The upmarket burger has symbolised the mass casual dining revolution, jumping from the confines of farmers markets to provincial shopping centres in the blink of an eye. The evolution of the burger over the last few years is an instructive case study of how a food category can be redefined, with the amount of money people willing to spend being …
Handmade knives from south-east London: Blenheim Forge
James Ross-Harris, Jon Warshawsky and Richard Warner are bladesmiths making kitchen knives from a railway arch in south-east London. Finding influence in the simplicity and rusticity of wabi-sabi, they have placed traditional Japanese methods and ideals at the heart of their manufacturing process. The dome shaped forge was adapted from a traditional Japanese sword making design, which controls the temperature …
Street art and its transformation from subculture to the mass market
Street art is starting to crash through the established art market, and a crop of one-time vandals are becoming ‘rock-star artists’, with buyers willing to pay big money for their work. Not that long ago Conor Harrington was dodging police as he sprayed graffiti across Dublin, irritating property owners and the council who had to jet wash his paint off their walls. He’s …
Is it madness to start a business-class only airline?
Startup projects don’t come much harder than launching an airline. It’s why the odds are stacked against Odyssey Airlines. Is there any chance this all business class airline can succeed? Setting up an airline is as ambitious as startup gets. It’s a sector where for every Branson, there’s a long list of failed would-be airline magnates, with wounded egos, wistful …
Building your own factory – from abroad
Two friends starting their own fashion label made the radical decision to open their own workshop in Vietnam. It came after they couldn’t find a supplier who could reproduce designs to the quality they wanted. 20 April 2014 It’s 2am and Ha Dang and Anh Trieu have just got back to Dang’s at from The Spurstowe Arms in east London. Dang reaches …
Margot and Fergus Henderson’s mid-week dinners
Margot (co-owner of Rochelle Canteen) and Fergus Henderson (founder of St John restaurant) invited Courier to their home in Covent Garden to make mid-week dinners. After more than 20 years at the corner of Seven Dials, they are about to move to Stockwell, but insist both dishes will remain favourites for a long time to come. Pasta and tomato sauce is a favourite among …
Three questions: Kids Love Ink tattoo studio, Deptford and Shoreditch
Marcus Broom of Kids Love Ink, which has tattoo studios in Deptford and Shoreditch, invited Courier to check out his workspace and answer three of the most common questions about tattooing. It’s black and grey sleeves and Christian-based iconography people are asking for. It’s definitely a fashion rather than religious. In the the late 90s, it was tribal and Japanese art, heavily influenced by TV and film. More …