27.03.12 - London 2012 guide to London
Coming to London for the Olympic games this summer? Fantastic. We can’t wait to see you.
But when you’re not sampling great British food, such as fish and chips, Lancashire hotpot or Roast beef, in one of our (soon to be) five branches in Spitalfields, Baker Street, Canary Wharf, Royal Festival Hall or Covent Garden – or watching the games, you might like explore the city.
Or perhaps you’re even wondering where you should stay.
Whatever planning stage you’re at, we’ve already had a little look around the Internet for you.
So let us fill you in on what we’ve learned:
VisitBritain research shows foreign visitors often find Britain’s mix of cutting-edge modernity and rich cultural heritage ”fascinating” and ”exciting.”
They see British people as ”honest,” ”funny,’ ”kind” and ”efficient” but in some cases they wish we offered a more exuberant welcome.
How busy will London be? Will prices be inflated? And what are the best ways to get around? Just a few of the questions answered (by experts) in this Telegraph newspaper’s Olympic visitor’s guide.
Fancy hearing from a Londoner? Daniel Cook’s created a London Olympic visitor’s guide that includes information on everything from tickets, accommodation and travel to tourist attractions, culture and eating out/nightlife.
Want to avoid rip-off hotels? Of course you do. So check out the Guardian newspaper’s accommodation guide here, which features alternatives such as camping, apartments and private homes, and package deals.
Finally, a useful, straight-up (as we say in London), guide to London, from famous listings publication, Time Out. It features tickets, what’s on, venues, restaurants, and lets you explore London by area, so you know your Shoreditch from your Soho, your Camden from your Covent Garden.
Oh and while we’re at it, Time Out said our “kitchen’s honest, simple cooking and emphasis on seasonality and provenance is still admirable“. Here’s Time Out’s review of Canteen.
Finally, if you’re keen on steering clear of the beaten track when you’re not watching track and field, here’s the mighty Londonist’s guide to alternative London, which will help you find just about everything from where Hitler’s bombs dropped in the war to the best street markets… even where famous movie scenes were shot.
Anything else you want to know? Follow Canteen London on twitter or facebook and just ask.
22.03.12 - General managers
Are you positive and motivating?
Would you describe yourself as hands-on?
Are you straightforward, level-headed and sensible?
Will you share our passion for bringing high quality, reasonably priced British food to the high street?
Do others describe you as confident, organised and great with people?
Are you currently a general manager?
Are you able to deal with all aspects of the business, including:
Budgeting
Labour costs
Profit and loss accounts
Health and safety
Food hygiene
Employment law
Do you have experience of Fourth Hospitality software?
If you’ve answered yes to all these questions, we may well want to give you your own Canteen restaurant to run.
Please double check you’re the right person for Canteen here, then email us at jobs@canteen.co.uk, quoting ‘general manager job application’ in the subject line.
Interested? Here’s a bit more about us.
21.03.12 - Waiters/waitresses
2012 is going to be fun – and busy.
The Olympics mean London’s going to see a lot of new visitors.
And Canteen wants to show the world (as well as our loyal, regular, wonderful customers) the best Great Britain has to offer, not only in terms of our great British food, but also in terms of the great service we can provide. We love that our teams are amazingly multi-cultural, and we think this reflects our great nation beautifully.
If you’re confident and positive, with a warm smile and an even warmer personality, then we need you – this is more important than experience and training – we can offer you that.
You’ll be part of a great team that enjoys good benefits and chances to progress within the company, if that’s what you want to do.
Our food and drink menus are incredibly varied and change with the season, so it’s a great chance to learn a lot about of different ingredients, something that will make you a very interesting friend, partner or work colleague, wherever you want to go next.
We have branches in Spitalfields, Baker Street, Southbank, Canary Wharf and Covent Garden, so there’s even more variety there, as well, so we can promise you won’t get bored.
Your English obviously needs to be first rate and chances are you’ll be passionate about food, making customers happy, and about getting things right.
And you may not be an English food nut right now, but we certainly hope that, over time, you’ll begin to share our passion for the highest quality ingredients, as well as preparing all our food fresh on site.
Please check again you match the kind of person we’re looking for, then email us – quick – at jobs@canteen.co.uk, writing ‘waiter/waitress job application’ in the subject line.
Or if you know someone right who could do with a job, then send them our way.
Thanks.
20.03.12 - Hosts x 2
We’re looking for two enthusiastic and energetic hosts:
One for Royal Festival Hall and one for our new Covent Garden branch, which opens in June.
