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Foodie News 16/12/11

Publish date 16/12/2011 Frog

This week Felicity, Angharad and Lauren look at Wi-Fi, The Portas Review and the £2 Christmas Dinner!

Felicity - This week’s review of the Great British High Street by Mary Portas (self styled ‘Queen of Shops’) for David Cameron appeared to steer clear of the coffee shop sector. It’s unclear as to whether this was a result of a lack of information provided by the sector for the presentation or if Portas has decided that coffee shops are already doing their bit to create communities on the high street but certainly the coffee sector has been growing steadily over the past five years or so and shows no sign of slowing down. From high street giants like Starbucks and Costa to smaller chains like Gloucestershire’s own SOHO Coffee and independent outlets like our favourite Coffee Bean in Charlton Kings – the coffee sector has done wonders for high streets up and down the country. Even during the recession it has continued to grow – with a coffee and a muffin a seemingly affordable treat on the way to work or when out with friends. The Portas Review, it would appear, has recognised the contribution coffee shops make to the high street – offering sanctuary from the rain during a shopping trip to enticing people into the high street to meet with friends and family. I for one am excited for the future in on-the-go food and drink and hoping the growth continues – we’d certainly like to work with more coffee shops in the future!

If you’re interested there’s a good piece about the report here

Angharad - On Twitter this week @BigHospitality asked followers whether hotels should stop charging for Wi-Fi. The responses were varied, but the general consensus seemed to be that at least for guests staying at the hotel Wi-Fi should be free., especially as a lot do now offer it as standard with rooms and communal areas and potential customers will look for hotels with a free Wi-Fi service. The fluidity of the work/life balance these days means that people can work at all hours in all locations if they want and hotels should look to accomodate this. Add in things like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare and actually free Wi-Fi seems a small price to pay for instant feedback and buzz about your hotel from guests as they are

staying with you. What do you think? We’d love to hear your thoughts about it on @Leapfrogbuzz!

Lauren - Something Christmassy from me this week – but not all is merry and bright! Website Student Beans decided to offer a solution to the increasingly expensive Christmas lunch – by recreating it for £2 a head. The result, I’m sure you’ll agree, is not pretty and as a student myself I would have to be very hard up before even considering resorting to this! The story was picked up by the Daily Mail which has been great PR for Student Beans. Do you have any less extreme cost-saving tips for Christmas? Tweet and let us know!