Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Michel Barnier, France’s new prime minister, picked a conservative senator for the key post of interior minister alongside figures from president Emmanuel Macron’s camp in an effort to forge a stable government that could survive in a hung parliament.
It took the conservative Barnier, the EU’s former Brexit negotiator, more than two weeks of difficult negotiations with the various parties in the National Assembly to come up with a government that he hopes will not fall to a no-confidence vote. The government faces tense budget negotiations that are expected to include unpopular spending cuts.
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Bruno Retailleau, a conservative senator from Barnier’s party known for his hard line on immigration and harsh criticism of Macron, will serve in the key post of interior minister, overseeing police and security. He replaces political heavyweight Gérald Darmanin.
But centrists from Macron’s party or their allies were selected for key ministries in which the president traditionally holds more sway than the prime minister. The former Europe minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, is being promoted to head of the ministry for foreign affairs, while loyalist Sébastien Lecornu remains in charge at defence and the armies.
“This is the most rightward-leaning government for more than a decade when Nicolas Sarkozy was president, and Retailleau is the only one real political heavyweight in the cabinet,” said political analyst and journalist Alain Duhamel on BFM TV.
The “real power” will lie in parliament, he added, where the opposition, stretching from the leftist Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) to the far-right led by Marine Le Pen, will hold the fate of the Barnier government in their hands.
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A little-known pair of deputies from Macron’s party has been named to serve in the crucial finance and budget ministries. Antoine Armand, a 33-year member of parliament who served on the energy commission, will take the all-important economy, finance and industry job. Another 39-year old lawmaker, Laurent Saint-Martin, will be in charge of the budget and public finances, reporting directly to Barnier.
Replacing veteran finance minister Bruno Le Maire, the pair have the delicate task of crafting a new budget for 2025 that aims to redress deteriorating public finances with spending cuts.
The talks are expected to be contentious as Macron’s camp seeks to protect his pro-business legacy by holding off the left’s calls for tax hikes. The budget talks must grapple with a public deficit that is already expected to exceed the previous target of 5.1 per cent of GDP this year and reach at least 5.6 per cent.
With Barnier as premier, the cabinet will be operating more independently than at any time in Macron’s term in office. This could lead to tensions as the men hail from different parties and Macron is seeking to protect his legacy and retain his responsibility for defence and international diplomacy.
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French politics have been in turmoil since Macron called snap elections in June that delivered a hung parliament where none of the three main blocs held enough seats to have a clear claim to the premiership.
Although Macron’s centrist alliance lost the most seats while the left and far-right expanded their ranks, the president selected Barnier to seal an alliance with the smallest faction, the conservative Les Republicains party that only won 47 seats.
In all, 38 portfolios including junior minister posts have now been allotted, with none going to the left-wing alliance NFP that won the most seats in the assembly. The NFP pushed hard for their own candidate to become prime minister, only to be rejected by Macron. Leftist activists held protests in Paris and elsewhere on Saturday against what they see as Macron’s choice to ignore the left’s election win.
“Why did Macron dissolve parliament if it’s to end up the same lot, just even more to the right?” former Socialist president François Hollande told France Bleu Radio on Friday after the ministerial appointments began to leak.
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Green party leader Marine Tondelier called the Barnier government “indecent” and “shameful” given the NFP’s strong result in the legislative election.
In a social media post on Saturday, Le Pen criticised the cabinet selection as not in keeping with “voters’ desire for change”. She said this would be “a transitional government”, hinting again that her Rassemblement National party could bring down Barnier’s government.
“The fact we did not block the government from the outset does not mean we don’t have the ability, depending on the budget, to back a no-confidence motion if we believe that the highest interests of the French are being trampled on,” Le Pen told Le Parisien newspaper last week.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Elon Musk has backed down and complied with a Brazilian judge’s orders that he appoint a legal representative for X, according to court documents, paving the way for the restoration of the social media site in the country following a weeks-long ban.
X was banned in Brazil late last month amid an escalating feud between the billionaire and Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes, who had demanded the site remove accounts linked to far-right individuals and groups.
