Our round-up of what’s happening in the business world across Europe

When in Romania…

Romania is ready to do more business with the rest of Europe, and so is the Rembrandt Hotel (11 Smardan Street; tel. +40 (0)21 313 9315; rembrandt.ro) in the historical centre of Bucharest. This three-star, business-class hotel has 16 rooms, six of which are dedicated business rooms equipped with large desks, free internet access, DVD and CD players, a CD and DVD library, and 24-hour room service. There’s Wi-Fi internet access in the Klein Bar (which is open for breakfast) and the hotel has an airport pick-up service and multilingual reception staff.

Table hopping

Business Breakfast
Copenhagen: Café Victor (8 Ostergade; tel. +45 33 13 36 13), a Parisian-style brasserie and restaurant famous for its leisurely lunches and people-watching opportunities, has long been a Copenhagen favourite. Head here for a breakfast meeting and enjoy amazing Danish pastries with great coffee and free Wi-Fi. The café opens at 9am and serves brunch until 2pm, except on Sundays when it opens from 11am until 3pm.

Business Lunch
Berlin: With a chill in the air, a good place for a hearty but efficient business lunch is inside the new Dachgarten at the renovated Reichstag (Platz der Republik 1; tel. +49 (0)30 22 62 99 33). The grand location, with its Norman Foster-designed glass dome and hungry Bundestag parliamentarians, will be enough to focus your mind on business objectives. The elegant cuisine includes a good range of soups, meats, fish and salads. It’s also worth remembering that a reservation here lets you skip the hour-long queue for the dome.

Business Dinner (and drinks)
Moscow: Wow your guests with a blow-out session at designer Philippe Starck’s latest restaurant, Bon (4/4 Yakimanskaya; tel. +7 495 737 8008), next door to Moscow’s elite Billionaire club. Unlike the designer’s elegant Parisian restaurants, Bon is a mixture of Transylvanian bling (chandeliers, candelabra and zero natural light), rustic French (mismatched cutlery and chairs) and urban chic (graffiti and industrial furniture). Bon features Starck’s much-hyped Kalashnikov lamps, which were specially designed for the restaurant. The food, if it really matters, consists of Italian staples with a twist (such as a cheeseless lasagna of shrimp, calamari and zucchini) whipped up by chef Fabio Testa. The drinks menu is even longer than the food menu and is best enjoyed by those on very generous expenses.

Between meetings in… Milan

If you happen to have a spare hour in Milan before 14 January, head to Palazzo Reale (Piazza Duomo 12; tel. +39 (0)875672; Tuesdays to Sundays, 9.30am to 8pm, and 10.30pm Thursday; €9) to check out a retrospective of the work of Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka. Lempicka’s pieces epitomised the art-deco style of the 1920s and 1930s, and her portraits of bold, sexual women, such as Portrait of a Young Girl in a Green Dress (1929), will be on display. The show also aims to recreate the art-deco era with historical documents, work by Lempicka’s contemporaries and information about the big events of the day.

CITY LOWDOWN

Madrid Dial +34 for Spain
SPAIN Population: 40,398,000; Currency: Euro; Average temperature (Dec): 6°C

Bed down
With nearly 40 hotels opening this year alone, Madrid is currently creaking with establishments competing for the business traveller’s attention.

Among the best newcomers is Hotel Urban, a luxurious glass-and-chrome affair located between the Puerta del Sol and the museum district. The hotel’s Europa Decó and Glass Bar are already among Madrid’s hottest spots and there’s a great rooftop terrace with an open-air bar.

Alternatively, the sleek, hyper-modern ME Madrid is located steps away from the famous Museo del Prado and the Puerta del Sol. Among the services the hotel offers are a personalised concierge service, a business centre open 24 hours a day, high-speed internet, computer, fax and scanner access, a plasma TV with home theatre and surround speakers, free Wi-Fi adaptors for UK and US guests, a safe large enough for a laptop, a three-item ironing service on arrival, free local phonecalls – and even free use of an iPod.

A taste of the city
No matter how late your meetings are, remember that eating in Madrid is an allday affair. Lunch is typically served between 1.30pm and 5pm, and most restaurants don’t get going for dinner until after 10pm.

Madrid’s businessfolk favour Iroco in the smart Salamanca district, north of the Retiro park, where Asian dishes such as prawn rolls and vegetable tempura are served alongside traditional jamón ibérico. Entrées around €25. Alternatively, at Lago de Sanabria, across from the covered market, tortilla are served warm or cold. Entrées €12-€25. The nearby La Trainera is one of Madrid’s best seafood restaurants. Entrées €20-€40.

The best tapas bars are scattered in and around the Plaza de Santa Ana, a neighbourhood on the rise. You can hop from one bar to another since nearly all serve the same fare: massive plates of jamón ibérico, salchichón, lomo and, of course, cerveza. For a cosmopolitan crowd, head for the bars and coffee shops of Chueca. Mama Ines is a charming, American-style coffeehouse. Founded in the 1880s and still going strong, the Café Comercial and the Café Gijón attract fanatically loyal crowds. El Madroño, just off the Plaza Mayor, is a great little bar that serves fantastic tapas. The entrance even has tiles on the wall depicting Velázquez’s painting Los Borrachos (The Drunkards).

If you want a traditional, leisurely meal, book a table at Botin, one of the oldest restaurants in Europe, which employed the painter Goya as a dishwasher and was a favourite of Ernest Hemingway. It’s a tourist hotspot, but it has terrific atmosphere and service.

