When opening a new restaurant in an area that’s surrounded with competition, balance between the space’s food and ambience is of immeasurable importance. Instead of contrasting with harsh discordance, each of these elements are (generally speaking) best when purposely designed to intricately work in harmony with one another, but without being too overworked. Chef Shaun Rankin’s Ormer in the basement of Flemings’ Hotel in Mayfair, for instance, is a prime example of a new restaurant to strike that balance with...

Leicester City's captain Wes Morgan has signed a lucrative sponsorship deal with rum brand Captain Morgan, with several interesting clauses in the contract. According to the terms, Morgan can go into a bar, turn to face everyone in there, spread his arms, and shout "There's only one Captain Morgan!" and then all eligible drinkers will be entitled to the free drink. Morgan must also dress up as the Captain, in a costume of the pirate on the front of the rum bottles,...

Hedda is down, but Ibsen is up in this crystalline razor sharp new translation of the playwright’s supposedly realist play by Patrick Marber and directed by Ivo van Hove. The Belgian director and his years long collaborator designer Jan Versweyveld have removed every inch of realistic detail that made Ibsen famous so that Versweyveld’s light cuts as easily across the bare stage as Marber’s parred back text cuts the air with all the ferocity of a pistol shot. Watching, it...

By Linda Marric @Linda_Marric Taking place some time in between Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), the new movie in Disney’s Star Wars franchise revival is every bit as exhilarating and as thrilling as The Force Awakens. Directed by British director Gareth Edwards (Monsters 2010), Rogue One may not be a fully fledged Star Wars “episode”, but it is however packed-full of all the familiar themes...

A London commuter has become the first person to spot a piece of news content in the Metro newspaper. After spending months trawling through back issues of the commuter rag it was by chance that Danny Davey spotted never-before-seen editorial content among its commercially-driven pages. Davey said: "I was going through my morning routine of sifting through the Tesco ads when all of a sudden I spotted something quite queer. "A small piece of editorial copy was hidden between a...

More than 4.5 million people across the UK are now self-employed, and the number of contractors continues to grow at a healthy rate every month, according to the Office for National Statistics. In today’s digital and connected business landscape, being your own boss is easier than ever before and there is a wealth of contract job roles available in nearly every sector. London would seem like an obvious hub for skilled professionals, but is it really that well suited for...

Well, it’s that time of year again. The Christmas adverts which have been up since September, like a clock that’s stopped and momentarily has its time twice a day to be bang on cue, are finally relevant; we’ve been badgered to buy cards for anyone we’ve ever met, and kept a few spare in case someone buys us one late on; and, of course, it’s time for Christmas in schools. See, SENSIBLE schools will keep the Christmas kerfuffle to a...

Although Japanese whisky has origins as far back as the 1920s, it’s only within recent years that the Japanese spirit has become such a global phenomenon. As a result, stocks from Suntory Distilleries such as Yamazaki and Hibiki are depleting in a struggle to keep up with demand, and their produce is now unbelievably rare and in turn expensive. In 1923, Suntory founder Shinjiro Torii began work on building Japan’s first whisky distillery in Yamazaki, on the outskirts of Kyoto....

Well this is mega awkward and likely to be the way of things to come in the future. Our esteemed PM arrived in Brussels this morning for a one-day summit to discuss immigration, among other crucial trade issues. As soon as the summit finished, the Prime Minister was left awkwardly hanging around by herself, nobody wanted to talk, or even look at her, it's going to be lonely this xmas, and possibly for the next ten Christmases, for May at the EU....