Restaurants

A lingering weekend brunch can be the best part of the weekend, offering the ideal opportunity to catch up with friends and family, but add a few glasses of something bubbly, and brunch can take an interesting turn. Read on for our guide on where to enjoy a champagne brunch in London. The Landmark Hotel’s Sunday Brunch One of the most luxurious Champagne brunches in London, The Landmark offers diners unlimited, delightfully chilled Champagne, complemented by a generous buffet of continental charcuterie, Scottish smoked salmon and salads, roasted rib-eye of beef and seared sea bass. A selection of charmingly decadent desserts will leave your taste buds well and truly tantalised! From 12:30 to 3pm, with adults for £80. Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill Pommery Brut Champagne is de rigeur at The Churchill, accompanied by antipasti, crisp salads, traditional British roasts and fresh fish. Polish off one of their delectable desserts to the sound of live jazz. The Champagne brunch is held between 12:30pm and 3pm with adults priced at £60. Aqua Neueva – Infinity Brunch Sipping copious amounts of unlimited Louis Roederer Champagne on the roof terrace at Aqua Nueva, whilst sampling the creative Spanish tapas delights is a must this summer. Aqua Nueva combines fresh, authentic cuisine with sleek, contemporary surroundings.  Aqua’s infinity brunch is served between midday and 3pm, priced at £55 for adults. Children receive a complimentary bento box. The Bulgari Hotel – La Dolce Domenica – Sunday brunch and Film Screening Enjoy an elegant, Italian-themed champagne brunch between 11am and 2:30pm at this luxurious Knightsbridge hotel, accompanied by a refreshing glass of Prosecco, a Mimosa or a Bloody Mary. Following brunch, guests will be shown into the hotel’s spectacular, state-of-the-art luxury cinema for a private film screening. Adults priced at £58, children at £39, with unlimited champagne at an extra £25. If you liked this guide to champagne brunch in London, why not read our guide to the most romantic restaurants in London, the best cocktail bars in London or the best alfresco restaurants in London? To make sure you’re kept informed of similar updates on a regular basis, subscribe to our blog below: Enter your email address: The post Champagne Brunch in London appeared first on Bon Vivant Concierge Service by Emyr Thomas - if you enjoyed this post you can read more at Bon Vivant or follow us on

Do you remember these guys, the baby chicks the kids got around Easter? Well, the babies are growing. In the past couple of months they’ve gone from this. To this. They’re teenager chickens now—with all the squeaking and drama you might think goes along with that stage of life. They’re pretty amusing. They’re not the only residents in the garden these days. When I came back from my April travels there were two new chickens. My mom didn’t want to wait for eggs, so she bought two pullet hens—four to six month olds—who are closer to laying. The baby chicks won’t start laying until end of summer or fall. We’re an impatient family, apparently, when it comes to eggs. When I came home I met these two. I had hoped I might get to name one of the chickens. The babies were named by the niecelets and their toddler brother, who each gave them their favorite food name—Pancake, Cookie, and Raisin. I was going to follow up with Waffle (because waffle the chicken is just funny). But I was out of town and the kids went ahead and picked names. Meet Domino and Snow White (called “Snowy”). We also have a chicken coop now. This happened mostly while I was gone. In the still-muddy spring, walls went up and windows were framed in. The cool thing about the chicken coop is that it was built primarily from reclaimed materials. A bit of wood needed to be purchased, but the windows, most of the wood, and the roofing materials were all recycled in some way. Our friend Bruce, who designed and built the chicken coop, used old pallets and other wood he had found. The windows used to be in my mom’s house, and the whole thing is covered by metal left over from a re-roofing project. Bruce estimates 80% of the building supplies were reclaimed. Pretty cool. So now the chicks have a spacious new house to hang out in. Which is good, because my mom was getting pretty eager to have them out of her kitchen. And now we wait, for eggs. In the meantime, these guys are funny. Domino is my favorite. Such a pretty chicken. Things are getting busy in the garden these days. There’s clucking and scratching and…anticipation. —Tara

SPQR is an Italian osteria, located in Pacific Heights, that serves wine and more casual food than their popular sister restaurant A16 in the Marina district. According to Wikipedia, “SPQR is an initialism from a Latin phrase, Senatus Populusque Romanus (“The Senate and the People of Rome” or “The Senate and Roman People”), referring to [...] Related posts: Capannina Restaurant Review, San Francisco Acquerello Restaurant Review, San Francisco Pizzeria Delfina Restaurant Review, San Francisco