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Musk refused to do so and shuttered X’s office in the Latin American country. He then ignored a court deadline to appoint a legal representative to the company — a requirement under the country’s civil code — which led Moraes to ban the platform.
Moraes — a controversial figure who has led a years-long crackdown on misinformation and extremist content online — also froze the bank accounts of both X and Musk’s satellite internet provider Starlink, claiming that the companies were part of the same “economic unit”.
Starlink is a wholly owned subsidiary of SpaceX, in which Musk owns about 40 per cent of the stock but commands 79 per cent of voting rights.
On Saturday the stand-off between the billionaire and the judge appeared to be reaching a conclusion after lawyers for X announced the company had appointed an official legal representative. Rachel de Oliveira Villa Nova Conceição previously served in the role before Musk shuttered the company’s São Paulo office.
Multiple media outlets also reported that X had agreed to remove the controversial accounts that were at the centre of the feud between the two men.
X and Musk did not respond to requests for comment.
The developments represent a climbdown for Musk, who has been idolised by sections of the Brazilian right for publicly taking on Moraes.
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The billionaire repeatedly mocked the judge on social media, accusing him of being a dictator and posting mocked-up photos of him in prison.
“One day this picture of you in prison will be real. Mark my words,” Musk posted at one point.
Moraes, however, won the backing of powerful political figures, including the rest of the Supreme Court bench and leftwing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“The Brazilian justice system may have given an important signal that the world is not obliged to put up with Musk’s far-right anything-goes attitude just because he is rich,” Lula said after the ban was announced.
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Prior to the ban, X had some 20mn users in Brazil and was the ninth most popular social media platform, far behind Instagram and Facebook. In the wake of Moraes’s order, millions of Brazilians began using Bluesky, a similar microblogging site.
On Saturday X remained blocked in Brazil pending information requests from Moraes and the calculation of outstanding fines.
Additional reporting by Beatriz Langella and Hannah Murphy
Two days after a devastating sabotage operation stunned Hizbollah and plunged its communications network into chaos, one of the militant group’s most senior military leaders called a clandestine meeting of at least 15 elite officers in southern Beirut.
By nightfall the men were dead, killed along with at least 10 civilians in an Israeli air strike on Friday that targeted the residential building in Hizbollah’s heartland where they were meeting in an underground room. The attack dealt a crushing blow that rounded off probably the most calamitous week in the Iranian-backed, Lebanese group’s 40-year history.
Coming so soon after suspected back-to-back Israeli attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday that caused thousands of Hizbollah’s pagers and walkie-talkies to explode, killing at least 37 people and wounding thousands, it reinforced the group’s vulnerability to Israel’s intelligence agencies.
Not only had Israel been able to strike successfully at the heart of Hizbollah’s command and control structures, it also delivered a stinging psychological blow, spreading panic across Lebanon and undermining the credibility of the nation’s dominant political and military force.
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“It’s definitely the hardest moment for the organisation since the 1990s,” said Emile Hokayem, director of regional security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “Militarily, it’s the biggest blow they’ve suffered so far.”
The question facing Hizbollah, battered and humiliated, is how it responds.
The group has been locked in an intensifying conflict with Israel since it first fired rockets into the Jewish state a day after Hamas’s October 7 attack triggered the war in Gaza. Those clashes, however, have largely been contained to the Lebanese-Israeli border region. Hizbollah has made clear it does not want to be drawn into an all-out war with Israel’s far better equipped military.
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But Israel said this week that it was entering a “new phase” of the conflict as it launched the audacious attacks in Beirut and pounded the border region with the heaviest air strikes of the conflict.
Analysts said Hizbollah is facing mounting pressure from its supporters, whose sense of security has been severely diminished, to change tactics and more forcefully repel Israel in a bid to restore its deterrence.
Yet at the same time it is grappling with the aftermath of its most serious security breach in recent history, a severely disrupted communications network and the loss of some of its most senior commanders.
“Hizbollah’s flank is exposed and they know it,” said a person familiar with the group’s thinking. “I don’t think they’ve ever been in such a vulnerable position before and it’s sowing enormous fear and panic. Everyone is wondering at all times, ‘what does Israel have in store for us next?’”
