Nautical Party in Genoa

Buon giorno. The Italians really know how to live La Dolce Vita. On land, in the sea, or in the sky, they like to live in style. Afterall, to live in good taste is to live with self-respect, is it not? Quality over quantity. Anytime.

Source: from 30mag.com

http://www.30mag.com/salone_nautico_di_genova_lsquo08?id_mag=8

translated from Italian into English

Nautical hall of Genoa `08

4 October the minister of the Economic Development Claudius Scajola has inaugurated quarantottesimo International the Nautical Hall of Genoa. Also this year the manifestation is preannounced able to burn all the records. With 2.500 boats, of which 600 absolute innovationes and very 600 exposed in water, beyond 1.500 attended exhibitors, of which 37% foreign countries, and 300 thousand visitors, the hall confirmation piu’ the important international display window of the field. This year, moreover, the fair of Genoa becomes rich of the new pavilion redesigned from Jean Nouvel, B, with a cover that reflects the colors of the sea and the lights of the sky. In the new pavilion the producers of motor boats find place to level dock with boats from the 6 to the 16 meters while to first slowly the reign of the gommoni that the little ones leave to stretch in order to arrive to the supergommoni fastest of beyond 20 meters. But the offer of the present boats to the hall rich and is variegata, to healthy demonstration than or the industry of the nautical one “made in italy”, (pack-saddles to think that the quota the Italian constructors is of approximately 46%) thus like variegata is the origin of the visitors with a meaningful increase of those coming from the east Europe and Asia. Own from in fact the rich ones arrive there new super that is hauling the segment of the mega yacht: the demands for boats from the 61 to 76 meters, that a million dollars to the meter cost approximately, have grown of 68% in the year in course, those of boats beyond the 76 meters are increased of 28% while the question of yacht comprised between 24 and 30 meters has grown hardly of 4.5%. If luxury to have, than or superluxury therefore! For rich and super rich the hall it will remain opened till 12 October, every day from the 10 to the 18e30. The income ticket costs 14 euros.

of Federico Fin

Play in the Maldives

source: MaldivesTourismUpdate.com

http://www.maldivestourismupdate.com/2008/11/maldives-tourism-booming-despite-global.html

Maldives Tourism booming despite global economic crisis

Wednesday, 19 November 2008 10:23

Maldives tourism industry is booming despite the current economic current crisis facing most countries, two of the biggest stakeholders of the industry have revealed.

Sales Manager of Universal Enterprises Shoumo Mukarjee informed that all resorts operated by Universal Group are fully booked till January and that so far there are no cancellations.

Ifaa speaking on behalf of Villa Hotels revealed that all resorts operated by Villa Group are fully booked till end of February and that there are no cancellations.

Despite the very encouraging season, both Villa and Universal groups are fully aware the current global recession and says that it is quite possible the Maldives may be affected. However they also expressed that every effort is being made to minimize the adverse effects of the global recession on Maldives tourism industry.

According to a report released in Berlin/ Germany by global tourism experts the industry will fully recover from the adverse effects of the current recession by 2010 and that 2011 and 2012 will be hopeful years which will set unprecedented records.

“Our challenge is to see through the pressures of today and prepare for a different world, but predicting the timing of the end of the current global economic crisis and the start of the recovery remains an even bigger challenge,” said Rolf Freitag, President & CEO of IPK International in his summing up at the close of IPK’s annual World Travel Monitor Forum held on 6-7 November in San Giuliano Terme near Pisa, Italy. “After four years of sustained strong growth, which continued through the month of May 2008, outbound travel demand slowed considerably from June, with growth slipping into negative figures from September in some regions” the report revealed.

The financial crisis and the recession have clearly reached the international travel markets. Many airlines and tour operators have meanwhile reduced capacity for 2009. The majority of the experts gathered in Pisa believe that demand for international travel will be down by about 1% in 2009. But they also think that the crisis will not last longer than 12 to 18 months.

Permalink  

In an effort to counteract these, high end destinations have commenced introducing special packages. Experts predict that destinations which do not prepare to meet the challenges may face great economic difficulties.