Roll up! Roll up! ATFT is coming to town near you! Thank you to all who registered for my Food Photography Workshops in different cities, finally we are able to move forward and the first few workshops will be held in Perth and Melbourne in July. For those who already paid a deposit should have already received an email from me with all the final details and finalise your payment to secure your booking for the workshop(s) you have chosen. Thank you to those who already responded to the email and fully registered for the workshops, I can't wait to meet you in your beautiful city! It will be a great day of learning, sharing and of course, lunching!And if you haven't already do so, I urge you to finalise your registration as soon as possible because here I am releasing the last few seats to general public to fill them up. It will be a first in best dressed policy. If you can't commit to these dates, then I will put you back in the list and reschedule for another workshop in future once we have enough of people. I hope that makes sense.MELBOURNE WORKSHOPS  Date:13 July - Food Photography Workshop for Beginners27 July - Food Photography & Styling Workshop (DSLR users only)Time:Arrival at 11.30am for 12pm start. (Please do not be late)Finishes at 3.30pmVenue:Private dining room (upstairs), Charcoal Lane, 136 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, VICLunch:Included. ** Please advise immediately if there is any dietary requirements. (Alcohol can be purchased at your own discretion)What to bring:Camera (DSLR or compact) and an appetite to learn!Choose a workshop(s): Food Photography for beginners - $150 [5 spots left]For this workshop, anyone can join. Just bring along your camera either a compact or a DSLR, I will show you how to achieve the best result from the camera you have. This theory class will show you the basics of composition, how to control white balance, and post processing in Lightroom to bring your photos to life.REGISTER - food photography for beginnersFood Photography & Styling - $190 [6 spots left]This workshop is for intermediate and advance photographers who would like to take a step further in their food photography skills. In this practical workshop we will have a brief lecture in the private dining room, then we will get hands-on with photoshoot using natural lighting and also studio lighting (if space allowed). We will also play with props and learn how to food styling.REGISTER - food photography & styling workshopAttend both Workshops - $300 (save $40) [5 spots left]To maximise the whole experience, I encourage you to join both workshops.REGISTER - attend both workshops Can't make it to these workshops?If you can't make it to these workshops but would like to attend our future workshops, please register here and you will be the first one to be notified of our next workshop.PERTH WORKSHOPS  Date:20 July - Food Photography Workshop for Beginners21 July - Food Photography & Styling Workshop (DSLR users only)Time:Arrival at 11.30am for 12pm start. (Please do not be late)Finishes at 3.30pmVenue:McAlpine Dining Room, Terrace Hotel, 237 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000Lunch:Included. ** Please advise immediately if there is any dietary requirements. (Alcohol can be purchased at your own discretion)What to bring:Camera (DSLR or compact) and an appetite to learn!Choose a workshop(s): Food Photography Workshop for beginners - $150 [3 spots left]For this workshop, anyone can join. Just bring along your camera either a compact or a DSLR, I will show you how to achieve the best result from the camera you have. This theory class will show you the basics of composition, how to control white balance, and post processing in Lightroom to bring your photos to life.REGISTER - food photography for beginnersFood Photography & Styling Workshops - $190 [2 spots left]This workshop is for intermediate and advance photographers who would like to take a step further in their food photography skills. In this practical workshop we will have

FILLMORE—30-year-old Fillmore stalwart, Rasselas Jazz Club and Restaurant (1534 Fillmore), appears to be headed for closure in the coming months, and will be replaced by something called Era. Stay tuned for more. [Inside Scoop] OUTER RICHMOND—Pop-up bakery outfit Marla Bakery, which has earned some fans recently at appearances at State Bird Provisions, Dear Mom, and elsewhere, will finally have a permanent home in spring/summer 2014 at 3619 Balboa Street. [Tablehopper, Inside Scoop] FIDI—Barbacco is in its second month of a series of special regional Italian menus, focused on some of the unsung culinary regions of the country. This month it's all about Lazio, featuring things like gnocchi alla Romana, which are a baked semolina style of gnocchi that are more like polenta. All dishes are à la carte. [EaterWire] TEMESCAL/OAKLAND—Grease Box Mobile Kitchen, which apparently makes some mean gluten-free fried chicken, has just inked a deal for a brick-and-mortar space in the Temescal district. Maybe the one vacated by Scream Sorbet? [EBX]

