The Retail Apocalypse (Incorporating Casual Dining Closures)

Gemini73

Love Mallrats

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/m ... es-italian

Jamie Oliver’s restaurant empire is calling in administrators, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk.

The company, which includes 23 Jamie’s Italian outlets, plus the Fifteen and Barbecoa restaurants in London and Jamie’s Diner at Gatwick airport, said KPMG would be appointed as administrator..

If he sold turkey twizzlers then he wouldn't have to close his restaurants.

Sad for those people who are losing a job, terrible restaurant though. Tiny portions, high price and about as authentic as a Harvester.

Always found it hypocritical how he kept criticising other (more successful) restaurants for their behaviour and food practises when he couldn’t even get his own house in order. A few even failed health and safety inspections.

More interested in slapping his brand on everything under the sun and ultimately it becomes impossible to do anything well (see also: “jerk rice”).

I used his Gatwick diner for breakfast the other week, was pretty good. Ah well, I'm sure there'll be another chain along shortly to replace it. The wheel keeps spinning.

Also for the record, I can't stand the guy himself, so I shed no tears for his reputation.

All about that street food/food halls/pop-up informal eating these days. Also helps mitigate the sky high rents and various other overheads.

If you’re doing Italian, you’ve also got to do it extremely well. People aren’t going to pay mega money to sit in a restaurant just for a small portion of pasta and a Loyd Grossman equivalent sauce.

KK wrote:If you’re doing Italian, you’ve also got to do it extremely well. People aren’t going to pay mega money to sit in a restaurant just for a small portion of pasta and a Loyd Grossman equivalent sauce.

Very true, when i stayed in Italy, the hotel there served huge portions of their pasta, and it was amazing.

The high street Italian restaurant has been a packed marketplace for years - Prezzo, Zizzi, Bella Italia, Pizza Express, ASK Italian etc. Jamie had to do something to stand out from the crowd and it never managed to do that.

Surprised it lasted this long to be fair.

The Jamie's Italian in Richmond was pretty good and always pack, although admittedly that was 5 years ago now. It closed a while ago but his restaurants were very hit and miss.

I remember enjoying it a lot, the one time I went, years ago. Shame.

We went to the one in Cardiff and it was gooseberry fool. Overpriced pretentious rubbish (meat served on a strawberry floating cricket bat ffs). Really mediocre food I could have cooked myself and it cost close to £80 I think for two of us.

Ad7 wrote:We went to the one in Cardiff and it was gooseberry fool. Overpriced pretentious rubbish (meat served on a strawberry floating cricket bat ffs). Really mediocre food I could have cooked myself and it cost close to £80 I think for two of us.

Sounds like you weren’t...bowled over.

KK wrote:
Ad7 wrote:We went to the one in Cardiff and it was gooseberry fool. Overpriced pretentious rubbish (meat served on a strawberry floating cricket bat ffs). Really mediocre food I could have cooked myself and it cost close to £80 I think for two of us.

Sounds like you weren’t...bowled over.

Whereas Oblomov sounds like he was...hit for six.

I went to a Jamie's Italian for a work Christmas do a few years ago. It seems to me that they were an Italian restaurant that couldn't actually do Italian food. I had a rolled pork thing with veg and sauce and it was perfectly pleasant, but on either side of me were colleagues unhappily poking cold undercooked pasta. I know it was Christmas season so it's all set menus, but my wife had much the same experience on a regular visit.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... estigation

Five people have been arrested and questioned over alleged accounting fraud at Patisserie Valerie, in a dramatic escalation of the investigation into the cafe chain’s financial implosion.

According to a statement from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) issued over the weekend, the arrests took place last Tuesday in a joint operation with Hertfordshire, Leicestershire and Metropolitan police services after the discovery of a multimillion-pound gap in the company’s accounts late last year.

The SFO did not disclose the names of those arrested or what they had been detained for, although said it was conducting inquiries into the role of individuals in the firm’s slide into administration. The company went bust in January, sparking the loss of 900 jobs when 70 of its almost-200 stores and concessions closed.

It's good that somethings happened. I wonder if it'll lead to any convictions.

Lex-Man wrote:https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jun/23/sfo-arrests-five-in-patisserie-valerie-investigation

Five people have been arrested and questioned over alleged accounting fraud at Patisserie Valerie, in a dramatic escalation of the investigation into the cafe chain’s financial implosion.

According to a statement from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) issued over the weekend, the arrests took place last Tuesday in a joint operation with Hertfordshire, Leicestershire and Metropolitan police services after the discovery of a multimillion-pound gap in the company’s accounts late last year.

The SFO did not disclose the names of those arrested or what they had been detained for, although said it was conducting inquiries into the role of individuals in the firm’s slide into administration. The company went bust in January, sparking the loss of 900 jobs when 70 of its almost-200 stores and concessions closed.

It's good that somethings happened. I wonder if it'll lead to any convictions.

Sounds like they tried to have their cake and eat it too.

Take them into custardy, boys.

Sweet justice.

Sound like they got their just desserts.

The Retail Apocalypse (Incorporating Casual Dining Closures)

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