Underwater Restaurant – Ithaa at Conrad Maldives

Working  and writing on Thanksgiving. Of course. Never miss an opportunity. Always playing. 

I was first introduced to the islands of Maldives on my first visit at age six. Good memories and many more trips have/will come since. (Not many travelers have been cool enough to have even heard of the Maldives. It is one of travel’s kept secrets. Now we wouldn’t want to ruin that, do we? Keep the secret and only share them with the coolest closest people.) Travel in style. Ciao.

The whole living-under-the-sea concept is still relatively new to the general public, but I have learned about it for a while now. The idea still holds my interests. 

(Hilton Worldwide Resorts – Conrad Maldives Rangali Island – Rangali Island)

http://www.hiltonworldresorts.com/Resorts/Maldives/dining_entertainment/ithaa.html#Maldives

Fabergé Egg & Matryoshka Doll

The Russian nested dolls and Fabergé eggs have always fascinated me with their art and design ever since the first time I saw them. 

www.luxuo.com

Peter Carl Faberge and his workshop made incredibly intricate Easter eggs for the Russian Imperial Court between 1885 and 1917.

These rare and unique creations had the cover of enameled gold and gem stones, which would open to reveal hidden wonders – sometimes golden yolk, sometimes a delicately sculpted figure, all nestled in many levels like a traditional Russian matryoshka doll. As only fitting for Easter Eggs, each one contained a surprise!

Wikipedia / darkroastedblend

 

 

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source: thefashionspot.com

http://www.thefashionspot.com/style-spot/10-years-of-russian-vogue-1100

10 YEARS OF RUSSIAN VOGUE 

Top designers design for dolls to celebrate…

 Share this article

By Sharon Feiereisen 

To celebrate Russian Vogue’s 10th anniversary, 31 of the fashion industry’s most well-respected designers were asked to design a dress for a traditional Russian matrioshka doll. The designer labels who lend their creativity included Yves Saint Laurent, Martin Margiela, Dolce & Gabbana, Matthew Williamson, Stella McCartney, Christopher Bailey Giles Deacon, Marc Jacobs, Oscar de la Renta, Gucci, Roberto Cavalli, Ralph Lauren, and Miuccia Prada. 

The designers’ doll sketches were brought to life by Russian craftsmen who hand-painted the 50 centimeter dolls. The one-of-a-kind dolls, each reflecting a different designers aesthetic, will be auctioned for charity at a gala event in Moscow on November 20^th.  

 
For more information go to www.vogue.ru/10yearsand you can register for absentee bidding athttp://www.sovcom.ru/. The complete list of the auction lots is below:

1. Matrioshka Nina Neretina & Donis Pupis
2. Matrioshka Celine
3. Matrioshka Jitrois
4. Matrioshka Burberry
5. Matrioshka Yves Saint Laurent
6. Matrioshka Giorgio Armani
7. Matrioshka Alena Akhmadullina
8. Matrioshka Dolce&Gabbana
9. Matrioshka Maison Martin Margiela
10. Matrioshka Roberto Cavalli
11. Matrioshka Stella McCartney
12. Matrioshka Blumarine
13. Matrioshka Vercace
14. Matrioshka Marc Jacobs
15. Matrioshka Giles
16. Matrioshka Sonia Rykiel
17. Matrioshka Valentin Yudashkin
18. Matrioshka Oscar de la Renta
19. Matrioshka J. Mendel
20. Matrioshka Denis Simachev
21. Matrioshka Dries Van Noten
22. Matrioshka Andrey Bartenev
23. Matrioshka Emilio Pucci
24. Matrioshka Paul Smith
25. Matrioshka Konstantin Gayday
26. Matrioshka Antonio Marras
27. Matrioshka Ralph Lauren
28. Matrioshka Prada
29. Matrioshka Moschino
30. Matrioshka Gucci
31. Matrioshka Marni

Future of Architecture

{source : Esquire.com}

http://www.esquire.com/fiction/book-review/futuristic-architecture-book-review-1208

An Architectural Google Earth for Your Coffee Table

The 1,037 beautifully photographed buildings in The Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture are a testament to everything that is right and really wrong in architecture today.

