The car that delicately sips its fuel June 8, 2010 IF YOU’RE the kind of driver that gets their kicks out of economy and efficiency and can’t wait for the advancing wave of super economical electric vehicles to get here, then Volvo’s C30 1.6D DRIVe could be the car for you. The coolest thing about Volvo’s C30 DRIVe Start/Stop model is undoubtedly reading the LED [...]
OUT OF OFFICE June 8, 2010 LOTUS ART POP UP SHOP Bespoke luxury service Couturelab is to host a pop-up store for high-end Thai brand Lotus Arts de Vivre, a rare opportunity to purchase one-off pieces. Founded by a Bangkok-based family, Lotus Art de Vivre is known for its striking creations of rare and exquisite jewellery, accessories and home décor pieces [...]
Chiswick’s latest fine dining treat June 7, 2010 Restaurant Michael Nadra 6-8 Elliott Road, W4 1PE 020 8742 0766 www.restaurant-michaelnadra.co.uk Cost per person without wine: £40 BESIDES leafy streets, expensive houses and London’s finest neoclassical mansion, Chiswick is home to a slew of good eating establishments. Alongside French restaurant La Trompette with its two Michelin stars, you’ve got Gordon Ramsay’s smart gastropub The [...]
Salts of the earth in Rome’s most prestigious dining room June 7, 2010 THERE’S a popular notion about chefs and salt which posits that any cook worth his, er, salt should take umbrage if customers demand more of the stuff. You don’t expect to see world class restaurants proffering heaps of it to guests, which made a recent vist to La Pergola, the only three Michelin star venue [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS June 7, 2010 THE PHENE SET TO REOPEN It was a sad moment some years ago when The Phene Arms, a picturesque boozer secreted upon a quiet Chelsea backstreet, shut its doors after falling on hard times. It had one of the prettiest beer gardens in London, and George Best was among its most dedicated regulars. The good [...]
Don’t let City living dull your good looks June 7, 2010 A FRIEND visited from the country this weekend and claimed to have blown dirty snot into a tissue after spending just two days in London. Like most long-term Londoners, I’m in denial about black phlegm, but she had a point. Living between the office, the Tube, the fumes of the street and the boozy, salt-and-sugar [...]
Bali high: a health retreat with a view June 6, 2010 FROM the long balcony of my private villa up in the Balinese hills, I can gaze out over the kind of view that feeds the soul. The villa’s perch overlooks a jungle-swathed canyon that rises on the far side to slope upwards to the terraced rice paddies cresting the hills. Mix that with a soundtrack [...]
TRAVEL NOTES June 6, 2010 Portuguese paradise This brand new hotel and spa is a seaside paradise of a different sort than the usual palm tree and white sand type. Surrounded by pine trees, sand dunes and the Atlantic, it offers a wind-blown idyll that combines forest and sea. There are ten luxury suites with terraces and jacuzzis facing the [...]
Opening up the Garden of England June 3, 2010 WITH the recent fresh spates of sunshine over the City, workers commuting from office to apartment might be thinking longingly uprooting from London for somewhere more rural. With expanding rail links connecting more and more towns to London, property prices are on the up and it’s easier than ever to enjoy the pleasures of the [...]
Loft living goes west in a mews home with style June 3, 2010 FINDING hip, loft-style homes in west London can be rather tricky – Notting Hill and Fulham are hardly rife with the kind of ancient industrial buildings that made east London so fashionable in the Nineties. What the west does have lots of is mews streets – quiet, attractive, frequently cobbled little spaces that once housed [...]