What makes the perfect host? Here’s what we – and more importantly, our customers – are looking for:
A host who makes ever customer feel like they are our best customer (which they all are).
A host who never thinks twice about putting a customer first.
A host who can anticipate customers’ needs.
Someone with wit, confidence, a great smile, and the ability to make other people (customers and colleagues) happy and confident, too.
Someone with a cool head and great presentation skills.
Does that sound like you or someone you know?
If it does, then please email/ask them to email jobs@canteen, with your/their CV and ‘host job application’ in the subject.
05.03.12 - British Pie Week
Happy British Pie Week (5-11 March).
Why not use it as an excuse to try one of the 56* we’ll be baking fresh over the next seven days?
Each of our branches makes its own, fresh, every morning.
And each branch changes its fillings daily, too.
There are two reasons for this:
1. To keep things interesting, but also
2. To make best use of the freshest, most seasonal produce.
Some thing never change, though.
There’ll always be one meat and one vegetarian option.
And we’ll always serve our pies with mash and gravy. The greens are up to you!
People seem to enjoy taking photos of our pies and putting them on Flickr. We must admit: they are rather photogenic.
In fact, we’ve even started a board on Pinterest called ‘Happy British Pie Week‘
To mark British Pie Week, we’re sharing all our branches’ fillings on twitter and facebook.
Why don’t you mark British Pie Week by trying one (or two) of them?
We also take credit for starting the twiiter hashtag #PieMovies on Saturday.
Radio DJ Christian O’Connell picked it up on Monday, so we’ve got a few people playing.
‘British Pie Week‘ was trending on twitter on Monday morning.
Let’s see if we can get #PieMovies trending on twitter, too.
Or maybe you’d prefer playing #PieSongs?
*Four branches, two per branch, for seven days – you do the mash – 56 pies throughout British Pie Week
21.02.12 - Room with a view service
Katherine Hibbert said she had worried the dinner itself might be rather dry but – fuelled by wine and mutton stew from Canteen’s Royal Festival Hall branch – it had been ‘very jolly’.
She won a night in Living Architecture’s Room for London on the roof of Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall with her entry to Artangel and The Evening Standard’s ‘Idea for London’ competition.
Her brainwave? To let people willing to do community service stay in empty properties.
Her reward? Our RFH branch sent up potted crayfish and soda bread, spiced mutton stew, braised red cabbage, carrot and swede, and orange, vanilla and honey sillibub. Read more about it here.
21.02.12 - Facebook likes Canteen chairs
Status update: The social media bohemoth likes our Canteen Utility Chair - the ones found in all our branches – so much, it just requested around 500 for its Californian headquarters.
It was a big order for the company, Very Good and Proper, that designs and builds the chairs. And as it’s now been shipped, as they say in the US, Very Good and Proper wanted us to let you know it is now free to help you, if you’d also like some Canteen Utility Chairs for your home or office. They say they can’t guarantee a massive IPO valuation to go with it, but you never know.
21.02.12 - Pinterested in food
There’s little point paying our social media squirrel, Terry Nutkins, unless he’s going to help us ‘connect’ and ‘engage’ with you, our number one fans, on the digital platform du jour.
Actually, we think you should like Pinterest a lot. Because if you like Canteen, you probably love food. And if you love food, then you probably also love looking at photographs of food.
Which is bascially what Pinterest is all about – it’s a social network for images. Food porn, some might call it, although we couldn’t possibly comment. Of course, you can share pictures of whatever you like. It doesn’t have to be edible.
In our case, we’ve got boards for design and people and animals, because that’s what we care about. Apart from puddings, vegetables, meat, breakfast and drinks, that is. Pintersted in finding out more? Cop a load of our lovely pins here.
21.02.12 - New Canteen drinks menu
Raise your glass, say ‘cheers’ and get your timing completely wrong as you down your beverage an embarassingly long time before everyone else, making you look like an impatient drunk.
Because our new drinks menu arrives on the 29th of February.
The switched on among you will realise that the 29th is a leap day, the 366th day in the year, when normally there are 365.
And if another day isn’t a reason to have a drink, we don’t know what is. Just think of all that extra sleeping, eating and watching Masterchef you can do.
Just as well you’ll have a new wine list stocked with good, great and brilliant reds and whites, not to mention fine roses and sparkling wines, as well, to help you get through it. Cheers.
21.02.12 - February’s Internet Snacking
Gingerbread Glastonbury Pyramid stage
Where do you keep your prize tomatoes?