By Tom Chiarella

 

 

Architecture, especially the sort that lies far from the shadow of America’s recent cultural and economic stagnation, is the best bellwether of innovation, a representation of the relative health of the imagination of the species. Enter The Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture (Phaidon Press, $195), a lovingly bound, clearly written compendium, a Google Earth of the now for your coffee table. It’s big enough (800 pages), encyclopedic enough (5,500 color illustrations), global enough (1,037 buildings by 653 architects in 89 countries) that it is both a distinct survey of the current cultural geography and something far more than a wet finger in the wind of contemporary design. And this volume reveals everything that is right and wrong in archi-tecture today–the large and small, the private and public, the grandly understated and the quietly obscene.

Truth is, most of it is happening elsewhere. You can bounce from a detailed study of Diego Montero’s Scott House, a warm modernist forest home–the interior wood is left raw, and the exterior is painted to mimic the color of the surrounding gum trees–in the forests of Uruguay to the unbearably miraculous curl of the Millau Viaduct in France, perhaps the most beautiful bridge in creation. The work signifies a reverence for the spirit (like the House to Watch the Sunset, in Niger, a single brick column built on a desert oasis) and the spiritlessness of the time (witness the requisite Frank Gehry, a hotel that looks as if it were dropped from the undercarriage of a zeppelin and left to rot on a Spanish hillside).

Once, Europeans used atlases such as this one to witness the expansion, development, and discovery of the New World from their sitting rooms. Americans are in the sitting room now, while the rest of the world builds. So we are left to judge. And whether the design efforts of this nascent century thrill you for their simplicity or suck the life out of your heart for their self-indulgence, every choice herein–richly detailed and lushly represented–is worthy of inclusion in this important inventory of design.

Real Estate Challenges in the Playing Field

source: forbes.com

http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/25/world-housing-credit-forbeslife-cx_mw_1124realestate.html?partner=alerts

Housing

World’s Top Real Estate Challenges

Matt Woolsey, 11.25.08, 12:00 PM EST

As the global economy limps into 2009, barometers for the real estate industry are bleak.

 

In Pictures: World’s Top Real Estate Challenges

The sun isn’t shining for homeowners in Malaga, on the Costa del Sol.

Foreign buyers have stopped purchasing homes site unseen. Vacation home-seeking Spaniards, heeding the government’s warnings about a recession, have also pulled back. That leaves 54,000 vacant and unsold new properties throughout Malaga province, according to the Spanish Ministry of Housing. That’s 34,000 more than in all of boom-bust capital Phoenix, Ariz., based on Trulia.com figures pulled from Arizona’s multiple listing services, despite Phoenix’s 200,000 person larger population base.

 

What’s more, 93% of Spanish mortgages are of variable rate, according to the European Mortgage Federation, thus pegging them to the growing Euribor rate. In 2003, that dipped to 1.94%; it’s now 4.27%.

It’s a similar story across the pond. In Florida, year-over-year prices are down 20% in Orlando, 17% in Miami and 20% in Tampa, according to the National Association of Realtors.

As the real estate industry limps into 2009, such barometers are expected to remain bleak. To illustrate, Forbes.com assembled a series of snapshots of global real estate markets.

In some places, like the Baltic states, recent overbuilding is leading to softening. In Dubai, the slowdown stems from concerns about a declining oil market and in Spain and Florida, massive mortgage bubbles are driving down prices and upping defaults.

Of course, spots under sunny skies and sandy beaches aren’t the only ones suffering. Since the U.K. property market’s apex in March 2008, prices are down 13.4%, according to Knight Frank, a London-based real estate firm. Its head of residential research, Liam Bailey expects that in 2009, “U.K. residential prices will fall 30% from their peak, taking values back to September 2003 levels.”

Many economists believe the bottom has yet to arrive. For that, they are looking to the 2003 level, which is the technical point at which price booms began around the world.

But even that can’t be trusted.