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Hizbollah’s response has been muted, with its leader Hassan Nasrallah vowing a familiar refrain of retribution and ordering only a slight uptick in rocket fire at Israel.
The group has acknowledged that two top commanders — including Ibrahim Aqil, the founder of its Radwan Force — were among those killed on Friday.
Israel said it killed the “senior chain of command” of the Radwan, the arm of Hizbollah responsible for cross-border operations into Israel and defending southern Lebanon against a ground invasion.
Aqil’s death means that there are now only two out of the seven original members of the jihad council, Hizbollah’s top military body, left alive, according to two people familiar with the group’s operations.
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On top of that, hundreds of their fighters were maimed by the exploding pagers and walkie-talkies.
Experts said that Hizbollah would probably need time to recuperate and therefore may not significantly immediately escalate the conflict.
The group, Iran’s main proxy and one of the world’s most heavily armed non-state actors, still boasts a vast arsenal of rockets and increasingly accurate precision-guided missiles, and tens of thousands of fighters.
During the past 11 months of conflict, it has only deployed a fraction of its capabilities, experts said.
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But Israel has spent months targeting its fighters and rocket and missile launchers along the border.
“Hizbollah may be battered and weakened but it is not dead,” said Hokayem. “It’s still a disciplined, motivated organisation with an ethos and an ideology. They can survive.”
The choices facing the group includes raising the stakes with Israel to restore its credibility
“The other option is to suck it up, but Nasrallah was very clear about it, he’s not going to let go of the linkage between [supporting Hamas in] Gaza and Lebanon, because he knows it’s about his political perception and credibility,” he said.
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“There’s an additional element, essentially all your detractors no longer see you as all powerful.”
In a front-page story on Saturday, Al Akhbar, a pro-Hizbollah Lebanese newspaper that often reflects the group’s thinking, said the militants would be forced to change tactics.
“What the enemy did yesterday was like closing the curtain on any political chapter related to the ongoing war in the region, and opening the door to a new level of confrontation that will force the resistance [Hizbollah] to adopt new methods,” Al Akhbar wrote.
However, Amal Saad, an academic and Hizbollah expert, said: “No response will restore deterrence, that ship sailed a while ago”.
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“The next phase will now be about denying Israel its strategic objectives,” she said, by preventing some 60,000 Israelis displaced from their country’s north from returning home.
“We’re talking about a new way to fight now because it’s a new paradigm, and a new stage in the war,” Saad said, adding that Hizbollah doesn’t have the intelligence capabilities to do respond in kind. “They will probably do something qualitatively different than what they’ve done before.”
That would involve keeping up the tempo of daily cross-border attacks, while trying to avoid mass civilian casualties to avoid giving Israel a pretext to trigger a full-scale war, she said.
Michael Milshtein, a former Israeli intelligence officer, said he believed Israel wanted to push Hizbollah to accept a diplomatic settlement that would force them back from the Israeli border. But he added that it “seems Israel is preparing itself for a broader escalation”.
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“Israel really wants to cause damage to the functional and military sphere in Hizbollah,” Milshtein said.
But there are also risks for Israel, particularly if it slid into “a broad escalation, even a regional one, not only in the north, without a strategy”.
“We have already seen in Gaza, the war started well by occupying almost half of Gaza, but now we are in a war of attrition,” Milshtein said.
“I am afraid that without a strategy, we will find ourselves in an unclear war, with heavy prices, a lot of crises with allies, and without very concrete goals. This would be a catastrophe.”
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Chipmaker Qualcomm approached its struggling rival Intel about a potential takeover in recent days, according to two people familiar with the matter.
A deal is far from certain and no formal offer has been made, according to people with knowledge of the approach. A person close to Qualcomm said the chipmaker would only pursue a friendly deal, and people with knowledge of Intel’s thinking said the company harbours concerns that a deal would be stymied by antitrust regulators.
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A full takeover of Intel would top Microsoft’s $69bn acquisition of Activision as the largest technology deal in history. Intel’s market capitalisation was $93bn on Friday after its share price jumped 8 per cent following an initial report on Qualcomm’s approach by The Wall Street Journal.