Disgruntled concession workers at AT&T Park have been building toward a protest since February, when they were seen distributing this flyer at Giants Fan Fest. Tonight they're asking all ballgame-goers either not to cross the picket line or to bring their own food and boycott the concessions in recognition of their one-day strike for higher wages. At issue is the fact that the Giants and the Park have raked in millions during the team's two recent World Series-winning seasons, with ticket prices and attendance up 20% since 2009 and hot dog and beer prices about 10% since then, but the concession workers' union has been unable to negotiate a wage increase out of the concessionaire, Centerplate. Wages have apparently been flat for the last four years, and they're seeking better healthcare too. The union, Local 2, staged a similar one-day strike at a day game on May 25 to no avail. · Concession Workers Protest At AT&T Tonight; Bring Your Own Food, Fans [SFist]

Welcome to One Year In, a feature in which Eater sits down for a chat with the chefs and owners of restaurants celebrating their one-year anniversary. Last fall, chef Daniel Mondok moved to wine country to open Paulée, a restaurant that brought the farm-to-fork concept directly to Dundee, with an adjacent garden and eye for sourcing protein locally. The spot collected positive reviews, but by December 2012, Mondok officially left the project, leaving the restaurant in hands of co-founder/chef de cuisine Sean Temple, who now oversees both the kitchen and Paulée's growing role in the valley farming community. "It's definitely a community of restaurants, through gardening," Temple says. "We gave [Newberg restaurant] the Jory 20 tomato plants last week; they turned around and gave us 40 padron pepper plants. So we're like, trading plants." To mark the restaurant's one-year anniversary, Eater recently chatted with Temple about Mondok's departure, the garden's early days, and how Willamette Valley restaurants weather the winter, when "you don't see cars on 99." How did you first get involved with the project? I got approached to take over Farm to Fork, because they were having some trouble keeping chefs. So they basically asked me to come in and keep the place running a few months, until the end of the year, when they would close it down and get Paulee up and going. And then when I met Daniel, we just started talking, he asked me to stay on and be his chef de cuisine. [...] It was just really organic. Since the very beginning, the word "ambitious" was thrown around a lot, of your having your own garden... It's so crazy how blown out of proportion all of that was. We were opening a restaurant; we started hearing all these things of people saying how much we were growing, it never really made sense to me how it got that blown of of proportion. … It was a restaurant, we were going to try doing a garden, we were going to do try to be local. A lot of people do that, it wasn't something ground-breaking. We were trying to do the best we could, really. [...] When it came to the garden, when we first did it, [Daniel] was in charge of that — that turns out to be one of the things I absolutely love about the place now. The garden's crazy. It's so big — we've got 700 tomato plants in the ground, we've got so much food. We've approached the restaurants all around us; people are going to be buying from us. It'd be cool to see our name on the back of someone's menu as a purveyor. But it's really cool like that. Thinking back to a year ago, what were those early conversations with farmers like? What was the local response? I sourced out every person we deal with; that was my job off the bat, was to find everything I could. The tough part was, we found out that no one delivered to you — all the people used in Portland, farmers that you see on everyone's menu, they don't go down [to Dundee]. So it was really trying to start over. People up [in Portland] that we've used have always said, "We can drop off to you at your house, we can meet up somewhere en route." We pretty much set aside three weeks to a month, where I set up appointments saying, "Let's go down to these farms, check out everybody we can." And as we went, we explained to people what we were doing. Everybody seemed stoked. Everyone was really for it. And it's even funny now, because one of the farms, Simington Gardens down in Aurora — we're starting to get 12 pounds of salad greens a week out of our garden. So, I didn't call him for like, five days. He called me up and was like, "Are you mad at me?" And I was like, "No. This is the idea, what we've been telling everyone for over a year. This is what we're striving to get to. I don't want to have to call you." But, even than, last night I called him at midnight, like, "I need 12 pounds of salad greens tomorrow, please." But it was pretty well received amongst everybody, and we're j

