Speaker 1: When you were born, you were met with a smile,
Speaker 1: eye contact and a meal and ever since, when you're
Speaker 1: met with that, you're transport times the most important point
Speaker 1: in your life and probably feel quite good. Slad him
Speaker 1: on the bum. I'm Franciela. We're back in the London studio,
Speaker 1: and I'm David Merritt, also in the London studio. And
Speaker 1: this is in the City, Bloomberg's podcast that connects you
Speaker 1: to the stories at the heart of the City of London.
Speaker 1: So Francine. Last week we were going to do a
Speaker 1: Jubilee special all about the restaurants scene in London, and
Speaker 1: we were talking to Syn Yessen, who's the owner of
Speaker 1: One Lombard Street, which is a big city lunch institution,
Speaker 1: and Bill not who's a Bloomberg food writer. And Bill
Speaker 1: had written this fantastic article about the power lunch being
Speaker 1: back in the City of London. So we went down
Speaker 1: to One Lombard. We pretended to drink Martini's chinking water
Speaker 1: glasses and had a long conversation and then we just thought,
Speaker 1: what there are two things wrong with this. First of all,
Speaker 1: France scene is not here, and I protested a lot
Speaker 1: test is you're really upset and we thought we just
Speaker 1: got to make this a bigger episode. There's so much
Speaker 1: to un pack about the restaurants scene in London, in
Speaker 1: the city, but also beyond. You cannot do a food
Speaker 1: episode without me. I'm like, I feel like I'm the
Speaker 1: food queen because if I'm not eating it, I'm cooking it.
Speaker 1: And everybody loves London food. One of the questions is
Speaker 1: do we have the right infrastructure and actually is is
Speaker 1: it just too expensive? And is the government helping or hindering?
Speaker 1: You know, when you compare it to cities around the world,
Speaker 1: the sort of government support that's gone in And also
Speaker 1: you know, in this country we've got a bigger inflation
Speaker 1: problem than the rest of the G seven. We've got
Speaker 1: a worse economic outlook, and you know London rents are
Speaker 1: still sky high. You can't get the staff. Of course,
Speaker 1: Brexit is still being felt. Is it a good time
Speaker 1: to open a restaurant or not. So we're getting our
Speaker 1: two star guests back, right, They're coming back and we're
Speaker 1: going to speak without the Martinis here in the studio,
Speaker 1: without the margin or the mcgronies. But we will go
Speaker 1: off site, or you'll go off site. But I demanded, Dave.
Speaker 1: The reality is that we demand to do some field
Speaker 1: reporting for this episode, so stay tuned for report from Sweetings.
Speaker 1: Dave has been. I've never been. It's actually considered the
Speaker 1: oldest fish and oyster restaurant in London and it's conveniently
Speaker 1: right next door to Bloomberg HQ in the heart of
Speaker 1: the city of London. But first our conversation with Thorn
Speaker 1: and Bill, Bill, we were trying to think about what
Speaker 1: London was as a food capital. How does it compared
Speaker 1: to other European capitals. I think we have an awful
Speaker 1: lot of breadth, perhaps not quite the same depth, but
Speaker 1: I think you can eat more cuisines in London probably,
Speaker 1: I mean by by far than in any other You're
Speaker 1: a capital I can think of, partly because we don't
Speaker 1: have an awful lot of British or English restaurants, so
Speaker 1: because because English food isn't very nice. I think what
Speaker 1: we call modern British is fine, but that borrows an
Speaker 1: awful lot from the French ship. Whereas if you go
Speaker 1: to Rome, as you well know, you will find almost
Speaker 1: all Italian restaurants. There will be a few others France
Speaker 1: parents the same. Sorry, Dave, you don't like the jellied eel,
Speaker 1: I mean fan of prime mash but I'm not sure.
Speaker 1: But it's not supposing that the Cockneys took so readily
Speaker 1: to rationing during the Second World War, I think so
Speaker 1: does it have more Michelin stars at other parts in Europe?