Once the world’s largest chipmaker, Intel’s years-long fall from grace has accelerated in recent months. The company lost nearly $30bn in market value in August after a disastrous earnings report in which chief executive Pat Gelsinger announced 15,000 job cuts and scrapped its dividend.
Intel’s share price has declined 50 per cent since the start of this year, putting the company on the defensive about the risk of approaches from potential bidders and the threat of hostile shareholders.
Intel is working with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to evaluate Qualcomm’s approach, people with knowledge of the matter said. For several months investment bankers from Morgan Stanley have been advising it on how to defend itself from activist investors, a move previously reported by CNBC.
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Intel is considering a wide range of asset sales, people familiar with the company’s thinking said.
Qualcomm raised the possibility of a full takeover of Intel after exploring an acquisition of several Intel assets, people familiar with the matter said, confirming an earlier report by Reuters.
Unlike Intel, Qualcomm does not build its own chips and instead outsources production to outside manufacturers. Qualcomm, which has a $188bn market capitalisation, is working with investment bank Evercore to evaluate its approach to Intel.
It is unclear how it would fund a wholesale takeover of Intel, or whether it would divest assets as part of a takeover. A deal is likely to face intense antitrust scrutiny and political concerns over national security.
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Should a deal go forward, it would be pitched to US regulators as a bid to strengthen American chipmakers in their race to compete with Chinese manufacturers, according to people familiar with the matter.
The people cautioned that a lengthy acquisition process could cause the chipmakers to fall behind foreign rivals, a concern that may scuttle a deal.
Intel and Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Morgan Stanley, Evercore and Qualcomm did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The approach adds to mounting pressure on Gelsinger, who was appointed in 2021 and is three years into a five-year turnaround plan to transform Intel into a chip manufacturer that rivals industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
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The company has hit several stumbling blocks along the way: high profile executives have departed, including industry veteran Lip-Bu Tan who left the company’s board. Intel has also lagged rivals Nvidia and AMD in sales of artificial intelligence chips to data centres.
Intel shareholders would probably balk at a sale to Qualcomm, analysts at Citi argued in a note published on Friday. They said Intel should instead exit its semiconductor manufacturing business “as we believe the company has a very small chance of becoming a profitable leading-edge foundry”.
Takeover talks are “almost too silly to comment on”, they wrote.
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When Tupperware filed for bankruptcy this week, it put me in mind of a friend who recently asked me to return their biscuit container. No drama there. Man is born free, and if you’ve exercised that freedom to become the sort of man who’d ask for a used tissue back, well that’s none of my business.
The issue was that they asked me without warning, as we stood in the kitchen post-dinner party saying our goodbyes. And so I was forced to open The Cupboard — you know the one — and shatter the thin veneer of sophistication I had spent the evening polishing. Was theirs the container that now bore a tomato stain in the shape of Australia? The one stacked at the bottom of a gravity-defying reverse pyramid? A protracted search confirmed my suspicion that it was in fact the one now home to the laundry pegs.
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If I were to apportion blame for the embarrassment felt in that moment, I would lay it at the feet of Brownie Wise. In the late 1940s, in Florida, Wise started hosting home sale parties to shift Tupperware. She did it to combat technology resistance: viewed in a catalogue or in-store, people thought Earl Tupper’s newly patented containers would smell bad and be hard to seal.
But the parties, which became Tupperware’s most successful venture, sold more than pliable plastic: a vision of colour-coordinated cupboard harmony. “No unsightly half-used packages!” promised one ad, which showed a fridge in which even the milk was stored in matching pastel. Tupperware would satisfy “the woman’s demand for beauty” somewhere she’d not previously known she demanded it: her leftover lasagne.
In seeking bankruptcy protection, the company cited a “challenging macroeconomic environment” and consumers moving away from direct sales. One thing they could not cite was waning interest in beautifying hidden parts of the home.
“Smart” storage solutions are a booming sector, driven by influencers who demo ingenious solutions to household “problems” on their social channels: lazy Susans to organise condiments, mini peg rails to hang crisp packets on. On TikTok, there’s a whole sub-genre of “restock videos” in which people decant bathroom, cleaning or fridge products from the custom-designed packaging they were sold in into aesthetically harmonious containers.
