Food and Drink

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor If I’m honest I have never seen an episode of Sex and City, but the idea of the glamour and glitz of dining and drinking in Manhattan does appeal, but I guess it does for almost everyone. Well, The Avenue restaurant on St James’s Street, just off of Piccadilly offers just that. The building looks the part, to be fair it already did, as it was originally designed by American architect Rick Mather in 1996....

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  In London, drinking wine from the bottle may be frowned upon, but at times it is downright necessary. Indeed, it is one of 20 wine commonly-committed wine faux pas revealed in a study of 2,000 Brits which found almost a third of Brits (30 per cent) admit to ‘necking’ their wine, rather than savouring the taste and flavour. Ten per cent of them have tried to open a screwcap with a corkscrew at least once, while...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food With the recent boom in popularity of fresh, local food, it’s still proving very difficult for Londonders to be able to find a range of wonderful groceries, unfortunately due to Supermarket supply chains (still making up for 95% of our grocery shopping) being unable to cope with their fragility. However, it seems that Farmdrop may have found a resolution to such a problem. Set up as an online market place that’s committed to delivering...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food As Aristotle wrote, Truffles were “a fruit sacred to Aphrodite”. The luxurious Fungi may have become the Foodie equivalent to Bread and Butter in recent years, but Truffles have a deep Historic lineage and have always been a highly prized ingredient. Many fine restaurant kitchens will use the odd shaving here and there, yet Tartufi & Friends have always been dedicated to celebrating the Truffle, used munificently in almost every one of their dishes....

By Jack Peat, TLE Editor  A metaphor linking a renowned opera and an outcast grape variety almost undoubtedly falls under the ‘stretched’ bracket, but I won’t shy away from this ambitious literary feat nonetheless. Carmen, an opéra comique based on the life of Don José, tells of a man who abandons his Basque family heritage in pursuit of the independent and rebellious Carmen. Deserting his bourgeois heritage he is forced to make his way as part of the proletariat, doing...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Renowned as one of London’s finest mixologists, Oskar Kinberg opened Dabbous with his friend and former colleague Ollive Dabbous at the start of 2012, in which he oversees the restaurant’s stylish bar area – Oskar’s Bar – which features a cocktail menu with uses all homemade syrups and infusions. On the menu, there’s an innovative selection of drinks, featuring a range of classics and signature creations from the man himself, including the likes of...

By Nathan Lee, TLE Correspondent  The final stages of the French Open, the Champions League final, the Canadian Grand Prix and sweltering weather forecast throughout the weekend. Yep, summer is finally here. And as is the custom in Britain, the start of the summer usually involves pulling out the rusted tin can on wheels that is the barbecue. Unused and dishevelled you contemplate whether a disposable BBQ would be less hassle than sprucing up your long-serving garden companion. But to save...

By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food Arriving just in time for the summer, Burger Bear founder Tom Reaney is set to take over the central roof of Old Street’s monolithic roundabout, bringing a brand new pop-up venue The Magic Roundabout to the East-End. Opening off the back of a Kickstarter campaign set up last year, which managed to raise a huge £36000, The Magic Roundabout is set to open next weekend and will feature a brand new street food market...

Photo credit: Ben Fisher/ Photoshelter By Jonathan Hatchman, Food Editor, @TLE_Food We’ve already discussed Champagne Lanson’s plans to take over the Summer’s social calendar, and with The Championships, Wimbledon now well on its way, ahead of the tournament which commences on Monday June 29th, the brand has teamed up with the All England Lawn Tennis Club to create a special limited edition ‘Wimbledon’ bottle for the delicious Champagne Lanson White Label. The new “Wimbledon” bottle is inspired by the game...