Hold the sherry
If you want to loosen your tie, the perfect spot for an after-dinner drink is the rooftop bar at El Viajero in La Latina, but in colder months, hang out with the locals and catch a live jazz band at MOE. Close to Plaza Colon, this bar has great music, pool tables and a dance floor. Expect funk, blues and jazz jam sessions Monday to Wednesday, and bands Thursday to Saturday.

The rain in Spain…
If it’s pouring check out the newly extended Museo Reina Sofía. The project, designed by architect Jean Nouvel, cost €90m and has more than doubled the size of the museum, which is the permanent home of Picasso’s Guernica. The particularly time-conscious will be delighted to learn that the museum restaurant, Arola, comes under the direction of twice Michelin-starred chef Sergi Arola, who has split the eating area into three sections: a bar, a café and a restaurant. If you only have 20 minutes to spare, don’t miss Las Meninas hanging in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Velázquez’s masterpiece is one of the greatest paintings ever, inspiring Goya, Picasso and generations of Spanish artists.

When the sun shines
Parque Retiro is Madrid’s central park, and even in winter it’s pleasant to people-watch from one of the benches or outdoor cafés scattered around the acres of shady paths and manicured gardens. Campo del Moro’s gardens provide the quickest and most convincing escape from the crowds, noises and stresses of city life. They’re full of winding paths that give little hint of the hectic activity taking place just across the fences.

Honey, you shouldn’t have…
Madrid deserves its reputation for shopping, whether it’s contemporary furniture, art, clothing, leather goods or accessories, but plan your time carefully. The three main shopping areas are the streets around Puerta del Sol, home of major department stores (such as El Corte Inglés); the elegant but pricey north-western Salamanca district; and the maze of Armani, Prada and local Spanish designers along Claudio Coello. For hipper clothes, Chueca is a safe bet – check out Calles Fuencarral, Hortaleza, Almirante, and Piamonte. For classy seasonal gifts, María Cabello is an old liquor shop that has been selling lesser-known Spanish wines for almost 100 years. Remember that many small and family-run shops still close during lunch hours.

The business person’s little black book

Hotel Urban
Carrera de San Jerónimo 34; tel. 91 787 7770; www.derbyhotels.com
ME Madrid
Plaza de Santa Ana 14; tel. 91 701 6000; www.solmelia.com
Iroco
Calle de Velázquez 18; tel. 91 431 7381
Lago de Sanabria
Calle de Ayala 23; tel. 91 576 7421
La Trainera
Calle de Lagasca 60; tel. 91 576 8035
Mama Ines
Calle de Hortaleza 22; tel. 91 523 2333
Café Comercial
Glorieta de Bilbao 7; tel. 91 521 5655
Café Gijón
Paseo de Recoletos 21; tel. 91 521 5425
El Madroño
Plaza de la Puerta Cerrada 7
Botin
Cuchilleros 17; tel. 91 366 4217
El Viajero
Plaza de la Cebada 11; tel. 91 366 9064
MOE
Santísima Trinidad 32; tel. 91 448 0104
Museo Reina Sofía
Calle Santa Isabel 52; tel. 91 744 1000
Museo ThyssenBornemisza
Paseo del Prado 8; tel. 91 369 0151
María Cabello
Calle de Echegaray 9; tel. 91 429 5230

Foil your competitors

You can smell chocolate in the air practically everywhere in Brussels, but the greatest cluster of chocolatiers can be found at Place du Grand Sablon, a 10-minute walk south from Gare Centrale. With the holiday season around the corner it’s worth checking out pâtissier, glacier and chocolatier Wittamer (6/12/13 Place du Grand Sablon; tel. +32 (0)2 512 3742; wittamer.com), the official supplier to the court of Belgium, which sells 500g selections of amazing chocolates for around €28. If your goodwill runs to clients as well as friends, Wittamer has introduced a Corporate Collection – custom-wrapped boxes containing a range of specially chosen chocolates – as part of its business gift range. The company requires two weeks notice for this service.

Taking business in hand

With hand luggage being so heavily scrutinised these days, sleek new cases will no doubt end up under many a Christmas tree this year. Tech Air (techair.co.uk) has just unveiled its latest laptop cases, which feature a patented protection system designed to safeguard laptops from any shock by surrounding them with a layer of air cells. The range includes slim cases, a classic ladies’ laptop case that looks and feels like a handbag, and a classic clam case with an easily accessible front compartment for important accessories.

Meanwhile, knomo (knomo.com), another laptop case company, has just launched a huge range of funky leather and nylon twill bags designed by some of the brightest names in the fashion world. The company was created because, as founder Howard Harrison discovered when someone walked off with his laptop, all laptop bags look the same.

Spotlight on…

Sir Rocco Forte
Sir Rocco Forte has passed the halfway mark in his plan to create a chain of small but unique luxury properties across Europe’s major cities. Forte, the chairman and CEO of Rocco Forte Hotels, currently has 13 hotels in cities such as Rome, London, Frankfurt, St Petersburg and Edinburgh. Hotel de Rome (pictured below), the company’s second German property, opened in the former Dresdner Bank headquarters near Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate in October. Four more will open next year – two in Germany and a 101-room hotel in St Thomas’s Monastery in Prague, where the monks will reside in part of the building. He also has his eye on Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Milan and Moscow. “By the time we have 25 properties, we will have coverage of all the major European cities,” says Forte. “No one else does that.”

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