The Rise of the No-Choice Restaurant

“As with so many things in the world of haute cuisine, it was the French who started the no-choice dining craze. Known as ‘Prix Fixe’ (fixed price) or ‘Table d’hôte’ (host’s table), the idea was simple: to offer a set menu at a set price, allowing a restaurant to focus its energy on a limited portfolio of finely-honed dishes.

In recent years, this concept has spread across the pond, and today the US boasts some of the world’s finest no-choice diners. Here are Forbes Travel Guide’s pick of America’s best, as well as great menu-free eateries from elsewhere…”

This is the opening to a shiny new fine dining article for the folks at Forbes Travel Guide. You can read the full two-pager by clicking on this here link. Nope, left a bit.

An End to Fringe Bashing

Britons rejoice! Last Friday 6th August the Edinburgh Fringe Festival kicked off for the umpteenth time – sparking scenes of wild celebration across the UK. As all the nation’s most insufferable, preening, self-obsessed performer-brats occupy their next three weeks in the Scottish capital by wobbling around on tartan stilts and exposing their genitalia with little to no artistic justification, we ordinary folk elsewhere on this great island of ours can finally enjoy some quality, tosspot-free time. Rejoice!

Or rather, stop it. Stop it now. I’m looking at you, the ‘quality papers’ – because I’ve had quite enough of your Fringe bashing. I accept that the world’s largest arts festival has its flaws – there are undoubtedly too many fresh-faced Etonians attempting ill-informed political comedy, and Christ couldn’t we all do without the performance poetry – but the endless media piss-shower is really starting to grate. Continue reading