Table talk
1. Ignore the stuffed birds in reception Regal hotels has renamed itself Corus; Choice Hotels has become Friendly. But if there was ever a candidate for corporate rebranding it has to be the hotel I visited in Brussels last week, which seems to be part of a chain called Stabotel International. With a name that conjures up images of Hitchcock's Psycho, it seems rather unwise that the most visible use of the firm's logo is on the toiletries provided in the shower.
1. Now fighting fit with added beef Another candidate for rebranding would seem to be the Scottish Quality Beef and Lamb Association, better known as SQBLA (or "squabbler"), which makes them sound like a right bunch of bruisers. Still, it could be worse. The association was formerly known as the SQLA (Scottish Quality Lamb Association), pronounced "squalor".
1. So that'll be two ducks and one soup… It's that time of year again, when Table Talk begins to scour the Christmas menus for originality (very hard) or largesse of language (very easy). First off the starting block for flummery is the Alderley Edge hotel in Cheshire. Try this for a succinct menu item: "Gressingham duckling roasted in ginger and lemon oil with a fritter of its own leg arranged around a sweet onion parcel napped with a corn syrup sauce". Wonder what happened to the obvious accompaniment of a medley of woodland fungi infused with the scent of wild rosemary and thyme, bathed in an organic vegetable broth?
1. Served with a free can of Champagne If your idea of a luxury pizza topping is double pepperoni with extra olives, then you'd better not go for the house special at the Moscow branch of Pizza Express. Oozing through the layer of cheese is nothing less than a generous helping of caviare. Despite Russia's current economic gloom, the £120 pizzas are reported to be selling well.
1. Copyright's too tight to mention Rock, pop and fashion stars are finding that running a restaurant is a much more rocky road than being a celebrity customer. Supermodels Naomi Campbell and Elle MacPherson have seen their Fashion Café chain run into problems recently and now it's the turn of Mick Hucknall, the flame-haired songster from pop band Simply Red.
Seems his Manchester café-bar Baráa has fallen foul of Spanish footie club FC Barcelona, whose nickname is also Baráa. The club's lawyers have objected to Hucknall's attempt to register the name as a trademark, claiming people might be confused. Let's hope not. We don't want 50,000 Catalans turning up at the café on a Saturday afternoon hoping to see a football match. How would the waiters cope?
1. Both the hits, all the time The good-looking new bar at Claridge's hotel in London is attracting an eclectic mix of drinkers, from old ladies appropriately drinking White Lady cocktails, to casually dressed music types knocking back Krug non-vintage at £24 a glass. But the bar did appear to have a music problem on a recent Sunday evening, when two albums were repeated ad nauseam - Sade and the Beautiful South. The apologetic barman explained that the hotel had no music of its own, so he had to bring in CDs from home and these were the two that came to hand.
