LIFE MOVES PRETTY FAST...

The Londonist's new Sandwich Correspondent

I met Jonathan kind of randomly at a beta-testing for Trusted Places. We got to talking and we worked out that we worked in the same industry. Then we exchanged blog-cards and I realized that he was the genius behind Around Britain With A Paunch. This is really a GREAT foodie blog, the writing is witty and insightful and the tips are always spot-on. If you haven't read it and like food, what are you waiting for?

Anyway Jonathan has a new job outside of advertising which is being the Sandwich Correspondent for the Londonist. This is his first Sandwichist post....

So when Jonathan said let's meet up for lunch, I really had to think hard about a sandwich place to take him. Victoria is not known for its culinary delights, but what was funny was when I knew that I needed to find somewhere un-chain-y, somewhere really good and interesting it made me look at my local streets with a totally fresh eye.

And you know what, we found some brilliant places that I had never even noticed before - Portuguese cafes, Spanish tortilla bars and Gastronomeria Italia on Upper Tatchbrook Street. Its been there for 30+ years, a great little neighbourhood local with exquisite sandwiches .

Anyway, I will be keeping an eye on Netvibes for Jonathan's review.

But it was an interesting exercise, if you had a Sandwich Correspondent come to have lunch close to your work, where would you take them?

Flash@Royal Academy

Bistrothequeis one of my very very favourite spots in London.

Hidden away, unmarked in a dodgy-looking alley on the out-skirts of Bethnal Green, Bistrotheque always provides a great night out. Whether you want dinner, freshly made cocktails or a laugh at their cabaret. This winter they will be hosting a pop-up restaurant in the oh-so-refined Royal Academy in Mayfair. You just know that it will be fantastic.

It opens in November and closes in January 2009.

They are accepting online reservations.

They say that most tables will be either for 2 or 4 people with a couple for 6.

This will be the coolest restaurant experience of the year, so try and get a table now while you can!

My advice:

Book Flash now!

A Cat Kebab?

Very odd first link on Kebab.com

I was trying to make an analogy that "Digital" is the metal skewer in a meat kebab and Nathan found this online...

The Chilli Garden - now live

I sit next to Mik at VCCP. Not only is he one of the best 3-d animators and web developers I have worked with, he also has a secret other life. Actually his other life is not so secret really. Mik commutes into London each day from his chili farm in Hampshire. He and his family produce the most fantastic chili products - forget about your ordinary run of the mill chillis, we're talking about Scotch Bonnet, Thai Dragon and Hungarian Wax. Some of it almost physically blows your head off, others are actually pretty mild. They all taste great.

Mik makes all sorts of things - pouring sources, dipping jams and pickles.

His website is now live and fully secure and e-commercable (if that is a word) Give it a visit.

Trusted Places

I'm a bit of a Trusted Places newbie but I think that it is brilliant. It's a simple concept, in fact one that I've chatted about setting up with friends in the past (I think that we called the site Tip Top Top Tips) Based out of the insight that we are always looking for top tips for people who we trust, Trusted Places does exactly what it says on the tin.

Why do I like it? Well the suggestions are smart and not always expected, I think that the visual based registration is very cool and it's easy, both to upload and to search.

Then I find out that I am not alone in my admiration,  the Guardian featured Trusted Friends founders Walid and Sokratis in their top 1o UK digital start-ups.

Walid and I connected through my post on the Covent Garden Night Market and he invited me to their beta testing of their new site - you can read all about it on Trusted Places Blog. Odd after being in so many usability labs suddenly having to do it myself, but enjoyable.

Interesting mix of people including Ian Forrester from Backstage at the BBC, who blogs at Cubic Garden, and a girl who sat opposite me who is a food taster for Waitrose and whose life seems to consist of eating her way along Marylebone High Street.

Well worth signing up and having an explore of TrustedPlaces.

The first rule of Dining Club...

Dining Club was set up earlier this year by Richard Addis and John Torode (not the celebrity chef John Torode, the journalist John Torode, who also happens to be my dad) with the objective of getting a smart, eclectic mix of people together to discuss issues of the moment - in the past they have welcomed the likes of Ben Schott, Anna Ford, Norman Tebbit and Saira Khan. Dining Club takes place at the Gay Hussar restaurant in Soho, an old-school journo hack/politician hang out, that serves some of the best Hungarian food (and in particular the best duck) in London. 
Tonight was specifically to do with media and in particular the future of newspapers. Anthony O'Hear gave a fairly dour after-dinner speech about the fact that, paraphrasing TS Eliot, we had given up our wisdom in return for limitless, 24/7 information. (Where is the Life we have lost in living, Where is the wisdom that we have lost in knowledge, Where is the knowledge that we have lost in information) ,
It was an interesting discussion with the group seeming to split along generational lines - with one half of the room declaring that the abundance of information, so long as you can navigate through it and find the good stuff, is the perfect springboard for increased knowledge and wisdom. The other older half more anxious about the growth of the Internet , user-generated content, citizen reporters etc. To them this indicated a lessening of journalistic standards and a lessening of wise editorial control and guidance.
I don't get depressed when I see circulation numbers falling for newspapers. You just have to look at the rising readership from around the world of sites like Guardian Unlimited, www.wsj.com, www.economist.com, www.ft.com. There is still obviously a need and want for informed, edited pieces of comment and opinion but it just isn't always a paper-based  need. In addition to more traditional sources of information now found online, the Internet has opened up lines of communication between people around the world, some of them are educated and informed, some simply opinionated but all with a point of view. The fact is that if I want to know the inside scoop on new movie shooting in LA, the Beltway gossip in DC or the best new club in Brooklyn I will go to a Blog not a newspaper. To me that's exciting and positive, but to print journalists it's slightly terrifying. Eye-opening to see that there are people who really believe that the Internet and Blogs in particular are simply channels for broadcasting conspriacy theory-laden, bigoted rants.
Information is the foundation for knowledge and wisdom, not a barrier.
(BTW, There's an interesting PDF on the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom hierarchy - the concept has been explored by Al Gore in Digital Earth and others)