Party Like It’s 2014

There are certain things we can all do to avoid the heinous post-holiday comedown. One is book a one-way trip to the Bahamas. The other is to adopt the little-known mantra ‘New Year, New Booze’, and stock up the drinks cupboard. Alright. We made it up ourselves. Balblair 1983 Whiskey First Release £200 Balblair is…
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Bill Borrows Reviews the Kai Mayfair

The Manchurian Candy Date. Or the Mancunian Candidate. Whichever pun takes your fancy, Bill Borrows had a very, very nice time at Kai in Mayfair, thank you. I am over-dressed. The jacket is bespoke but the shirt is only Thomas Pink. My dinner guest, a high-rolling gambler of international repute (his proudest boast: ‘I haven’t…
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Fortune Favours the (Limited Edition Rémy Martin XO) Gold

It may not be performance-enhancing, but Rémy Martin XO Excellence is smooth, distinguished, and the reference by which all other Fine Champagne Cognacs are judged. Since 1724, the House of Rémy Martin has been driven by one quest – to capture the heart of Cognac. And now Rémy Martin XO Excellence, the French house’s Extra…
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Season’s Eatings

What to do when you don’t want to have Christmas Day. Ever again. Caroline Phillips puts on her party shoes to live it up in festive style….before or after Xmas. Christmas? Pah! It’s hard to forget the childhood memories of my mother getting up in the night to baste the eight-hour-shrivelled turkey. And those moments…
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Garden of Earthly Delights: Le Cour Jardin, Paris

Nothing lasts forever. Luckily, one beautiful non-perennial favourite blooms once a year. As you are reading these words (if you hail from LUSSO’s own part of the Northern hemisphere), the days are drawing shorter, pleasingly-jaundiced leaves are gliding down to mulch pavements, morning skies are brushed by strata of smoke and peach strips and, as…
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One More for the Road? How to Drink Like Sinatra

This snappy looking package isn’t your average bottle of Jack Daniel’s. It celebrates a legendary friendship that lasted more than half a century, that of Ol’ Blue Eyes and his favourite tipple. Frank always had a glass of Jack Daniel’s close by when he was singing. Look onstage any given night and you would see him…
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Karen Krizanovich: Popping My Cork

The last five years of economic turmoil have been hard. Life has changed so much that now, before I imbibe, I have to ask at every reception or press launch if the champagne in my flute is actually prosecco. Yes, I know. There are perfectly fine examples of prosecco. “It’s just Italian champagne!”. Partly true,…
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Licence Tequila

Note that the pun “Shoot Tequila” was not chosen as the headline for this article on tequila. And for good reason. Please trust your bar person. These chaps and lasses spend most of their waking hours around alcohol, so unless you have the (thankfully, increasingly slim) misfortune to be served by an obtuse ‘tender, they’ll…
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Chow Bella: Italian Dining at ME Hotel London

I once spent a great semi-year in Los Angeles. As often discussed, the City of Angeles is less an actual city, more conurbationised sprawl. Sure, there was a liberating feeling of opportunity, a sense that my creative germ was being activated by all that vitamin D, a slight electric thrill upon realising I was physically…
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