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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Fay Maschler's rating
Reader rating
Phone: 020 7014 2840
Open: Open daily noon-3pm and 5-11pm.
Ahead of the curve: the Rotunda’s head chef Ian Green (left) with John Nugent, whose company runs all the catering at Kings Place
Philanthropy. Who can afford that any more? “He who dies rich, dies disgraced,” said Andrew Carnegie, one of the great philanthropists. You can imagine bonus-bolstered bankers and hedge fund managers tussling with that thought, turning it this way and that, before chucking it in the bin.
In the United States the arts have benefited enormously from private patronage. Carnegie Hall springs to mind. Here we mostly rely on the state. At King’s Cross, where promised regeneration seems to have been a long time in coming, something wonderful has happened.
Property developer Peter Millican, whose company built Central Square in Newcastle, has created an office development that contains within its walls concert halls, art galleries, exhibition spaces and a home for the London Sinfonietta and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Millican deliberately chose a site close to a transport hub with the idea of encouraging cross-pollination. A musical exchange has been set up with the Louvre and daytime use of the venues for conferences means the beautiful wood-panelled concert halls help fund the artistic programme without any government subsidy.
The Guardian and The Observer have taken half of the available office space and Jonathan Glancey, The Guardian’s architecture critic, has already mused in print about how writer’s block might be fixed by a shot of Schubert or a dose of Delius. Ah, yes. Or a glass of wine.
John Nugent is the chap in charge of that. He worked for the catering company Searcys (now known as Searcys 1847) on projects such as the Royal Opera House, the National Portrait Gallery and 30 St Mary Axe (aka The Gherkin).
His company, Green & Fortune, is running the food side of Kings Place, all of which, including the Green & Fortune Café, the Concert Bar, the Rotunda Bar & Restaurant and a private dining room, is open to the public. Already Kings Place has become a beacon and a classy amenity for the locale.
The bar and restaurant follow the curve of the building where it meets the Regent’s Canal and Battlebridge Basin. The walls are glazed and in fine weather the windows will open on to the terrace but last Tuesday sleet and snow were suddenly flying past, almost horizontally, covering barges moored alongside with a white cloth of icy lace. It made dishes such as cottage pie served in a cast-iron casserole and braised neck and shoulder of lamb with hot-pot potatoes seem the obvious and, as it turned out, good choice.
Beef and lamb are born and bred on a farm in Northumberland owned by Peter Millican. The meat is matured on site in a purpose-built hanging room. The wisdom of this is immediately apparent in the flavour and texture of the 12oz rib-eye steak served with a watercress purée and proper hand-cut chips. A boneless leg steak of lamb is, however, too insistently, bleatingly lamby to be really enjoyable.
Since they are either soup or cold assemblies, first courses take a mystifyingly long time to arrive. Roasted butternut squash soup poured over chunks of the vegetable at the table makes the wait just about worthwhile. Perfect in its seasonality to the point of being flavoured with pumpkin oil and garnished with toasted pumpkin seeds, it is a regal broth.
Grilled chicory with pears, pickled walnuts and stilton dressing is gastropub cliché upgraded to the dining room mainly through the grilling and wilting of what most people actually understand by the word endive. Smoked eel, pressed beetroot — with an intensity of flavour the phrase suggests — horseradish cream and watercress salad is another familiar gathering made distinctive here by stylish presentation.
The days of the working week each have a main course special priced at £12.50. If it’s Tuesday it is rump burger made with beef from the farm with chips. The burger was flavourful and cooked medium as requested but could have been hotter for greater enjoyment and its recipient rather wished it had been Monday — steak and oyster pie with mash and roasted onions.
Desserts of caramelised apple tart with Calvados cream and pear and blackberry crumble with honey custard were both excellent and each was easily enough for two. Cheeses from Neal’s Yard which, changing monthly, include a washed rind, hard, soft, goat and blue priced at £9 are probably also suited to sharing.
Quite a lot of the available space is given over to the bar. The barman turned out to be a wizard at making interesting and desirable non-alcoholic cocktails such as Ginger Snap. But it is the wine list to which my heart goes out. Modern technology means fine wines can be served by glass or carafe — or bottle, of course — and each month there is a selection that delivers, for example, Meursault Meix Chavaux Domaine Roulot 2005, Kurni Oasi degli Angeli, Abuzzo 2003 and Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou 1970 at prices that are eminently fair.
That writer’s block which I feel creeping up on me now could be so delightfully eased by a glass of Pyramid Valley Eaton Pinot Noir NZ 2005. It could be defined as another version of philanthropy.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