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Like their party-hosting foremothers, these influencers are icons of a particular sort of empowerment. They have found a way to build status (and in some cases small fortunes) within the domestic sphere. But the rest of us should protect our chaos cupboards at all costs. Storage is the backstage area of the home and it doesn’t need to look “nice” any more than a sock drawer does.
How could it, when the forces of progress conspire against any attempt at order? Every month brings with it new takeaway containers that it would be a shame to waste, every Christmas a stocking full of beeswax food wraps and silicon bowl lids, every pickling project a new Mason jar. The “tupperware” most people own comes from a hundred knock-off brands, and it is an everyday miracle of engineering that not a single one of them can fit another’s lid.
I got a lesson in how to embrace this anarchy with style last week, when I spent the day in Angela Hartnett’s kitchen. Hartnett, a brilliant, successful and somewhat chaotic chef, revealed that when the tyranny of mismatched leftovers threatens to overwhelm her she a hosts a “freezer party” and invites the neighbours to help her consume the mystery contents of every zip-lock bag and deli container that’s been playing Jenga in the cold store. There are no grand promises that she’ll do “better” next time — she simply waits for the chaos to build again to breaking point.
To put it in terms a Utah momfluencer would appreciate, it’s time to give up on ever finding that missing lid and #blessthismess instead.
As part of this weekend’s business lunch issue of the magazine, we asked FT staff and contributors for their favourite places to eat in and around the City, and which table they like to sit at. From hallowed institutions to secret gardens, here are their top picks.
For tradition
Arlington
It’s as if Le Caprice, formerly on this site, never left. Both the old and new restaurants are excellent for business. Perhaps it’s because it’s not easy to get a table, and there’s a cachet to having a good position, or because you’ll bump into well known business or celebrity faces, or simply that you’ll always have a delicious meal.
Nearest station: Green Park
Where to sit: Past the bar, second table on the right near the window (if you can get past the restaurant’s official policy of not reserving specific tables)
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— James Max, Rich People’s Problems columnist
Sweetings
Where better for a business lunch than a City stalwart that only opens on weekdays at lunchtime? Sweetings has been serving seafood to London’s bankers and brokers for well over a century. On a recent visit I ended up sat with a septuagenarian property investor who has been a regular for 50 years. After a few hours there you may lose track of which decade you are in, particularly if you order their signature drink, the Black Velvet, a heady mix of Guinness and champagne served in a pewter tankard. Stick to one if you need to return to the office afterwards, trust me.
Nearest station: Mansion House
Where to sit: There are no reservations at Sweetings. Sit where you’re told to
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— Robert Smith, corporate finance editor
Wiltons
For a couple of decades, I was too intimidated to enter Wiltons. I would pass the entrance fairly often on my way to and from The Economist’s old offices, and see red-faced men in double-breasted suits tumbling out after a long lunch. But when I finally dared to cross the threshold, it quickly became apparent to me that this was the ideal spot for a business lunch. The tables are widely spaced and the surrounding conversation rarely seems to rise above a polite murmur. The menu and wine list are agreeably predictable. Also, it’s expensive, so it’s really best if somebody else is picking up the tab. The red-faced old men no longer intimidate me. Perhaps I have become one myself?
Don’t come to Otto’s when it’s summer or if you’re doing dry January or if you’re pressed for time. Come when the days are drawing in, when you have a voracious appetite and you’re up for a lengthy lunch. Then sink into the red velvet banquettes (inspired by legendary Parisian establishment Maxim’s) and enjoy the best example of classic French dining this side of the Channel. Otto’s is most famous for its Canard à la Presse, a duck extravaganza spread out over three courses, and served, if you’re lucky, by owner Otto Tepasse. The restaurant commands a loyal following of local business people and lawyers, and is thankfully off the tourist track.
Nearest station: Chancery Lane
Where to sit: When asked, director Elin Hansen sent a breakdown of how she matchmakes every table. Table 1 is the “establishment table”; table 5 for lovers; table 4 for young people and table 9 for meetings
— Harriet Agnew, asset management editor
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The Delaunay
Noisy enough not to be easily overheard, but not so noisy you cannot be heard at all, this is the owners’ successful attempt to reapply the formula that made sister restaurant, The Wolseley, Piccadilly’s business-breakfast venue of choice. The Delaunay’s catchment area of Fleet Street, the Inns of Court and the City and an undemanding menu of mittel-European comfort food means it is usually full for lunch. Later, the networking and business gossip is leavened with pre- and post-theatre chat from the Covent Garden crowd.