Speaker 1: Or it feels like you have to, you know, remarget
Speaker 1: your house sometimes. I know eating as is expensive, but
Speaker 1: then try Paris. Parasi isn't cheap either. I'm sure Paris
Speaker 1: has more mis shown stars than we do. It certainly
Speaker 1: has more three style wach down restaurants, but London's sort
Speaker 1: of catching up. But we have a lot of interest
Speaker 1: around the one star level. Um, I think with a
Speaker 1: whole host of different cuisines. Um we have Chinese restaurants
Speaker 1: with one star. We have we now have a Ekoi
Speaker 1: which is an African restaurant sort of based on sort
Speaker 1: of a modern take on Nigerian food, with two stars.
Speaker 1: So it's a it's a for for a curious gourmet.
Speaker 1: It's a fascinating city. And have you seen a chain
Speaker 1: sorrow And since you know there's twenty three years with
Speaker 1: an opening one Lombard right here in the city, and
Speaker 1: you would never come to the city twenty years ago
Speaker 1: for a great mayor would you know, you wouldn't come
Speaker 1: here unless you worked here and then you'd um try
Speaker 1: and get out of here as quickly as possible when
Speaker 1: work was over and head for the West end or
Speaker 1: um and certainly not there were there were no nothing
Speaker 1: exciting going on in terms of food. Twenty three years
Speaker 1: ago when I owned won Lombard Street, there were lots
Speaker 1: of people who said forget about it, and those you
Speaker 1: didn't say forget about it said, um, the city is
Speaker 1: a graveyard for people who have tried to develop an
Speaker 1: evening business. I thought that was very heartening. But you
Speaker 1: did it anywhere. We're still here and we've even got
Speaker 1: breakfast as well, which is great. So you opened one
Speaker 1: Lombard Street, you're you were awarded the square miles first
Speaker 1: Michelin Star. That's right. When was that? What did it
Speaker 1: feel like? It felt amazing and it's it's a really
Speaker 1: big incentive for staff mainly. I find that it still
Speaker 1: is for staff mainly, and maybe over the years less
Speaker 1: so for for guests. I think when when people didn't
Speaker 1: go out as much, they've been in search of a
Speaker 1: treat that would glow their minds. Now, most people go
Speaker 1: out two or three times a week and I'm not
Speaker 1: in the mood for that kind of intense experience. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's a it's a six monthly experience or twice a year.
Speaker 1: Actually it represents the change in hospitality throughout London, which
Speaker 1: is what atmosphere. It's much more about the It's about
Speaker 1: much more than the food. It's about the ambience to
Speaker 1: service and something you would like to experience several times
Speaker 1: a week. And then the people you meet that as well,
Speaker 1: because you wrote about the you know, the return of
Speaker 1: the power lunch in the city and of course you
Speaker 1: know everyone to come back to work or companies are
Speaker 1: trying to get people back to work, but you know
Speaker 1: coming in for a meal, people coming in less for
Speaker 1: the meal and actually to do business. They're coming to
Speaker 1: meet their colleagues and so actually, I mean, you're not
Speaker 1: going to come in to the city and sit in
Speaker 1: front of a screen all day. You can do that
Speaker 1: at home. I get to go out for lunch occasionally,
Speaker 1: and that's what people have seemed to be doing that,
Speaker 1: which is great. So you know, as Saren said to me,
Speaker 1: if you want to close the deal, don't do it
Speaker 1: over zoom, do it over lunch. That you've seen people
Speaker 1: coming into this bit of London and staying and having
Speaker 1: full you know, the full evening with lots of bottles
Speaker 1: of wine, and there is that people come in to
Speaker 1: go out, as Bill said, So if they come in
Speaker 1: for three days, they tend to go out breakfast, lunch
Speaker 1: and dinner. Possibly there's no wait anyone, So they're going out.