“The problem with this technical approach to finding the bottom of the housing market is that it ignores both demand and supply-side realities,” says Anthony Sanders, finance professor at Arizona State University. “The technical bottom of 2003 prices ignores the fact that the composition of the housing market has fundamentally changed.”

In markets not overwhelmed with new housing inventory, macroeconomic concerns loom large. The credit crisis, combined with the price of oil falling below $60, less than half of what it was six months ago, has shuttered 60% of Gulf construction projects, according to Sakana Holistic Housing Solutions, a Bahrain lender.

Those global credit issues had many of the participants at November’s NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate’s capital markets conference in New York looking at 2009 as a year of few transactions. Even those with cash on hand, like opportunity funds looking to pick up distressed assets, are unlikely to buy up properties–a needed element to correct current overblown inventory–because existing mortgage products are being offered at considerable discounts.

“Nobody is going to buy buildings when they can buy first mortgages or second mortgages with 19 or 15% returns,” says D. Kenneth Patton, professor at NYU’s Schack Institute.

When transactions for buildings instead of mortgages return to favor, look for deals to take place in the U.S. This is because many investors see the American market as a good long-term play.

“Foreign investors have always targeted the major U.S. cities as being one of the best places to invest,” says Richard Kessler, chief operating officer of Benenson Capital Partners, a New York real estate fund. “I think when they come back into the market, they’ll come back into those marketplaces; the New Yorks, L.A.’s and San Frans.”

Until that point, however, expect another painful year around the globe.

 

In Depth: World’s Top Real Estate Challenges

 

• California ~ The Golden state has recently become a hot spot for residential real estate transactions. Based on figures from Radar Logic, a New York-based derivatives data firm, Sacramento, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco lead the nation in real estate transaction growth, with Sacramento sales up an astounding 75% from last year. It’s important to note, though, that many of those sales are of foreclosed properties or by distressed sellers, who may have to sell at a loss. Sacramento prices are down 33% from last year, according to Radar Logic.
• United Kingdom ~ London, the U.K.’s biggest market, suffers from the same ills as New York. Because home sale prices in both are generally thought to remain immune from a downturn, price inflation rises in good times. In recessionary times, prices fall. Sales in the London market have declined steadily over the last year, based on figures from Knight Frank, and prices are down 13% from March. In the last month alone, the prime market of central London, which includes the city’s most affluent areas declined by 3.9%, a record according to Knight Frank.
• Continentall Europe ~ All eyes are on Spain’s impending price correction. According to the Spanish Ministry of Housing, prices rose by 250% from 1997 to 2005 while Spain’s population declined gradually. Behind it? Foreign investors and speculators taking on multiple properties, especially in Malaga, where there are now 54,000 vacant new homes. In Germany and France, prices didn’t accelerate at the same rates and haven’t significantly corrected. Though France is not officially in recession, Germany is, based on Eurostat estimates, and both are vulnerable to housing softening due to mounting unemployment.

 

© Dainis Derics/Shutterstock

 

• Southern U.S. ~ Florida’s overall housing market remains soft. Orlando prices are down 20% from last year, Miami prices have dropped by 17% and Tampa homes are commanding 20% less than a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). What’s more, transaction volume in Florida is at a standstill. Further north, once-solid markets like Charlotte, N.C., are beginning to feel the pinch–even if they’re not hammered with foreclosures. In Charlotte, prices have dropped by 4.2% in year-over-year terms according to the NAR.
• Eastern Europe ~ Emerging property markets here have been riding the wave of high growth. Slovakia’s economy, for example, expanded by 10% in 2007, while Bulgaria grew by 7%. Based on Knight Frank pricing data, the two housing markets grew by 32% and 31% respectively over the last year. But economic expansion is slowing, which will undoubtedly impact housing prices. In Latvia, housing prices rose by over 20% in 2007 but so far this year have dropped by 24%, according to Knight Frank.
• South America ~ Second home purchases were behind recent growth in the emerging economies of Argentina and Brazil. However, after years of growth in the materials and commodities markets, the Brazilian economy has slumped as exports have subsided driving down the value of the Brazilian real against other currencies. Even so, property buyers, spooked by a global economic downturn, have fled, according to luxury brokerages like Judice & Araujo in Rio de Janeiro.