On this week's event-planning EaterWire: NORTHEAST—Firehouse is teaming up with the Commons Brewery next Monday for a beer pairing dinner, where European-style farmhouse brews will accompany five courses of French and Italian summer fare. Exciting pairings include a course of skillet-cooked mussels and drawn butter, tomato braised octopus and aioli, and a baked pugliese, served with Urban Farmhouse beer. For a $60 seat, call Firehouse at 503-954-1702. WEST END—Gruner will spotlight old country comfort food at this Thursday's Danubian dinner. To celebrate the Summer Solstice, chef Chris Israel will cook according to the flow of the Danube River, from Germany through Eastern Europe. Think Czech-style sausages, Hungarian bacon, and Slavic pork tenderloin paired with aperitif flights, cocktails, and wine. Reserve one of the $100 reservations here. NW/ALPHABET DISTRICT—Water Avenue Coffee will schlep bags of beans to Wildwood for a coffee pairing lunch on Saturday, June 22. Starting at 1p.m., a procession of caffeinated cups will ensue alongside four courses, both sweet (strawberry jam coffeecake) and savory (grilled pork shop with coffee puree). In addition, Water Avenue's head roaster Brandon Smyth will be on deck to discuss all the esoteric subtleties of the beans. Call Wildwood for one of the $35 reservations. N. WILLIAMS/MISSISSIPPI—Dishcrawl, the national dining concept that shepherds eager epicureans on an adventure from restaurant to restaurant, will be exploring North Williams and Mississippi Avenue on June 25. The route is to remain a mystery until the day of the event, but you can try deciphering the clues from @DishcrawlPDX on Twitter. For one of the $45 tickets, click here. —Taylor Thompson Image of St. Jack courtesy Avila/EPDX

The Willows 1582 Folsom Street at 12th Phone: 415-529-2039 Web: facebook.com/thewillowssf Status: Softly opening June 19 The Willows, a spinoff of The Sycamore from brother and sister Liz and Tim Ryan, is softly opening Wednesday at the corner of Folsom and 12th, and we'd like you to know right now that they have a Big Buck Hunter HD video game. As Tablehopper reports, they're doing handcrafted cocktails as well as offering a "beer den" of rare beers on tap and by the bottle. And since prior to being Mercury Lounge the space was once home to Hamburger Mary's, they've got a tribute on the menu with Mary's Burger, as well as sliders like those they serve at The Sycamore, and other sandwiches, fried chicken and meatloaf too. Hours will be Sunday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. to midnight, and weekends 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. · The Sycamore Team Opens a New Location in SoMa: The Willows [Tablehopper]

[Photo: Patricia Chang] Swig, the second bar in the now significant Future Bars empire (Bourbon & Branch, Rickhouse, Wilson & Wilson, Tradition, Local Edition, with the shuttered Anu being the first) was the last not to have a Bourbon & Branch-style cocktail menu, not to mention the ten-year-old space was in need of some remodeling. Partners Brian Sheehy, Doug Dalton, and Justin Lew decided to fix that this spring, and during off hours and a few closed weekdays, they've revamped the place with a fresh look, a new menu, and a seriously major whiskey collection. As Dalton tells Eater, "Swig was our second bar in San Francisco [after Anu], dating back to 2003, and we've really grown as a company and we wanted Swig to reflect that growth." He says that the goal was to have the space aspire to aesthetic quality that their brand has become known for at their other locations. They accomplished this by breaking up the tables, making more lounge space in back and breathing room up front, and redoing all the walls and fixtures. "We've noticed over the years how people flow through the space, and so we wanted the new design to reflect that," Dalton says. He, Lew, and Sheehy all collaborated on the design, and they employed a metal artist to copy the pattern from the wallpaper to the light fixtures, the doors, shelves, and the upstairs wall hangings. They also wanted to add a mixology program, which now includes a concise list of classic and original drinks, as well as punches on draft. Also, here's the list of beer and wine. Additionally they redesigned the bar to make it more functional, and they now boast the broadest and deepest whiskey selection, they think, of anywhere else in town. "We have a pretty diverse selection at Tradition, with the best of the best from every type and brand, but here we wanted a more fluid offering," Dalton says. So, at Swig, they've covered every type and brand, but they're also offering the different iterations within the brand for comparison, like blends, single-barrel, and cask-strength whiskeys. Swig is open weekdays at 5 p.m., Saturdays at 6 p.m., and Sundays at 7 p.m. The upstairs "loft" and downstairs spaces are available for private events, and you should inquire about that here. · Eleven Great Old Fashioneds To Drink In San Francisco [~ESF~] · Where To Drink In San Francisco Right Now, Fall 2012 [~ESF~]