Speaker 1: They're going out to eat three times a day. Monitor
Speaker 1: who are these people? I want to meet these people
Speaker 1: and what do they do and what did they do
Speaker 1: for a living. But I think Starns right when he
Speaker 1: stresses the ambiance and any restaurant right now, because there's
Speaker 1: tough times for restaurants. Prices are going up, overheads are
Speaker 1: going up. If you don't give people a warm welcome
Speaker 1: and remind people of why they fell in love with
Speaker 1: restaurants in the first place, and give them something more
Speaker 1: than we got used to these meal kits during lockdown.
Speaker 1: You know, that's such a tiny fraction of what a
Speaker 1: restaurant offers. A good restaurant offers. So if you don't,
Speaker 1: if you don't smile, you're gonna lose your customers. So
Speaker 1: what was lockdown, Like did you ever feel like I
Speaker 1: couldn't cope? It was as bad as you can imagine.
Speaker 1: It was overnight saddled with a very very busy machine
Speaker 1: turning out expenses and serial income. And it stayed pretty
Speaker 1: much like that for two years, only interrupted by some
Speaker 1: signals sometimes that we could open again and have some
Speaker 1: customers back. And every time we were close back down,
Speaker 1: it was starting stop and it was very difficult. Did
Speaker 1: you feel like you had government support help? I daresay
Speaker 1: I don't feel that much. I think there was government confusion,
Speaker 1: like everyone was confused from the start, and it meant
Speaker 1: that we had to survive on our own. And those
Speaker 1: of those businesses who could find capital and support the
Speaker 1: business have survived, and a lot of businesses who couldn't
Speaker 1: not because they were bad businesses, they haven't survived. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'll give you a comparison and have a colleagues through
Speaker 1: restaurants in New York, Paris and London. In New York,
Speaker 1: for the same sized restaurant over the course of the pandemic,
Speaker 1: they've got a million dollars of support to keep the
Speaker 1: business going and to keep the jobs going. In Paris,
Speaker 1: they've got four hunderd euros in London they got sixteen pounds.
Speaker 1: So it reflects a different attitude, doesn't it in these
Speaker 1: cities to the restaurant industry overall and the importance of
Speaker 1: it to the city. Do you think London? I guess
Speaker 1: it's the council's, isn't it. And it's the government as
Speaker 1: a whole don't appreciate and support the hospitality industry as
Speaker 1: they should. I think you're right. Take outdoor seating for instance. Um,
Speaker 1: there is massive amounts of spaces that are unutilized that
Speaker 1: could earn an income and pay tax if we put
Speaker 1: tables and chairs outside, we would have. They ripped o
Speaker 1: the rules right and every pavement was covered in in
Speaker 1: for a short while and then a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of those permissions have been pulled back. I mean
Speaker 1: we felt that were not batt There's a there's a
Speaker 1: completely empty alleyway next door which we've applied for and
Speaker 1: we keep being rejected on the big basis. They put
Speaker 1: it in the Queen's speech. It was it was. There
Speaker 1: was a there was a line in the queen speech,
Speaker 1: or as and addendum to the Queen's speech saying that
Speaker 1: her Majesty wants fresco dyning fresco dining for her, and
Speaker 1: the Corgi swich is all rare. Well. I think you're right.
Speaker 1: I think this is perhaps to do with London what
Speaker 1: Britain generally not treating, not treating food as culture. But
Speaker 1: this was not, I mean, it's not in the British culture.