 

© Celso Pupo Rodrigues/iStockphoto

 

• Africa ~ Prices–most notably Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa–are up 3.8% over the last year, according to Knight Frank. But that comes with its own set of problems. Based on figures from South Africa’s Bureau for Economic Research, core inflation is at almost 10%, which means that property values are not worth as much in real terms. To combat inflation in the broader economy, the South African central bank has increased interest rates six times since June, which constrains the availability of credit. This is bad news for the housing market.
• Eastern U.S. ~ Housing prices in the major cities on the Eastern seaboard have dropped. Based on National Association of Realtors (NAR) data, Boston prices have plummeted 10% in year-over-year terms, while transaction volume–a leading indicator of price movement–in New York City have declined by 19%, according to Radar Logic, a New York research firm. It’s a different story in secondary cities like Buffalo, N.Y., and Albany, N.Y., where prices have increased by 3% and 0.5% respectively, in year-over-year terms.
• Australia ~ Though Australia’s property markets don’t suffer from overexpansion, prices have dropped in Sydney by 3% this year, according to Australia Property Monitors. The big challenge for Australia is whether a slowdown in global consumption will negatively affect its exports-based materials economy. Based on international standards, Australia’s interest rates are still high at 5.25% (the U.S. is 1%), though the government has hinted at cutting rates to encourage lending.
• China and Japan ~ Japan is famous for its inability to stoke consumer spending. The decade following the real estate crash of the 1980s saw 0% interest rates and still no spending. Currently, the Bank of Japan reduced its interest rate to 0.3% to encourage credit markets. Thus far, it hasn’t had an effect on reviving the Japanese property market, which is down 0.7% in year-over-year terms according to Knight Frank. In China, Hong Kong has fallen into recession, a bad sign for its property market in the next year. On the whole, mainland prices are up 9% in year-over-year terms, according to Knight Frank.

 

 

Top Food Trend in 2009

source: hotelsmag.com

http://www.hotelsmag.com/article/CA6616400.html?nid=3457&rid=1899835782

Experts Offer Top Food Trends 
For Hotels & Restaurants In 2009

By Derek Gale, Senior Editor — Hotels, 11/20/2008 10:00:00 AM

Here are 13 overall hotel food trends and 10 menu item / ingredient trends to expect in 2009, from experts around the industry.

Overall Hotel Food Trends

Chef-Driven Restaurant Scale-Back
Will those big-deal hotel restaurants carrying the names of absentee star chefs become economic albatrosses, or will they prove to have stable drawing power? We look for fewer hotels turning their restaurants over to star chefs. The cost of building these things often outstrips potential profits, and when times get tight, hotels can do without. Besides, we’re running out of star chefs.  - Michael Whiteman, Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co.

The Bistros Are Coming
Restaurants in the United States, especially hotel restaurants, are lagging economic indicators: They take so long to design and build that a turn in the business cycle catches them flatfooted. Because they’re lagging indicators, all those new restaurants that recently were aiming for opulence and dripping with luxury (targeting the expense-account types) now will be part of the cyclical “bistro-ization” of America. And if not bistros, look for “osterias,” the Italian equivalent.  - Michael Whiteman, Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co.

Farm-To-Table Cuisine
One of the big trends is farm-to-table cooking and cuisine. If I’m a client I want to know where the food comes from, how the food is prepared and who prepares it as well. We are doing more farm-to-table menus. That is where we’re going.  - Jean-Pierre Etcheberrigaray, VP F&B, The Americas, IHG

More Seasonal Menus 
With price increases and such a demand for fresh product, more chefs are changing menus more often. Chefs are starting to feel that having things on the menu for 10 months out of the year is wrong. Use only what is in season to help with cost.  - Chef Rocky Rocha, The Magnolia Hotel Omaha

Customization
Customization and personalization is in high demand. Menus easily changed to suit various preferences (i.e. vegan, gluten, or simply personal tastes) are important.  - Bob Puccini, The Puccini Group