Nearest station: Covent Garden
Where to sit: A booth near the window on the western side
— Andrew Hill, senior business writer
For food
Luca
My favourite spot for a business lunch is Luca, an Italian restaurant near Farringdon. The set menu in the bar area is the best value in a London Michelin-starred restaurant (£32 for two courses, £38 for three). The area is quickly becoming the hotspot destination for quality restaurants in the City. Nearby, Bouchon Racine has perfect lighting, good vibes and elegant food. Something about it just hits the spot. Best of all, you’ll never run into someone you know at either.
Nearest station: Farringdon
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Where to sit: Co-founder Daniel Willis says the best seat in the bar is the middle booth, table 103
— Arash Massoudi, finance and markets editor
Hawksmoor Guildhall
Red meat is very much on the menu at Hawksmoor Guildhall, the subterranean oak-panelled steakhouse that has become a City institution since opening in 2011. Its old-world charm is a big hit with foreign bankers, with low lighting, brown leather chairs and a well-stocked cocktail bar. And of course its famed steaks. More affordable deals are also available. A three-course meal is offered at lunchtime or early evening for £33. An ice-cold Shaky Pete’s, an ale and gin cocktail mixed with lemon juice and ginger, is well worth a try.
Nearest station: Bank
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Where to sit: Hawksmoor co-founder Huw Gott says his favourite tables across the London restaurants are table 45 at Wood Wharf (for two) and table 43 at Air Street (for four)
— Owen Walker, European banking correspondent
St John Smithfield
I stopped doing business lunches in 2008. Just the thought of being away from my desk for three hours in the middle of the day gives me indigestion. In the event I really, really like someone, however, I will concede to a meeting at St John, where I will expect my guest to share a Welsh rarebit and a big blousy green salad. The leaves are nightmarishly tricky to eat, hence the lunch will be a test of our relationship. Will you still love me when we fail to discuss any pressing professional matters whatsoever and I am covered in vinaigrette and bits of lettuce? That, my friend, is someone I can work with.
Nearest station: Farringdon
Where to sit: The bar, never the restaurant. (There are no reservations, but head chef Jonathan Whittle says he likes the tables to the side of the bar best)
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— Jo Ellison, HTSI editor and FT Weekend deputy editor
BiBi
Hidden away in a pocket of Mayfair, this tiny restaurant packs a punch. Small plates, British produce and Indian-inspired dishes, but not as you know them. Best for one-on-one meetings, secret squirrel conversations or for those who like eating at the counter. It’s fine dining without the fustiness and business friendly without the suit-and-tie vibe. It’s hard to imagine any bad choices on the à la carte or tasting menus, with chaat and grilled selections that surprise and delight.
Nearest station: Marble Arch
Best seat: A booth
— Anjli Raval, management editor
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For privacy
Cloth
I look for somewhere that’s buzzy but where you can talk without being overheard at the next table, which rules out most of London’s fancy but cramped restaurants. My new favourite lunch spot, if wine is involved, is Cloth on Cloth Fair. I have never liked the steely, shiny side of the City, and this is a nod to its far more ancient roots, a wine bar with amazing bottles and very good food (including proper non-aubergine-based choices for veggies like me) in an old townhouse in Smithfield.
Nearest station: Barbican
Where to sit: Director Joe Haynes says table 21 is the house favourite — near the entrance, next to the window
— Isabel Berwick, Working It host and editor
Kerridge’s Bar & Grill
Admittedly, the Embankment is not prime business lunch territory. But the upside is that the grand dining room at Kerridge’s Bar & Grill tends to be a discreet place to meet. The leather banquettes and club chairs even have half screens rising above them for further privacy. This is the place to go when you do not wish to be disturbed or overheard. The food is both precise and premium.