Speaker 1: Right leet outside al Frisco. I mean, for one, the
Speaker 1: weather is not always clement, not necessarily helpful, but that
Speaker 1: you can go to Copenhagen or you go to Amsterdam
Speaker 1: and you will find more percentage of tables outside than
Speaker 1: you do in London. In Copenhagen, I'm fun Denmark. In
Speaker 1: Copenhagen during winter at the whole of Newhound is full
Speaker 1: of outdoor seating with heaters and blankets, and people are
Speaker 1: sitting outside just like they do after ski And it's
Speaker 1: just a matter of maximizing what you have got now
Speaker 1: that you have fewer days if you're in the city,
Speaker 1: you have fewer days to take the money to pay
Speaker 1: for the rent and pay your staff. Then it would
Speaker 1: be nice to have our of things helping you out
Speaker 1: of this. Also to make up for the losses over
Speaker 1: two years and the visibility of a restaurant without door
Speaker 1: seating helps all the trade. It's not just those tables outside,
Speaker 1: even if you just had them sitting there with a
Speaker 1: couple of people enjoying a glass of wine. Fewer days
Speaker 1: because people work from home or and soek has been
Speaker 1: compressed to three days. Really, I mean it's massively busy.
Speaker 1: Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, Friday dead. Monday is quite busy.
Speaker 1: In fact, some people are now saying they'd rather come
Speaker 1: in Monday and Friday because it's too busy on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: Wednesday and Thursday. Said hopefully it'll even out a little bit.
Speaker 1: So that's if that's where we've landed in terms of
Speaker 1: the working week. I mean there are still big sort
Speaker 1: of storm clouds, aren't there on the horizon For the economy.
Speaker 1: Inflation is a massive problem, particularly I think Britain's got
Speaker 1: the worst inflation profile and growth profile out of the
Speaker 1: G seven at the moment. I mean, what's happening to
Speaker 1: your costs and how are you able to absorb them
Speaker 1: or not? And is there gonna be another wave of
Speaker 1: restaurant clothed us with the economic circumstance. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: let's start with the two biggest ones staff costs and
Speaker 1: premises costs, and staff cost has gone up that generally speaking,
Speaker 1: I think most restaurants will have passed on UM. There's
Speaker 1: nothing in the margin to give UM, so it's more
Speaker 1: expensive to go out. The second thing, premises cost depends
Speaker 1: on who you speak to. Genuinely speaking, the market had
Speaker 1: was completely overheated before lockdown. It was very competitive and expensive.
Speaker 1: I think there's a little bit of a reset in
Speaker 1: the property market, and it may be a sense of
Speaker 1: more reasonable rents around the corner. But what about energy,
Speaker 1: because that's the thing that's really hurting everyone. Isn't a
Speaker 1: energing outrageous? I mean, I can give you an example
Speaker 1: from Active minority restaurant here in Bloomberg Arcade. If you
Speaker 1: have some spare electricity to send our way, be very happy.
Speaker 1: We paid three thousand pounds a month for electricity build
Speaker 1: and last month it was ten thousand parts. Sorry, what's
Speaker 1: your biggest headache? And energy? Food shortage? I mean, I
Speaker 1: you know, I can't get a table to places where
Speaker 1: I want to go. So it feels like the restaurant
Speaker 1: businesses is doing okay. It is, it is doing okay.
Speaker 1: It's been but there's the challenges now that you have
Speaker 1: compression of demand and then spiraling cost, which you we
Speaker 1: are lucky compared to other industries because we can we
Speaker 1: can more or less pass it on, not all of it.
