Slider Image 1 Content
Cozy London Restaurants To Visit This Winter
When the weather outside is frightful, escape the cold in one of London’s coziest restaurants, warmed with open fires and snug interiors.
Wiltons
Wiltons
With a history spanning 280 years, Wiltons is an old-world institution in London, known as an aristocratic hideaway with sensational seafood and classic fare. With handsome interiors dressed in plush carpets, muted oil paintings and warm lamplight, there’s no better time to visit than in winter. Menus are delightfully vintage and indisputably elegant, with a full range of fish, in-season game, and freshly shucked and cleverly dressed oysters—a favorite of Queen Victoria, who graced the restaurant with her royal warrant. The silver carving trolley is another charming throw-back, serving a rotating selection of roasts with all the trimmings.
Maggie Jones’s
Maggie Jones’s
A short stroll from Kensington Palace and the always-buzzing Kensington High Street, Maggie Jones’s takes its name from restaurant regular Princess Margaret, who would go by the alias of Maggie Jones. With glowing taper candles and dried posies of wildflowers, interiors are cozy and country chic. The menu presents comforting homemade classics with creamy soups, oven-hot meat pies, and generous roasts—plus retro desserts like charmingly simple-and-sweet vanilla ice cream with chocolate and brandy sauce and hot apple crumble served with a jug of custard.
Extedt at The Yard
Extedt at The Yard
A roaring, wood-burning fire is at the heart of the newly launched and much-lauded Ekstedt at The Yard, hidden within the five-star Great Scotland Yard hotel in Westminster. The open fire is used to cook every dish, and the intimate, dimly lit restaurant is laid out so that every table has a view. Swedish chef Niklas Ekstedt is at the helm, using British ingredients with expert Nordic methodology. The menu changes seasonally and there is a highly acclaimed tasting menu, as well as a new a la carte offering. Served as a trio, the Snacks from the Fire are a must as an amuse-bouche and include a moreish, savory lovage donut prepared in cast iron and a completely unique, earthy hay-smoked custard, served with an assertive hit of chive and rich trout roe. This is the place to go for special dishes that you won’t find anywhere else.
Bardo St James
Bardo St James’s
Swathed in cardinal red velvet and glowing Murano glass-style chandeliers, Bardo St James’s is a cozy subterranean hotspot known for jazzy live music and upscale Italian fare. While the setting is undeniably warm and welcoming and the food is heartwarming and generously portioned, Bardo St James oozes with glamour. Though not required, the restaurant makes for a good excuse to dress up this holiday season, in sky-high heels and glittery dresses or tailored jackets and freshly polished shoes. Live music can be enjoyed nightly. Lavish dishes include truffles pinsa (a Roman flatbread); roasted branzino with violet artichokes, romance styles; and frutti di bosco (a fresh strawberry salad) for dessert. This is a must for special occasions, and the service is also known to be impeccable.
Fisher’s
Fisher’s
Hidden under a yellow canopy and lacy cafe curtains in Marylebone, you’ll find Fischer’s, an old-world Viennese restaurant and cafe. Cozy interiors evoke early twentieth century Austria with simple wooden tables, beer steins and bistro chairs, and the Mitteleuropa cuisine follows suit, with hearty röstis and crispy schnitzels designed to fill you up and keep you warm.
Shilpa Shetty decks up her restaurant for Christmas, shares video. Watch | Bollywood
Shilpa Shetty took to Instagram and shared a video enjoying Christmas vibes ahead of the festival. She shared glimpses from Saturday night at her restaurant in Mumbai, Bastian. She showed Christmas trees, colorful decorations with bells and fairy lights, giving perfect Christmas vibes to her fans. Many fans reacted to her clip. (Also read: Ananya Panday spends Sunday afternoon in Bandra, best friend Suhana Khan says ‘Take me also’)
In the video, she wore a stylish orange backless dress with white pumps. In the beginning, she gave a view of the entrance of the restaurant decorated with fancy lights and colorful Christmas balls. She said, “This is the season to enjoy if you want all your food fishes to come true Bastian is the place.” Than, she posed with an enormous Christmas tree and put some decorative ornaments on it. In the end, he gave a glimpse of the restaurant with staff members, cutlery, Christmas tresses and people dining over to enjoy their food. She gave a big smile while posing for the camera.
Sharing the clip on Instagram, Shilpa wrote, “This is the season to be jolly… and to eat a hearty meal ! (Christmas tree emoji). THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS are up and let’s light up your lives with the Christmas spirit, food, and indulgent desserts (smiling face with red heart eyes emojis). Visit us this month, hand in your Christmas wishes, and they will go straight to Santa.” She used ‘Christmas at Batian’, ‘Sunday binge’, ‘Christmas’, December vibes’, ‘Grateful’, ‘Blessed’ and ‘ about last night’ as the hashtags on the post.
Reacting to the video, one of Shilpa’s fans wrote, “Happy Christmas in advance, Shilpa ma’am.” Another fan commented, “Wow ma’am, so beautiful (smiling face with red heart eyes emojis).” Another fan wrote, “All time favorite.” Many fans dropped heart and fire emojis on the clip and gave compliments for Shilpa’s look.