Small Portions And Shareable Items
Smaller waistline; smaller budget. 2009 is the year for cutting back and restoring health to our economy and our lives. This means reorganizing your menu offerings to help: Creative appetizer menus, offering more innovative appetizer portions to share and offering half portions of entrée items allows guests to have enjoy an evening out with out fear of breaking the budget or the diet. Half glasses of wine are also popular. In 2009, we will see more sharable menus that offer a taste of everything.  - Bob Puccini, The Puccini Group

Activity Makes An Experience
Avid diners are looking for a variety of experiences when dining out, and activities enhance dining experiences—wine flights or sake tastings create more interesting dining options.  - Bob Puccini, The Puccini Group

Promotions Draw Diners
Luxury restaurants offering fixed-price dinners will unbundle their menus, allowing cash-strapped patrons to control their checks by ordering a la carte. Upscale a la carte restaurants will add value by adding fixed-price dinners to their menus, hoping to attract people by offering bargains. Happy hours will become more robust as hotels hope customers will order lots of small plates instead of dinner.  -Michael Whiteman, Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co.

Flexible Dayparts
Traditional set times for breakfast, lunch and dinner are a thing of the past. People are on the go and have unpredictable schedules. It’s important to offer services and time flexibility that reflects their busy itineraries.  - Bob Puccini, The Puccini Group

Restaurants Staying Open Late
Business travelers strongly favor hotel restaurants that are open late—well over half say this is a very important factor in their decision of where to stay.  - Chef Rocky Rocha, The Magnolia Hotel Omaha

Lobby/Lounge Dining
Lobby and lounge dining/drinking is gaining popularity; it allows for a great deal of socialization to occur and makes a hotel appear lively and fun.  - Chef Rocky Rocha, The Magnolia Hotel Omaha

Complimentary Items
Complimentary offerings such as breakfast or 24-hour coffee service resonate strongly with consumers. Fully 72% of leisure travelers and 71% of business travelers say a complementary breakfast is important when choosing a hotel.  - Chef Rocky Rocha, The Magnolia Hotel Omaha

Healthy Treats At Turndown
Tysons Corner Marriott is randomly giving guests a turndown treat of wholesome house-made granola with oats, almonds and dried fruit. A note on the turndown amenity encourages guests who like it to make it part of their morning routine at the on-site restaurant.  - General Manager Shelly DiMeglio, Tysons Corner Marriott
Menu Item / Ingredient Trends

Breakfast Anytime
Breakfast at any time of day will become the new standard. Grits, waffles or steak and eggs for lunch and dinner.  - Michael Whiteman, Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co.

Innards And Odd Parts
Look for an even greater upswing in innards and odd parts on menus. Guanciale (pigs’ cheeks), pigs’ feet, tripe, lardo (cured pork fat), artisan salami, beef cheeks, tongue, neck meat, oxtails… and chicken livers taking the place of costly foie gras.  - Michael Whiteman, Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co.

East Meets West
The world is flat and people are traveling farther distances and bringing back authentic spices and cooking methods. Expect to see more intriguing ingredients in restaurants. Also, Middle Eastern and Asian specialties prepared in the West are frequently less watered down and more authentic today.  -Bob Puccini, The Puccini Group

Asian Noodles In Broth
Soup loyalists will have more to choose from, as comforting Asian noodles in broth edge onto menus. Look for pho from Vietnam, ramen from Japan, and laksa from all over Southeast Asia.  - Michael Whiteman, Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co.

Tarragon 
This spice has been underused though the years, but more chefs are starting to take a liking to it, so look for more menus to list it as an ingredient.  - Chef Rocky Rocha, The Magnolia Hotel Omaha

Flat Iron Steak/ Flank Steak
This will continue to be popular in 2009 due to relatively low cost. This piece of beef is considered to be one of the most tender cuts on the market today—it cuts like a filet but tastes like a New York Strip.  - Chef Rocky Rocha, The Magnolia Hotel Omaha

Ethnic Takes On Poultry
Look for lots of braised and fried chicken, this time in various ethnic flavorings.  - Michael Whiteman, Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co.