Speaker 1: But the other side of it is we have been
Speaker 1: forced to and this is good news. We've been forced
Speaker 1: to look for efficiencies that maybe we were a little
Speaker 1: bit slow at finding before, and that is I think
Speaker 1: that's very exciting. You know. It's a way we deal
Speaker 1: with the flow of staff in the restaurant, the ordering
Speaker 1: and payment out. Lena at the end, I remember being
Speaker 1: at a book launch for in Genois, the former PepsiCo
Speaker 1: chief executive, and she was joking that actually she was
Speaker 1: in a fancy hotel and couldn't get room service because
Speaker 1: they just didn't have enough staff. Now this was about
Speaker 1: twelve months ago, So has it you know, is it
Speaker 1: just as difficult to get staff? It was impossible and
Speaker 1: now it's just very difficult. And there's a bit of
Speaker 1: light at the end of the tunnel. There's an enormous
Speaker 1: shortage of skilled workers. And the government's policy on this,
Speaker 1: I have to say that they've it's got to change,
Speaker 1: and it's because of Brexit. Right, is that partly because
Speaker 1: of Brexit. Brexit has certainly not helped. And when I've
Speaker 1: got several Danish people lined up to work in a
Speaker 1: Scandinavian restaurant here and I can't hire them, it seems
Speaker 1: ridiculous when we can't get anyone. Um, so we if
Speaker 1: we've got a t cvs for a senior job position before,
Speaker 1: we get three now and it's and those three are
Speaker 1: genuinely not as qualified. On top of that, the people
Speaker 1: who turn up. A lot of people don't turn up
Speaker 1: for interviews. Some people turn up for interviews and we
Speaker 1: never hear back because they're not busy because what they've
Speaker 1: accepted another job where there's also a change in mentality.
Speaker 1: And I think with a lot of the digital online culture,
Speaker 1: you know, it's easy to cancel something with just a
Speaker 1: flick of the thumb. You don't really have to there's
Speaker 1: no courtesy involved. Are we in a crossroads where people
Speaker 1: want to go out and party when inflation is going up,
Speaker 1: so you don't really know what happens in the next
Speaker 1: twelve months where there could be a little bit of
Speaker 1: a lot of the Roaring twenties And then hopefully with
Speaker 1: hindsight and We're not going to repeat the end of
Speaker 1: the Roaring twenties with a big crash. But I think
Speaker 1: in terms of if the restaurants offer right now, it's
Speaker 1: it's amazing. But if restaurants offer something good atmosphere, jolly
Speaker 1: good service and you feel welcome, good food, fair value
Speaker 1: prices in a good location, um, I think there's prospect
Speaker 1: of doing very well over the next many years. Well
Speaker 1: do you see you see the pipeline of new openings
Speaker 1: across the city. Is that is there's still stuff coming out,
Speaker 1: people still putting in money in investment into new openings
Speaker 1: or is that starting to try up? But though they
Speaker 1: really are and some quite exciting things. I mean, there
Speaker 1: has been a big chair and especially in the mid
Speaker 1: market where I think a lot operators chain operators in
Speaker 1: particularly weren't doing enough to keep the customers, and so
Speaker 1: a lot of the chain restaurants have closed down, but
Speaker 1: at that in turn opens up premises. I saw, for example,
Speaker 1: Thomas Perry, very gifted chef proprietor at Bratt just at
Speaker 1: the road from here in shortage has taken over an
Speaker 1: old Byron Burger site in big streets and so so
Speaker 1: less of the kind of the cookie cutter chains, more independent,
Speaker 1: innovative that's going to make good things. I think that's
Speaker 1: h And you know, it's a buyer's market as far
Speaker 1: as as far as diners are concerned, because a lot
Speaker 1: of places that don't make the effort, we're going to
Speaker 1: be shutting their doors. You had a fun anecdote about
Speaker 1: someone partying for like a month in your restaurant. That
Speaker 1: member of staff there was he did leave in between,
Speaker 1: but he did. He booked our new private member's cocktail
Speaker 1: bell for private lunch and had a big lunch there.