Shilpa was last seen in Nikamma alongside Abhimanyu Dassani and Shirley Setia. She will be next in filmmaker Rohit Shetty’s first web series Indian Police Force. It marks her OTT debut, with Sidharth Malhotra. She also has Sukhee in pipeline.
Cann’s Holiday Ad Sees a Family Gathering Saved by Weed Soda
This recipe for disaster contains the following ingredients: separate family members contained under one roof for an extended period, high-stress rituals like gift-giving and formal dining and copious amounts of alcohol.
Shake vigorously, and the result is as explosive as it is predictable.
Cann, the top-selling weed-laced soda with an A-list celebrity following, uses its annual end-of-year campaign to acknowledge what many people already know—the holidays can be a toxic stew of drunken conflict—and ask the question , “Why not get baked instead?”
In a scenario that’s heavily stylized and darkly comedic, Cann solves one family’s dramatic clash with its low-dose THC drinks and quick delivery from the new Jane cannabis shopping app.
The 3-minute video, written and directed by actor-filmmaker Lake Bell, features a cast of mostly people of color and queer people and an original song from Grizzly Bear’s Chris Bear. Raja Gemini, a makeup artist, model and past RuPaul’s Drag Race winner, appears as the “fairy cannmother,” providing the memorable line, “Merry microdosing, motherf*cker.”
While the nearly dialogue-free ad marks a creative shift for the brand, it continues the Cann positioning as a “social tonic” and an alternative to traditional liquor-based cocktails.
“We wanted to take the idea of a family gathering, which is a source of anxiety that some people dread and rely on alcohol to get through, and hold a magnifying glass up to it,” Luke Anderson, Cann co-founder, told Adweek . “It doesn’t look good from the outside.”
The short film, dubbed “Cann-Do Holiday,” goes from “moody and negative to dreamy and euphoric,” Anderson said. “It’s the before and after.”
Cheers, my dears
Cann’s latest work drops as THC-spiked drinks are surging nationally. Still a niche category—making up less than 2% of total cannabis sales—the product has exploded in popularity, hailed as sessionable and approachable, especially for the uninitiated. Along with edibles like gummies and chocolates, beverages are now considered “perennial winners” during the busy fourth quarter, per Headset.
On the recent Green Wednesday-Danksgiving long weekend, sales of weed sodas, seltzers, powders and cocktails jumped 13.2%, per Headset’s analysis of seven states. The year-end period could bring more of the same good tidings for the category, based on past performance; Headset says drinks saw a 16.6% boost at Christmas 2021.
Some particular bright spots: Sales grew an eye-popping 272% year over year in Michigan in 2022, according to Headset’s report, while states like Massachusetts, Washington and California saw double-digit bumps.
The data wasn’t all positive for the sector, though, with the Headset noting that Nevada, Maryland, Oregon and Colorado saw demand drop. Meantime, the market has been flooded with new brands—an increase of 65% since January 2021—which could mean there’s more supply than demand or buyers are overwhelmed by their choices.
The researcher also said that consumers seem to be gravitating to the higher-dose drinks, where buyers get more bang for their buck.
Cann’s primary target has been the casual weed user, teetotalers (or the “Cali sober”) and the massive addressable audience that may not currently consume but would be open to try. The brand’s drinks, containing 2 milligrams to 5 milligrams of THC, could qualify as a good on-ramp for such potential buyers.
Tastes better than eggnog
The average American drinks 27% more alcohol during the holiday season compared to the rest of the year, according to a recent study from Sunrise House, with 23% considering themselves “heavy drinkers” between Thanksgiving and New Year and 27% saying they consume stronger liquor during that time.
Cann means to address the outcome of such behavior and urge people to reconsider their relationship with alcohol, albeit in a rather light-hearted, high-concept way, with its video that stars Mickey Sumner (Snowpiercer, Frances Ha), Meg Stalter (Hacks ), comedian Benito Skinner and actor Bre-Z among the eclectic cast.
Shot last month at a home in Los Angeles’ hip Silverlake neighborhood, “Cann-Do Holiday” is a collaboration between Cann’s internal team, Bell and production house London Alley.
The brand hosted a movie premiere-style party for the short film this week in Hollywood, along with a panel discussion on diversity (or the lack thereof) in the cannabis industry, featuring Cannaclusive’s Mary Pryor, Jane Technologies’ Socrates Rosenfeld, Cann investor and board member-actor Rosario Dawson, Bell and Anderson.
In casting the video, Bell talked about the importance of representation behind the scenes—she hired a female director of photography, among other women and people of color—as well as on-screen.
“Family looks like a multitude of different things, and not everyone looks the same,” Bell said during the session. “I wanted the creative to be sexy and fun and inclusive from every vantage point, so it felt like it wasn’t elitist or isolating to anyone.”
“Cann-Do Holiday,” with the tagline, “You can’t change your family, but you can change your drink,” will get a