Discretionary spending?

[david goodfellow]

Some more interesting news about Gordon Ramsay Holdings

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/artic...erlin-hold.html

[david goodfellow]

The Press Association reports:

But 40 of {the 60 staff} are expected to get their jobs back after Antony managed to raise private support and use some of his own money to buy back two of the restaurants, in Windsor and Kew, and the shop.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/a...6uTdpvdxLBl9x9Q

So, have I got this straight?

He couldn't raise a £200k overdraft to keep the show on the road (being unprepared to risk his own capital/house), but he has somehow come up with enough "private support" and "some of his own money" to do the cherry-picking.

Isn't there an inconsistency there?

Always seemed such a nice chap too ...

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Exactly!I was prepared to utter the statement "Bankers are not stupid"however given the plight of the global economy and our miserable share of it I think this statement would raise howls of derision.

I would be interested in finding out how his suppliers have suffered over this debacle?

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Well,Well,Well,Wozza,

Funny how things turn out eh

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle6036272.ece

[Infrasonic]

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/new...l_restaurant_co

THE owner of the Piccolino and Restaurant Bar & Grill chains is tapping shareholders as it looks to cut its debt pile.

Seems a prudent move.

[Infrasonic]

http://www.citylife.co.uk/restaurants/news...longer_for_sale

PRESTON'S Longridge restaurant has been taken off the market, owner/celebrity chef Paul Heathcote is delighted to confirm.

[Infrasonic]

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/new...l_restaurant_co

THE owner of the Piccolino and Restaurant Bar & Grill chains is tapping shareholders as it looks to cut its debt pile.

Seems a prudent move.

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http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/new...staurant_shares

INVESTORS today showed their appetite for the Manchester-based owner of the Piccolino and Restaurant Bar & Grill chains when the company trumped its goal of raising £2.1m through a shares offer.

Seems as though sentiment may be turning the corner...

[erica graham]

I heard today that the very chic Barnsley House hotel and the Village Pub across the road have been sold for over 6 million. Didn't take long for them to go- I think I saw that it went to sealed bids

[RDB]

http://www.citylife.co.uk/restaurants/news...longer_for_sale

PRESTON'S Longridge restaurant has been taken off the market, owner/celebrity chef Paul Heathcote is delighted to confirm.

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Excellent news, especially with Chris and Kath Bell at the helm. I reckon it will be a great success and wish them all the best.

[david goodfellow]

Wozza is back "on the shop floor".

Ask him to prep you a Ploughmans at the Greyhound next time your in the area

Can't see the foul mouthed one, doing that for me someday

http://www.bighospitality.co.uk/item/3665

[rjs1]

I heard today that the very chic Barnsley House hotel and the Village Pub across the road have been sold for over 6 million. Didn't take long for them to go- I think I saw that it went to sealed bids

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I visited Barnsley House many years ago, before it was a hotel, while Rosemary Verey was still alive. It's a a lovely house with one of the best gardens in England; is it possible that it has been sold as a private home, rather than as a hotel? I think that the same happened to the Beetle & Wedge at Moulsford.

[CheGuevara]

I heard today that the very chic Barnsley House hotel and the Village Pub across the road have been sold for over 6 million. Didn't take long for them to go- I think I saw that it went to sealed bids

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damn...i was taken there for my birth-day last year and had a lovely time. stunning gardens, and the food at the pub was very enjoyable. hopefully it will still be run as a hotel of some sort.

-che

[david goodfellow]

I heard today that the very chic Barnsley House hotel and the Village Pub across the road have been sold for over 6 million. Didn't take long for them to go- I think I saw that it went to sealed bids

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damn...i was taken there for my birth-day last year and had a lovely time. stunning gardens, and the food at the pub was very enjoyable. hopefully it will still be run as a hotel of some sort.

-che

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No need to worry, its been taken over by the owners of nearby Calcot Manor.

http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2009...nistration.html

The gardens are indeed wonderful, we went a couple of years ago when they were in full bloom, the village gardens were opened up as part of The National Garden Scheme a fantastic charity, where kind people open their gardens to the public.

The Cotswold village gardens are a national treasure well worth a journey.

http://www.ngs.org.uk/

[Harters]

part of The National Garden Scheme a fantastic charity, where kind people open their gardens to the public.

Which, keeping on topic, can provide a focus for popping off to a nearby area and having a spot of Sunday lunch somewhere before garden visiting.

[david goodfellow]

part of The National Garden Scheme a fantastic charity, where kind people open their gardens to the public.

Which, keeping on topic, can provide a focus for popping off to a nearby area and having a spot of Sunday lunch somewhere before garden visiting.

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Which is exactly what we do John

[howardlong]

Sadly I noticed today that Fuzzy's Grub on Houndsditch has shut with signs intimating that this may be due to rent arrears. I am not sure if other outlets are affected.

H

Edited July 23, 2009 by howardlong (log)

[confiseur]

oh that is a shame - i wish Gennaro well in his forthcoming venrures with Jamie

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a pity he's closed his restaurant ..I did some demonstrations together with him in Cape Town a couple of years ago and he was a genuinly nice bloke...no side to him..never played the princess..hats off to Jamie too who always acknowledges his debt to GC.

[malcolmwilliamson]

This recent article Crisis hits restaurants as diners decide to stay home in The Independent reports "Horizons, a specialist restaurant researcher, said that in the first half of the year spending in table service restaurants fell 3.9 per cent".

Horizons' managing director Peter Backman said he was surprised the closures had not been greater. He said: "It's going to get really nasty in the restaurant sector now. Everybody is talking about reduced trading weeks. Monday to Thursday are quite empty. Lunchtimes in business areas are down; Sundays are down. Saturday is increasingly the day that will prove whether restaurants stay in business."

My own experience of eating out at lunchtimes, usually on Thursday, doesn't concur with this. Almost all restaurants that I've visited this year have had a healthy trade .

[malcolmwilliamson]

" Gordon Ramsey will cook his way out of trouble" according to this article in The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/200...staurant-empire

[Basildog]

Just my 2 pence, but do you feel GR has gone so far down the road of the media/celeb/face of his restaurants, and the empire is so big that it needs him full time promoting the thing, to ever go back to a stove?

[erica graham]

sorry to see that two Cotswold Gastropubs are going/gone Martin Blunos Reservoir outside Cheltenham and Martin Caws Trouble House in Tetbury. Don't know if they are just moving on to other projects...

[david goodfellow]

Interesting article in Catersearch about the risk of receivership for two of Gordon Ramsay's

companies Plane Food and Maze ltd.

This recession is not over yet, by a long way.

http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2009/11/25/331062/two-gordon-ramsay-companies-face-risk-of-receivership.html

[Infrasonic]

As we've seen with the Dubai scare in the news, there is still plenty of potential pain (massively leveraged debt) in the real world waiting to bite us on the arse.

I'm firmly in the double dip camp.