Speaker 1: We could hardly get them out when they were having
Speaker 1: a cronies at six thirties, still um and they meet
Speaker 1: p M after lunch. Yes, they moved upstairs and continued
Speaker 1: in the barn, the brosary. But not only that. As
Speaker 1: he left, he booked for next Wednesday, and for next Wednesday,
Speaker 1: and he booked two wednesdays a month for the next
Speaker 1: three months, same lunch, same same room. And he said,
Speaker 1: way go anywhere, Sace. He seemed to made it very
Speaker 1: very easy for everyone. What's your top tip going to
Speaker 1: a restaurant? I was always told, you know, choose a
Speaker 1: second bottle of wine on the list that I'm afraid
Speaker 1: restaurant has got wise to that one about twenty years ago. Wait,
Speaker 1: I've been buying the second one for every wine. Every
Speaker 1: good wine is the should have the obvious expensive choice
Speaker 1: for people who like that, should have the value choice
Speaker 1: for people who love that. And also, which I like,
Speaker 1: is to find the um interesting wine which is really
Speaker 1: well priced for people who know about wine. So there's
Speaker 1: something for everyone. And I actually, if there is a
Speaker 1: wine ray to familia often say I'd like to spend
Speaker 1: fifty pounds. I like white Burgundy, and then I say, well,
Speaker 1: good luck, no, but you know, give them a price
Speaker 1: and a taste and then ask them to come up
Speaker 1: with a suggestion. Can I ask you all, including Dave Merritt,
Speaker 1: a question about what's your secret sauce to host the
Speaker 1: best inner party there is? This is This is a
Speaker 1: great question because if it divers it into restaurants, the
Speaker 1: most important ingredient is the people you mix, and that's
Speaker 1: the thing you don't have any control over in the restaurant,
Speaker 1: but you do. And of course the next ingredient is
Speaker 1: a lot of booze and some nice food. And then
Speaker 1: I think you're off. Even if the seats are uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: But if you don't have great people, it's going to
Speaker 1: be hard with no matter how good the food or
Speaker 1: the drink is. And in a restaurant, when you especially
Speaker 1: if you're a new restaurant, you have no control over
Speaker 1: it comes into the room and you have no control
Speaker 1: over you're seating people next to that the atmosphere and
Speaker 1: a new restaurant is going to be a little bit
Speaker 1: like that. Whereas if you have an established restaurant full
Speaker 1: of regulars, you can do that. You treated as a
Speaker 1: dinner party, and we drizzle the room with people, We
Speaker 1: put them in the seats they want we put We
Speaker 1: never put people from the same organization back to back
Speaker 1: next to each other, and you make you mix it
Speaker 1: like that, and you have you don't put a romantic
Speaker 1: couple right next to a couple who's about to close
Speaker 1: the deal. And if you don't think about these things,
Speaker 1: you only have two out of the three main ingredients.
Speaker 1: What's your secret bill? As far as dinner parties go,
Speaker 1: I would say the most the biggest mistake people make
Speaker 1: is to make it too elaborate and spend all the
Speaker 1: time in the kitchen or fussing or failing about and
Speaker 1: actually just make sure you've prepared things sensibly and make
Speaker 1: sure you've got time to talk to your guests. Um.
Speaker 1: And that's that's the secret source. That's uh, that's what
Speaker 1: oils the wheels of a good dinner party is making
Speaker 1: sure that everybody's happy, everybody's drinks stopped up, and everybody's
Speaker 1: getting on well with each The food is the food
Speaker 1: can still be wonderful, but don't end up doing everything.
Speaker 1: L Let me neat, as they say, says, I'm going
Speaker 1: to try and get an invited to Dave Merritt's house
Speaker 1: for dinner. Well expect my secret is to ask Mrs
Speaker 1: me cook. I'll make the McGrain. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: both of you. I'm so hungry after all that conversation.
Speaker 1: I wanted to take Dave out for lunch, but he's
Speaker 1: double book. He stood me up for lunch and I
Speaker 1: already ate. And actually, you probably don't like the role mobs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do like fish, but just not the wrong but
Speaker 1: not the jelly to eel. I don't know who I'm
Speaker 1: going to take. I'm actually going to take the cynical
Speaker 1: American in the newsroom. Good idea to sweetings with me,
Speaker 1: what are you doing here? I'm bringing you one and
Speaker 1: only Oliver to the oldest fish restaurant in London. Gave
Speaker 1: you fish restaurant in London to give you jelly to eels,
Speaker 1: jelly eels and roll mops. What is it? Mops mops?
