James Lewis
@JLewisland
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Marketing man Gauthier Soho/Studio /123V Browns. ‘London’s most woke restaurant’ (Daily Tel). ‘Trendy’ (Daily Mail). Animal welfare. Dad of 3. Thoughts my own.
Joined April 2009
Who is the best famous person you’ve found yourself sitting near in a restaurant? Mine is Roger Moore, next table, lunch at Zafferano, 2013.
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Feeling quite envious of my 6 yr old this morning, her school trip is… going to the local Turkish restaurant for lunch
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Something I’ve learned since opening a vegan restaurant: every taxi driver, plumber, printer, delivery person, builder has at least one person in their family who is vegan.
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Sure, we have lots of tables at 10pm. Please bring a coat and an umbrella.
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It’s Covent Garden, London’s biggest tourist restaurant district, it’s 1pm, it’s Friday, tables outside, it’s sunny and warm. where is everyone?
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Just been ticked off in the local artisan cafe - asking for strawberry jam I was told ‘we only do seasonal preserves, at the moment it’s rhubarb and ginger’.Seasonal preserves? How does that work.
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Shame to hear Camisa is closing. Soho investors and Westminster is very happy to use these businesses when it suits them - to add ‘vibe’ to premium development brochures - but does nothing to sustain them. I call for zero rates for all 25+yr independents. Least they could do.
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Am I the only one who thinks Brussels sprouts are the unsung little king of vegetables? Bitter, peppery little super-cabbages.
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@fesshole Strong ‘mum feeding sweets through the gates when Jamie Oliver did healthy school meals’ energy.
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I know ‘London is back’ is a cliche, but seriously bravo to the gentlemen in a leopard faux fur and cowboy boots drinking Champagne with his breakfast on the terrace this morning in Bond St.
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@JuliaHB1 I think if you find wearing a face mask ‘severely distressing’ you’ve clearly not had much to worry about in your life.
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Marketing insight guys - those top ten lists you read? Here’s what you do to get on them (or not, in my case).
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@LydiaCaradonna Lucky he’s a gifted athlete which looks good for the UK and not just an ordinary person from the Windrush or even a channel dingy as he’d be in Rwanda by now!.
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@_Hitodama_ @GeorgeMonbiot Reminds me of the story recently about the pig barn which was on fire, so they called fire brigade who rescued a load of pigs. A few months later as a thank you, the fire brigade received a load of sausages. Made from the ‘saved’ pigs.
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Complain about grumpy waiters and awful pop music all you want, in France trains cost 1/3 the price of UK and they are DOUBLE DECKER
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My 13yr old has worked out that if she uses my phone to google specific items they will start to arrive in my feeds as targeted ads and I might buy them thinking it was my idea. @davetrott This feels like #predatorythinking.
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@markashian @jeremycorbyn @GaryLineker @lilyallen Call me old fashioned but hating immigrants is kind of racist isn’t it?.
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@roobeekeane What is is about tourists that makes them want to hang around ticket barriers. Not museums, not parks, Ticket barriers. They are always there in their great big groups.
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@KermodeMovie There are definitely ‘seen the Wire’ people and ‘not seen the Wire’ people. The former I find easier to have a conversation about TV with.
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@Beddau71 @Ollie4TheMany @bbclaurak Right so he makes his own daughter sick, takes her to hospital and waits for Boris to maybe arrive. Obvious planned stunt.
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@jcoxwriter ‘Heyy it’s Javed from Tyron Ash, just hitting you up with some fresh propertunities if you’ve got a micro window?’.
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I’d forgotten about this map apparently issued in French schools to explain the origins of gastronomy in Europe
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Exposed brick walls.Filament bulbs.Brown paper menus.Duralex glasses.‘No reservations’.Low lighting .Reclaimed Metro tiles.Linen lampshades .Lace half curtains .Etc etc (so much more).All these existed before, but Russell Norman put them together and made them fashionable .RIP.
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@joshbythesea Good to know you can go all the way the Battersea Power station and reward yourself with an exclusive taste of exactly the same food as any other development in London.
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@DrJessicaLanger @ganeshpuri89 Hold on, why is the real estate version rubbish, and the Christopher Wool ‘seriously awesome’? Genuine question.
