MAGNANIMOUS at the Magnum. There's a new owner on the corner of Albany and Dublin streets. And newcomer on the block Chris Graham is being most gracious about his predecessor.
"Ricky Fox had this restaurant for ten years and made it a credit to the New Town, as had the previous owner Hamish Henderson. Rick's not for resettling in his native Australia, far as I know. He'll concentrate on the wine trade here.
"Anyway, the
re's a tradition of quality about the Magnum and I intend to uphold it. This place lends character to the New Town, distanced from the trendiness of George Street just up the road."
First restaurant of his own but Chris, 34, is no stranger to the business. In catering all his life, he had seven years at Hanover Street Henderson's, then Whigham's and Champany prior to nine years with David Scott at Howie's.
He has arrived direct from managing corporate functions at Dundas Castle, South Queensferry, for Sir Jack Stewart-Clark. Oh and Chris' dad David at Scottish Widows invented the first of the company's iconic femme fatale "widows" for their ongoing advertising campaign.
Coining it in Your household is among those specially selected to receive this notification. Please take advantage and become one of a select group of people to own this new £5 coin. So it says on a "National Household Notification," so select that bundles of the "Priority Reservation Offer" are being stuffed through Edinburgh letterboxes.
On offer is the coin struck by the Royal Mint, a specially commissioned design of the Battle of Britain celebrating the 90th anniversary of the RAF. Only a fiver and post-free. Don't join in the scramble for the coin until you discover who, exactly, will make a mint out of this. A scam? Something in the air and to me it smells. Like pathetic excuses from the Defence Minister Des Browne and RAF pong over the Playboy Prince landing a Chinook in Kate's back garden.
Afterwords . . . . . Liza Minnelli recalling her childhood, when mother Judy Garland was married to Vincente Minnelli: "I knew how to dial room service by the time I was six. I had to if I wanted to eat."
The full article contains 373 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
