Reading Roars!

Are you looking for somewhere cheap(er) to eat out in Reading?  I have compiled a list of local restaurants offering current promotions and offers (not entirely credit crunch-related), below.  

I am hoping to grow this list to make the definitive credit crunch lunch guide to Reading.  So, if you are a diner or restaurateur with information to contribute, please tell me what you know and we will lengthen the list together!

• Bella Italia -  20% off UCAS card, 20% off NUS card and Tesco Club Card tokens are accepted. 
• Carluccio’s -  10% discount on every product in food shop.  
• Ha! Ha! - A fiver off your food (when you spend £20 or more) by subscribing to the Ha! Ha! newsletter. 
• Ivory Lounge - A fiver off food and drink (when you spend £10 or more) between Sunday and Monday by registering your details with them. 
• Malmaison - Malmaison promotions include “festive crackers” (room only rates from £79), “tough prices” and “12 days of Mal”.  
• Old Orleans - Old Orleans promotions include 2 for 1 on fajitas, all day Monday to Thursday: 
• Ponti’s - 10% off for the over 60s.  
• Zizzi - 3 for 2 voucher.

The Reading Evening Post has revealed that businesses are having their say on a proposed new five-year Business Improvement District (BID) phase to transform the town centre.

Suggestions have so far included live music in restaurants, coffeeshops closing later in the evening, sitting on ice in the middle of Broad St to win a prize, a charity Moonwalk in Broad St, a bigger Children’s Festival and a new lighting scheme.

Meanwhile, under the new proposal, our Christmas lights will continue to be funded, smokers will be encouraged to stub out their ciggies on foil ashtrays and booklets will be distributed for gum.

The central theme of the plan seems to be “community”, or creating conditions that would attract more people into the town centre, day and night, through encouraging them to participate in various activities.

“Community” does appear to be a bit of a buzzword at present and I can see how something akin to an online social network, I guess, on our streets might work.   

Boosting the evening economy might be a challenge.  The evening economy to me suggests one thing mainly - drinking.  There are many people who find the town centre at night, Oracle aside, an intimidating  environment, thanks in part to nits who drink too much and make a nuisance of themselves.  This is especially true of Friar St, covered in the plan, which even I find unpleasant at night these days.

I can see the appeal of keeping coffeeshops open for longer.  As a Madrid student a number of years ago,  having a late-night coffee was always an attractive option (even at 2am).  It’s something I would love to see introduced here (for then we really will have something that more closely resembles a cafe culture), and I’m sure that freelance workers and bingers alike would be similarly interested.

I’m not sure about the sitting on ice suggestion.  Several readers commenting on the article have not warmed to the idea either.

How about something like a night market (similar to what you might find in the Far East)?  Or open air concerts (I’m thinking classical or jazz, mainly)?  Story-telling might work, as kids and grown-ups alike love Harry Potter etc. (I don’t count myself, as I’ve not read any of the books).  

Whatever goes ahead ultimately, it will have to be good.  The economic downturn will be challenging enough.

I feel that I can’t continue without further mentioning the economic slowdown.  One reason why I named this blog Reading Roars! three years ago was because of the roaring economy and Reading’s part in it (roaring capital of the Thames Valley).  Well, our economy isn’t roaring any more.  The lion has been muzzled.  Who knows when things will pick up again?

It does puzzle me slightly to see shoppers still out in force, laden with big shopping bags (and I don’t mean supermarket bags).  I say “slightly” as it is the run-up to Christmas, a number of retailers have been cutting prices and, I strongly suspect, the full force of the recession hasn’t quite hit us - yet.  The downturn will hit us ordinary people soon enough.  I guess that 6 months from now (or perhaps sooner, in January 2009) retail and hospitality organisations in Reading will struggle.

Which leads me to mention the town’s independent shops and restaurants.  I know there are concerns about Woolworths, with some people believing that it’s a Reading institution (is it?), but it really would be a pity, in my opinion, to lose the smaller players in town.  

Reading would be, to an extent, characterless or clone-like without them (can you imagine, for example, the UK without its traditional pubs?).  Take Picnic, for example, whose cheery, committed staff make it special, and Sushi one0eight, whose founder Chris works extremely hard to keep his unique vision alive.

Whatever happens, it’s worth sparing a thought (and a pound or two) for our indies in town.

Joff Hopkins, the highly talented Reading 107 FM presenter and formerly of Reading University’s Junction 11, has left town. 

Joff, who (rather kindly, I thought) expressed support for this blog, interviewing me a couple of times, has gone abroad*, to East Angular.    

The town has indeed lost a luminary.  For those interested in keeping up to date with his activities, you can follow his blog moblog de joff and tweets.

Best of luck, Joff!

* he has actually relocated to East Anglia.

It has taken me a long time - a little more than two months, to be exact - to update this blog.

I can’t explain my absence.  It’s just one of those things.  You stop doing something, and it sticks.  Only that this has a stuck a while longer. 

I’ve actually enjoyed this blogging break.  It’s nice, healthy even, to stop doing something for a while (I’ve been tweeting more regularly instead).  When eventually you do return to whatever activity you did, you see it differently at first before you settle into the usual routine (I find work and travel like that, such as when you return to the UK after a trip overseas).

I’ve also thought about the purpose of this blog and where to take it (if at all).  I’d like to continue producing Roarcasts (=podcasts), beginning with the third I promised in my last post, but I’m also mindful of the fact that 2009 is likely to bring pain to a number of local business owners.  Would it be wrong not to mention the downturn in any recorded conversation?

Without further ado, here is a run-down of things that I should have highlighted in the last couple of months:

• Tutu Melaku of Tutu’s Ethiopian Table won a Pride of Reading award last month in the Restaurant of the Year category (sponsored by The Oracle) for Tutu’s Ethiopian Table.  This is well-deserved, in my opinion.  The food, pleasingly different (Reading restaurants, in the main, offer too familiar food) and service are great.  Tutu’s coffee ceremonies are crowd-pleasing.  Tutu was also my first Roarcast subject recently.  Well done to all other award winners, too, as well as runners up.
   
• Young people and the Youth Engagement Service behind ReadingYouth.com demonstrated the new site to the general public at Broad St. Mall in November.  Like The Vibe, a new radio station aimed at the town’s young people, it’s a cracking initiative.  I hope they achieve success.  
   
• A reader named Charlotte Coad wrote in October to ask whether a creative writing club/group exists in Reading.  I have no idea.  Would anyone know?
   
• Reading Comedy Festival came and went (3 - 19 October).  I didn’t go (I’m not that into comedy gigs, though I was at the FymFyg fairly recently).   How did it go?  It’s exciting to have this sort of thing in Reading. 
   
• The University of Reading is once more placed in The Times Higher Education - QS World University Rankings top 200 institutions worldwide (or top 2.5%).  Not bad!  It was also good to see progress made in climate research (e.g. Oceans may provide clues to future rainfall) and in artificial intelligence (e.g. Machines edge closer to imitating human communication).
   
• Channel 4’s “Eight Minutes to Disaster”, aired in mid-September, followed Reading ambulance 212 around the town.  It was gripping.  212’s crew members did well, I thought, especially when having to deal with drunken idiots.  They really do have tough jobs.