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@TheMrLoophole ‘assumed responsibility for their attire’ Hey, 19th century, can you come and take your expression back please.
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Café Rouge going down is a moment. I won’t hear a word about how bad the food was (it was fine). It was a game changer in design and virtually every chain restaurant today owes a bit to their foresight.
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Influencers. Top tip: We’re in a pandemic. Barley able to operate. How about coming to some restaurants, paying a bill and supporting them, and doing a review anyway? You might find you get your free meal in 6 months time or something. Hospitality tends to work like that.
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Quite astonishing how Covid has all but vanished from the face of the earth, but is absolutely rife in people needing to cancel a restaurant booking.
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@juux Had him at ours once, WITH Steve Coogan. Funny thing was all out staff are 20-25 yr old French & Italian, no of them had a clue who they were. Probably why they came here tbh.
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@QuintinPeters11 @johnpaul_mejia But the industrial meat and dairy industry is one of the most polluting of those businesses. Going vegan is precisely how you can have an immediate effect.
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There are 16,000 restaurants in London all serving non-vegan food. Entire cheese shops selling 500 different cheeses. Dedicated egg cafes serving 50 different egg dishes. Yet apparently it’s those pesky vegans making life miserable again.
Just had an email from a reader who is a vegetarian. Complaining about too much vegan food on menus. And asking for my sympathy and support. I intend to think very seriously about this issue.
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@domdyer70 @BorisJohnson @carrielbjohnson @ZacGoldsmith @PETAUK @BornFreeFDN @BWallaceMP Bit odd in 2021 human beings are still dressed up in the furs of animals. We’ve been to the moon FFS.
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Top 3 pancakes:.1. Lemon & Sugar.2. See no.1.3. Don’t be weird.
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@jackbern23 @stuheritage ‘Excuse me, I can’t find the eggs?’ ‘Eggs isle’ ‘Seems a bit harsh’.
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@jamesdoleman ‘I just bought a dog off a blacksmith. Got it home and the first thing it did was make a bolt for the door’.
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Replies to this are an illustration of why it’s often quite hard explaining to people the surprising news that a restaurant is actually a business and does at the end of the day have to make a profit.
I asked the restaurant I’m going to for a birthday lunch today if we could bring a cake with to be brought out at the end of the meal. They said yes, but they’d charge us cakeage (yes, cakeage) at £10 a head. What is this world we live in?.
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As a nice diversion to the announcements today here is the definitive list of the actual greatest restaurants in London. 1. Scott’s.2. The Wolesley.3. Tayyab’s .4. La Petite Maison.5. Otto’s.6. Oslo Court .7. Ciao Bella.8. Balthazar.9. Guinea Grill.10. Andrew Edmunds.
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Some news: we’re opening a new restaurant at Fenwick Bond St, and to be even more smug and annoying, it’s all vegan! Polish your halo and follow @123vegan_w1 for updates, menu:
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@bobscartoons I have a problem with this. Many families including mine have elderly relatives who we’d love to see but we won’t because of the risks. If you want this thing to go away for good then you have to make sacrifices and stop thinking about nobody but yourselves.
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@Haggis_UK @RichardBowler1 Problem starts with the word ‘customer’. Water is an essential resource and should be provided domestically at the most minimum charge, there should be no profit, no private ownership, no shareholders, no dividends.
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@jamiegoode Maybe just pay a small business the £25 then ask for a ladder to help you get down from your high horse?.
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@darrengrimes_ @GBNEWS Why do you patronisingly assume working class people don’t care about the environment?.
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I’m in Paris where there is a full on vaccine passport requirement for all shops, restaurants, public transport etc and must say it’s absolutely fine, simple download and then show the app on the door, can’t see what the problem is.
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@MartinDaubney @JuliaHB1 The answer is they have all done more to help the cause for compassion towards people less fortunate than you have.
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If Gary Barlow doesn’t name one of his wines ‘Semillion Love Songs’ he’s missed a trick.
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We’re sadly full, but if any other restaurants fancy funding some unknown magazine’s Christmas party, details here
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@DPJHodges @bbclaurak Maybe because he’s a principled bloke and he’s trying to show leadership?.
