offs others are bargains, got to pick carefully i suspect. but what about corens hypothesis that different food was served to critics in the first weeks?

what's it called?

Have they written it up yet? Can't see anything on the site. ← thought they had, looks like not yet. Sure it will be worth the wait

think the first night , early sitting was 3 seperate bloggers.

there was a place in london who did this all the time, can't remember the name. given the most people have no idea of the costs involved in producing food in a restaurant they are likely to underprice it. Doesn't sound like a business winner.

naturally because they are usually first into any new opening (along with jan moir). not naturally they didn't like it, though their judgement is usually sound imho.

naturally dos hermanos have been and weren't very impressed.

they need 40 new staff for the place so there's opportunities i would have thought, plus the existing 3 businesses. i think if you look on their website there's contact details regarding jobs.

had a tour round the corn exchange site on saturday afternoon after a very pleasant lunch at anthony's. I've got mixed up as to what exactly is in the site at the minute but i think i can reasonably remember what's going in now! If you don't know what the place looks like inside then this probably won't help much , but if you do it might give you an idea of what's going on! As it stands there are two mezzanine gallery levels that circle the building so the only full floor space is effectively the basement, but it's open, if that makes any sense, you walk through at ground level and then down to anthony's. The building is undergoing re-furb around the few tenants still in there and the roof already looks spectacular, think the roof of the new st pancreas station with small lights on all the beams. at the minute it's hard to envisage how it will all come together but the plans seem fairly well advanced as tony seems to know exactly where eveything is going down to the pot washes, the main kitchen for the brasserie will be behind glass in where the old nightclub 'innards' were so there'll be some theatre from there, then in all the existing arches in the building will go meeting room/private dining room, offices, a cheese shop, an aromas/ ingredient shop - think MG ingredients rather than onions , a substantial bakery and a sandwich / rottisserie for take away/eat in. Given the brasserie will be 125 cover the menu is likely to be more crowd pleasers with anthonys attention to detail rather than simplified anthony's dishes and the existing 3 units will all remain open, the new place will act as a supplier to them though, utilising the bakery and kitchens effectively. All in all , exciting time, even talk of october opening subject to the vagaries of such a project but at least they have the support of the council planners (it's a grade one listed building) and the landlords so it's feasible given landlords and planners usually cause the most disruption!

even better bas, marco round britain type programme coming soon to ITV, just seen advert.

I think last week at el Bulli we also managed to set ourselves a new record, but since it was Judy's birthday treat I shan't post the exact number here. Suffice it to say that it was significantly less per head than you managed. ← but did you think it was worth it?

the retired rich are different ETA and he's really fussy so a vote for rogan & co really is a vote!

he just likes eating out and doesn't differentiate between places like a 'foodie' would. It's just another option for him, as long as he enjoys the lunch he's not bothered if it's a decent pub or a 2* michelin.

the don -sister restaurant to the bleeding heart also good for that sort of thing, also in the west end i've hosted some big group meals at langans brasserie which has a bit of old school glamour about it .

friend of mine has a house in the lakes and is a fairly regular visitor to l'enclume, he had a meal at rogan & co and though it brilliant, his quote was 'anyone with half a gram of commonsense would go there rather than l'enclume' he saw it as perhaps a danger to their existing biz

because he's a high profile name that will help sell the rest of the site, it's common in many property developments whether they be food or retail, get an 'anchor tennant' that will pull in the punters like M&S / Ramsay and it's easier to fill the other units, and they will get a favourable lease, it's not uncommon for the big name chefs to get very favourable deals to put their restaurants into tokyo/ las vegas hotels for example where they are pretty much guaranteed to make money regardless of how many meals they actually sell. In order to get harvey nichols into leeds to head up the redevelopment of the victoria quarter in the late 90's they got a rent free 100 year lease, but now the other units are full of the likes of louis vuitton where the landlords actually make their money.

i think you're right to a certain extent matt, there are other considerations beside taste that matter to a resto, and continuity of supply is certainly an issue, the best meat is likley to come from small artisanal producers and they can't cope with an order for 20 strip loins every week. In our pub we got our beef from a local butcher (not a catering specialist) and he often struggled to keep up supply. We had some excellent dexter but anthony worrall thompson bought all the prime cuts the day before we got our order in and that was that. There's a reason why ginger pig for example only sell to a small number of restaurants. and as prices are flying through the roof at the moment, price will become even more important to the trade buyer as the opportunity to pass those costs through menu price rises are minimal.