Nearest station: Embankment
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Where to sit: The restaurant declined to give numbers, but said that the best tables are two six-seaters referred to internally as the “Robi Walters tables”
— Malcolm Moore, energy editor
Toklas
Toklas has everything. Unfussy, tasty food served briskly. A Sydney-standard outdoor terrace. Well spaced tables, all the better for ears-only chat. And best of all, it’s down a side street, in a weird looking building, well off the beaten biz lunch track, so you will be very unlucky to bump into anyone you know. If you want to go cheap and cheerful, there’s also a Toklas bakery and café a few doors down.
Nearest station: Temple
Best seat: Maître d’ Alcides Gauto says the booths under the Wolfgang Tillmans are popular with regulars
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— Pilita Clark, business columnist
Garden Café
I often want to meet people somewhere that will put them at ease. In a quiet, fairly random pocket of London, the Garden Café at the Garden Museum does just that. It is unpretentious, perhaps because it doesn’t need to manifest an identity when it somehow pulls off a restaurant, museum café, church graveyard and courtyard garden all at once. The food (modern British and European) is simple and exquisite. It is served in an airy yet intimate hideaway of copper-cladding, glass walls and lush planting. Best of all, most people don’t know it’s there.
Nearest station: Lambeth North
Where to sit: The red tables in the courtyard garden
— Antonia Cundy, special investigations reporter
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For convenience
Enoteca da Luca
If you work in the City, the trio of Enoteca da Luca modern Italian restaurants are the ideal spot for an understated get-together. My favourite is the compact Watling Street site, all smart banquettes and exposed brick, just round the corner from FT HQ. The Basinghall Street outpost, a short walk away near the Guildhall, has a similar vibe. Insurance workers in and around the Lloyd’s quarter can take advantage of a delightful outdoor terrace at the larger Devonshire Square site. The restaurants have slightly different menus, but all excel at a range of modern Italian classics, both tapas-style and full-size, with an excellent Italian wine list to boot.
Nearest station: Mansion House
Where to sit: At Watling Street, the cosy table in the rear left corner, table 18, is best for two
— Patrick Jenkins, deputy editor
Taberna Etrusca
I love Italy and particularly love Italian food, which, at its most enjoyable, is appetising, varied and unpretentious. So it is my good fortune that within a few minutes of the FT’s office in Friday Street is the Taberna Etrusca, dating from 1967, located in Bow Churchyard, run by Italians and styled as a classically Italian trattoria. Its food is also classically Italian, indeed Tuscan. I normally have an antipasto or pasta. If I am feeling greedy, I have both. I rarely have a secondo (main course). I like to finish my meal with vanilla gelato affogato — a gelato with espresso poured on top. Service is excellent and friendly.
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Nearest station: St Paul’s
Where to sit: The outdoor area, which you can enter from the back
— Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator
For novelty
Stem + Stem
A relatively new restaurant and florist tucked away down Bow Lane, in the heart of the City. Unlike many traditional business lunch haunts, the restaurant is light and airy and adorned with hanging plants and flowers, creating a little oasis of calm in the bustling financial district. The restaurant is small and intimate, but there is enough space between tables, helping to ensure a degree of privacy. It offers a decent wine list for those meetings that involve a tipple.
Nearest station: Mansion House
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Where to sit: Near the window looking out over Bow Lane, table 3 or 4 (the latter has a better view)
— Emma Dunkley, asset management reporter
Beigel Bake
I’ve always found that high-tone people don’t mind being taken to low-tone places. They feel a little edgy, a little free. Some of the most successful business lunches I’ve had were over salt-beef bagels (yes to pickles and mustard) from the bagel shop on Brick Lane with the white sign (not the yellow). One starched tablecloth is much like another, but a claggy hunk of cheesecake to follow your bagel — that’s memorable.
Nearest station: Shoreditch High St
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Where to sit: A park bench. There are several pocket parks in a five minute radius
— Josh Spero, associate arts editor
Much missed venues
Massimo at the Corinthia (2011-18)
“Fishy in the very best sense”
— Josh Spero
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Hush Holborn (1999-2023)
“Somewhere you could charge up your delicious lunch to expenses without anyone raising an eyebrow”
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