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@AyoCaesar And then go on to talk merrily about climate change policy like the two are not even linked.
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@RuthDavidsonMSP The utter irony of @TheSun complaining about ‘draconian immigration rules’ while relentlessly campaigning for draconian immigration rules for the last 20 years.
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My 14yr old has been out with her mate burning through the Brighton restaurant scene with their reckless hedonism. I foot the bill.
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Food twitter must be getting extremely bored of it’s now ganging up on @fredsirieix1. One of the nicest people in the industry, full stop. Very telling 99% of pundits and hangers on having a go don’t even work in this industry.
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@myfieldcyclist @TfL Anyone who feels it’s absolutely normal behaviour to travel by car along Chelsea Embankment at 7pm deserves all the traffic delays they find themselves in.
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@Constabularian My Nan once went to the theatre and sat down and looked to her left and it was John Nettles in the next seat.
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If you don’t like leaving tips for restaurant staff, don’t go to restaurants.
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@Kevinbrown7979 @souramoo The bloke’s a fully qualified doctor probably saving lives every day. Should get double or triple that.
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@Nigel_Farage Hopefully all the crowds from your mass protest walk will be there. Maybe tell them all to come in the same car?.
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If anyone in the London restaurant industry is wondering ‘why this miserable rainy weather all of a sudden?’ I’ve just been reminded it’s Taste of London week.
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Yes that’s right Mr & Mrs entitled-at-leisure on the train in London rush hour why don’t you just put your massive suitcases there so nobody can sit down.
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If the answer to each and every problem caused by Brexit is ‘ease visa restrictions’, what was the point of Brexit?.
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@MoranEmma My eldest daughter is 18 and I feel we had much more opportunity when I was her age - 1992-3 (when UK was in well documented recession). We still had free university for a start.
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@Superfind @DaveGoulson There used to be this thing called council houses, where basic good quality houses were built by the government, and rented to low income people at an affordable rate. Worked really well.
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@AllisonPearson @Channel4News Not only are you an expert on managing pandemics but you are also an expert in energy science. Why does anyone bother studying these incredibly complex topics for decades when they could just ask you.
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@KingLobsterClaw @AbiWilks I’m sure your toddler would happily accept his breathing problems knowing our banking & tax system enjoys a low rate of scrutiny.
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@jayrayner1 ‘A performing monkey is good for selling tickets, but you don’t get him to run the circus’.
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@OurSacredGrove @Telegraph Weirdly she contradicts herself. ‘The planet is heading for extinction! We should all make great changes! ‘Ok how about we change our diet?’ ‘No, not those changes’.
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Sad for Polpo. I’d say 9 out of 10 indie restaurants that open in London (and beyond) now have at least some nod to it, whether it be the decor or the food/menu style. RN is a genius visionary. Hope he reinvents it in some way, I’m sure he will.
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@lolly68 @Otto_English If it wasn’t for pesky parliament controlling our own laws we’d be in control of our own laws by now. Or something.
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@BrewDog You know what, sometimes it’s better to just stay quiet and not look at every controversial situation as a chance for a bit of cheap attention.
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Pancake day! My top three toppings:.1. Lemon & sugar.2. See no.1.3. Don’t be weird.
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@Nigel_Farage Nigel, while you were typing that a couple of immigrants jumped off a boat and snuck past you behind your back sticking two fingers up and laughing.
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@DPJHodges As someone actually from the hospitality industry, directly affected by people now working from home, I get tired of this cap-in-hand ‘help us’ thing. We’ve all got to adapt to a new way of life & business models.
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@shitlondon Vaccine passports are a double win, not only do they keep the virus at bay, they also keep the anti vax nutters out too.
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He would hate anyone saying it but he runs a pub better than anyone I’ve ever seen in London so his new place will be fantastic. Good luck mate.
Sometimes the time comes and it has. I'm off to do another (hopefully great) pub with a restaurant. I will be sad to leave @GuineaGrill and the magnificent team this week
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(Tesco marketing meeting) Manager: ‘these ‘restaurant at home’ boxes are popular. Can we have a bit of that market?’ Junior “But. we’re not a restaurant, we’re a supermarket” “Sorry, who are you?”
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