Comfort Foods 
The old standbys are coming back. Yes, macaroni and cheese, but also certain Asian pasta dishes (such as Pad Thai and sesame noodles) for their equivalent creaminess without the palate fatigue, and rigatoni carbonara for the same reason. Spaghettie and meatballs will make a roaring comeback, but with creative meatballs. Watch for mashed potato variations, combined with creamy and pungent cheeses, for example, or with multiple winter vegetables.  - Michael Whiteman, Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co.

Real Food
Even McDonald’s is saying ‘100% beef’ in their campaigns. Diners are savvy about what is on their plate. People’s ingredient protocol is higher than ever—they want “real” food.  - Bob Puccini, The Puccini Group

Sparkling Tap Water
A bubbly twist on a restaurant staple that is a more eco-friendly option because it isn’t bottled.  - Bob Puccini, The Puccini Group

DELICATESSEN – At Prince and Lafayette

From theFashionSpot:

http://www.thefashionspot.com/news/delicatessen-1101

DELICATESSEN 

At Prince and Lafayette

 Share this article

By Allegra Colletti

54 Prince St., at Lafayette St., New York

Tel:  212-226-0211

www.delicatessennyc.com 

Don’t let the name fool you.  Situated at the crossroads of Nolita and Soho, this ultramodern space is anything but a deli. Open since July, the menu is billed as ‘international comfort food’.  But that too is given a modern twist – think cheeseburger spring rolls, and wonton-wrapped halibut tacos with kimchee sour cream.  Everything about this place is carefully designed, including the downstairs bathrooms, which are a little tricky to navigate but worth a trip to the washroom.

With a menu cover shot by fashion photographer Terry Richardson (who also happens to live in the neighborhood) and staff uniforms designed by Charlotte Ronson (her boutique is just around the corner), this is obviously a place to see and be seen. This fall they will be serving a dozen varieties of mac and cheese for takeout and delivery from the new Macbar next door.

So put on your best designer duds and we’ll see you there. 

Images courtesy of David Joseph.

Chocolate Heavens

 

From Forbes Traveler:

 

© Sprüngli

10 places to go cuckoo for cocoa  by Joe Yogerst

http://www.forbestraveler.com/food-drink/chocolate-paradises-story.html?partner=newsletter

 

1. Zürich, Switzerland
2. Hershey, Pennsylvania
3. London, England
4. Pacific Northwest
5. San Francisco Bay Area
6. Arno River Valley, Italy
7. Belgium
8. Burlington, Vermont
9. Valrhona, France
10. Villajoyosa and Alicante, Spain
    

    © ValrhonaValor

    

    © Belgian Tourist Office NYC/USA

     

    

    © Vestri

     

Dubai World Hotel Network

Dubai World to expand hotel network despite global financial crisis

Xinhua General News Service, November 19, 2008 Wednesday 2:10 AM EST

Dubai World, a holding company that manages and supervises the portfolio of businesses and projects for the Dubai Government, is planning to expand its hotel network despite the current global financial crisis, local newspaper Gulf News reported on Wednesday.

Instead of tightening its purse strings, Dubai World seeks to take advantage of the credit crunch that swept the world, it said.

“There are opportunities and you sometimes have to assess opportunities in a crisis…. We have perhaps missed opportunities in past crises,” Dubai World’s Chairman Sultan Ahmad Bin Sulayem was quoted as saying.

Sulayem took the newly opened Fontainebleau Miami Beach resort as an example, the latest investment of the company in the United States. A subsidiary of Dubai World bought 50 percent of the hotel ’s stake at a price of 375 million U.S. dollars in April.

The credit crunch that made many companies hungry for cash had undoubtedly helped secure the investment in the Fontainebleau Miami Beach resort, he said.

“Had we done this investment two or three years ago, it would have been four times the cost,” he said.

Launched in July 2006, Dubai World manages a number of leading companies including the world’s leading port operator DP World, Dubai Multi Commodities Center and Nakheel, the developer of the Palm Islands.

Copyright 2008 Xinhua News Agency
Copyright © 2006 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.