Publication: London Loves Business
Published On: 25th March 2014
Never has a gift been so compromised by the manner of its giving. There was delight in beer circles the other day when George Osborne announced not only the end of the hated alcohol duty escalator, but also a further penny cut in the duty of beer. And then Grant Shapps put out that tweet.
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Publication: London Loves Business
Published On: 7th March 2014
In my last column I talked about cider: a drink that most people think is made of apples, and showed often, it isn’t. It’s a familiar story in food and drink: if you want to make sure what you’re putting in your mouth is what you think it is, you’re better off going for smaller producers
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Publication: London Loves Business
Published On: 6th March 2014
There’s no easy way to humblebrag this so let me get it out of the way and move on: I just got back from Chicago, where I was flown and accommodated for a week mainly so I could drink cider. Well, it was one way to celebrate the end of Dry January.
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Publication: The Morning Advertiser
Published On: 28th February 2014
I can’t believe you’re 10 years old already. Why, just last week, you were being talked about in the national press as if you were the biggest new arrival since the royal baby.
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Publication: London Loves Business
Published On: 31st January 2014
How much is too much for a beer? £4 a pint? £5? How about £12 for a large bottle? If your answer to the above is anything other than “Well, it depends on the beer, doesn’t it?” then good news! Broader horizons and untold pleasures await you.
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Publication: The Morning Advertiser
Published On: 17th January 2014
Oddly, around this time of year I increasingly feel like I’m Publican Enemy Number One. It’s weird, because after 11 months of championing food beer and good pubs as much as I can, both in a professional and personal capacity, come January it’s like I’ve suddenly joined ranks with the new-prohibitionist zealots, the supermarket price
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Publication: London Loves Business
Published On: 16th January 2014
Ever since we’ve been able to make tools and use language, we’ve understood that the year is cyclical. Behaviour that’s acceptable at one time of year is considered wrong at another. Throughout the history of civilisation – any civilisation – we keep a lid on some of our desires and urges so that we can
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Publication: London Loves Business
Published On: 6th December 2013
“One day I’d like to retire and run a pub.” It’s a dream many of us have. Ditching the grind of the nine to five – or eight to eight for most LondonlovesBusiness.com readers – in favour of standing behind the bar, master of all you survey, polishing the brass while waiting for the regulars
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Publication: The Morning Advertiser
Published On: 21st November 2013
The final weekend at the Alma on Newington Green was fairly typical. As a wet November Sunday gave in to an early dusk, the main bar filled. The large family birthday party, complete with surprisingly well-behaved toddlers, was getting ready to move on, their seats enviously eyed by the newly arrived late afternoon drinkers.
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