The CODE Lunch: Romano’s at Simpson’s in the Strand

Introducing the CODE Lunch, a new series which sees CODE sit down to lunch at a major new restaurant opening in the company of a restaurateur. For the first edition, Lilibet’s Ross Shonhan joins CODE at Romano’s at Simpson’s in the Strand, to discuss storytelling, set lunches and celery.

CODE

A first look at Gwen, Machynlleth: A singular vision from Peter Sanchez-Iglesias

Reporting for Good Food Guide, journalist Andy Lynes, restaurant writer and publisher of Smashed, is first through the door at Peter Sanchez-Iglesias’ new £180 a head restaurant in Wales. He has notes: “Not everything about Gwen is perfect, yet.”

Good Food Guide

‘The beauty of the useless’: Spain’s super-thin restaurant napkins are throwaway art treaures

If you’ve been to Spain, you’ll be familiar with its tapas bars’ almost entirely ineffective servilletas. But, argues the photographer behind a new book Servilletas, they are a form of resistance to the growing homogenisation of Spain’s gastronomic sector.

Guardian

Tavern review: “AI chose this week’s place. And it’s fantastic”

Giles Coren, behind the paywall, has some fun choosing his restaurant. We’ve tried doing the same but got disappointing results; Coren did well with Tavern. He loves the pork and cuttlefish sausage: “thick and fat and smooth as an emperor’s dong”.

The Times

10 things to share from 10 years as a restaurant PR

Home Hospitality’s Substack, Home Truths, posts regular guest posts. This one is by Lucy Golding, founder of Caper Communications, and is a useful and up-to-date primer for any business considering taking on a PR. In some cases, “what’s actually needed isn’t PR at all, but a fresh marketing strategy, a complete shift in creative direction or, more painfully, the acknowledgement that it may be time to close the doors.”

Home Truths