Speaker 1: I think it's called role mops. We're going to uh
Speaker 1: I can see it now, Sweeting. It's said I'd say
Speaker 1: about one hundred pieces from the office about there. I
Speaker 1: mean we would come in and it's a fairly savory
Speaker 1: smell in the Amazon the air, no reservation required, which
Speaker 1: is a breath of fresh air from me. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think we were quite lucky to actually find groom
Speaker 1: work in space. How long have you been working here?
Speaker 1: For almost six years? Did you want to come to
Speaker 1: Sweetings in particular because it's such an iconomic restaurant. For me,
Speaker 1: it's the family business, so my grandparents and the restaurant.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us a little bit about the history
Speaker 1: of this place. That's the oldest fish restaurant. So slow
Speaker 1: for a hundred years old whatever hundred years old, eight
Speaker 1: hundreds would come in over fifty years ago. They come
Speaker 1: in and they say it's exactly the same as they
Speaker 1: really what should we drink? We do a black Field,
Speaker 1: which suspiciality, which is Champagne and give Champain a Guinness. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we threatened to sign French one of our regulars on TV.
Speaker 1: Should we get us call on euro Yen or should
Speaker 1: we just ask him why do you think about sweetings?
Speaker 1: I think we should ask him about the black velhol
Speaker 1: enough come here, not regularly enough and you love it
Speaker 1: because it's just old British restaurant, good food. I'm just like,
Speaker 1: we're gonna come here eight year ago. E second, I
Speaker 1: mean we always just like about the epony, but actually free.
Speaker 1: It's just because I'm very happy to go to all
Speaker 1: restaurants in the square mile and do prood reviews. I mean,
Speaker 1: arguably that's what the listener was. What wasn't my view
Speaker 1: will beats that's not true in general the London scene.
Speaker 1: How does it compare? So what I get upset about
Speaker 1: is that so much your food scene, but more kind
Speaker 1: of the the experience right here what I love. We
Speaker 1: walked in. It wasn't a question about reservation because they
Speaker 1: don't take reservation, so you can show up and actually
Speaker 1: do something spontaneous, where like most of the time you're
Speaker 1: shackled by this kind of having to book something weeks
Speaker 1: and weeks and weeks in advance, because I find heartbreaking
Speaker 1: and usually do you only have the table for like
Speaker 1: two hours and a half. Two hours and a half.
Speaker 1: They love it. They love telling you the clock's going
Speaker 1: the second you sit down. Wow. So this is what
Speaker 1: do we call this vessel that this has arrived? And
Speaker 1: the half pint because this has made out of silver,
Speaker 1: not most of the half pints I've had or made
Speaker 1: out of silver. Look at that. Yeah, it's I think
Speaker 1: it's a tank. Could I guess they call it. It's
Speaker 1: a nice sound sound. I feel like I'm drinking out
Speaker 1: the Holy Girl. Next time i'd like to drink, I'd
Speaker 1: like to drink to a hundred years of sweetings and
Speaker 1: a hundred years of Francine lad years of podcast on
Speaker 1: the hundred Innocent. I'm David Merritt and I'm Francine Laqua.
Speaker 1: And that is it for this week's episode of In
Speaker 1: the City. We will be back next week asking the
Speaker 1: question is London really open for crypto business? Lord Philip
Speaker 1: Hammond joins us and in the meantime, if you like
Speaker 1: the show, please rate it and check out the Bloomberg
Speaker 1: UK website for more use and views. This episode was
Speaker 1: produced by Summersidi Special thanks to our guests so On,
Speaker 1: Yesen and Bill Knot, and to Oliver Crook for the
Speaker 1: company at Lunch. The head of Bloomberg Podcast is Frances
Speaker 1: Gerde