bthere: Inflight Magazine Brussels Airlines

Text Boyd Farrow

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

Text Boyd Farrow

Table hopping

Business breakfast

Munich If you are not too keen on spilling buffet yoghurt down your tie, forgo the usual German breakfast extravaganza and start your day with the sophisticated charm of Café Ludwigsbar (Ludwibstraße 11, Munich, tel. +49 (0)89 1 2190 2 212). Here, you can get your first caffeine fix of the day from the Frauenkirche-sized gleaming, stainless steel Astoria espresso machine, which is this superb establishment’s centrepiece. Pastries and mini sandwiches are great, but, if you weaken, there is an all-German menu of fruit, salami, cheese, muesli, bread rolls and yoghurt. Just watch the tie. Open Monday to Saturday: 8am to 7pm.

Business lunch

Milan A reassuring choice for a relaxed, but sophisticated lunch in this ritzy city is Trattoria Milanese (Via Santa Marta 11, Milan 20123, tel. +39 02 8645 1991), which is hidden away in a labyrinth of cobbled streets in the city’s financial quarter. It is worth persevering with the stroppiest concierge or taxi driver because, once inside, you and your guests will discover a slice of real Milan. As well as the menu – obviously, there is the obligatory risotto al salto and costolette alla Milanese – most of the clientele is local, a 50-50 mix of suits and artier types. Your guests will be frothing like the finest zabajone.

Business dinner

Moscow It’s official: thanks to the recent oil boom and, frankly, the worst excesses of capitalism, Moscow is now the world’s priciest city, surpassing even Tokyo. There are now at least 25 billionaires and more than 88,000 millionaires a stone’s throw from the Kremlin building – although we urge you not to even think about it. So, if you feel the need to impress business colleagues – or if your company plastic is truly a flexible comrade – check out legendary Japanese restaurant Izumi’s new Tatami Club (9/2 Spiridonovka ulitsa Building 4, tel. +7 (0)495 203 5560), an exclusive venue offering theatrical Japanese specialties. Each dining party is entertained in a private room by their own personal geisha, who sings, dances and chats with the guests. Open seven days a week, from 6pm to 2am.

Between meetings in… Florence

Until July 29, the Palazzo Strozzi is practically creaking under the weight of Cézanne a Firenze: Due Collezionisti e la Mostra dell’Impressionismo nel 1910. Long name, long history. A century ago, the Cézanne paintings hanging in this show were part of the private holdings of two Florentine collectors. Now, they can usually be found at the New York Met, London’s National Gallery, the Hermitage in St Petersburg and Florence’s Uffizi, among others.

But, for the next few months they are displayed next to works by Cézanne’s contemporaries: Van Gogh and Sargent. This means, if you have a spare couple of hours, you can marvel at goodies from a whole bunch of A-list artists and several A-list galleries. www.cezanneafirenze.it

PIT STOP

Lisbon

Hidden in Lisbon’s embassy quarter, next to the National Ancient Art Museum, is As Janelas Verdes (Rua Das Janelas Verdes 47, Lisbon 1200-690, tel. + 351 21 464 74 30 ), literally ‘The Green Windows’, once an 18th-century mansion townhouse and now a boutique hotel. The 29-room hotel combines up-to-date facilities such as free wi-fi access, with classic Portuguese style. There’s a small garden where you can enjoy breakfast and even a library with a terrace on the top floor. The hotel is in the quiet Lapa district of Lisbon and its rooms enjoy views of the River Tagus. The famous Portuguese novelist, Eça de Queirós, is said to have taken inspiration from the palace to create “O Ramalhete” in his novel Os Maias. It is possible that among the hotel’s modern comforts, antique furnishings, and the calm of the old city, you may well feel inspired too.

One to watch… Nou Barris

Spanish magazine El País Semanal has been going gaga over the rejuvenation of Barcelona’s little-known Nou Barris, a collection of barrios on the outskirts of the city.
As recently as 30 years ago, they were a stranger to public transport and running water thanks to a neighbouring poisonous asphalt plant. Now, the area is slowly turning into a unified district, boasting avant-garde culture and even a circus school. This only became known to many of the city’s inhabitants last June, when the 30th anniversary of the plant’s demise was celebrated with 50,000 people attending a 30-hour party, at which the Ateneo Popular – an experimental culture club in the former industrial space – was unveiled. Despite its squalid past, Nou Barris certainly boasts amazing views of Barcelona, which is why property developers, hoteliers and cutting-edge gallery and boutique owners are monitoring the area very, very closely.

Small sound investment

Miglia has launched the smallest iPod speakers yet. At only 60mm x 20mm x 30mm, and weighing just over 28g, the MicroSound includes left and right drivers, each just 13mm in diameter, and a rear compartment for a single AAA battery. Miglia advertises the MicroSound as being compatible with only the iPod nano and shuffle, since it simply plugs into a headphone jack, but it actually fits any device with a standard headphone minijack. Sound is controlled via the iPod’s own volume control. The gizmo’s base is wide enough that the speaker acts as a decent stand; a tiny brace in the rear of the bottom adds a bit of stability. The MicroSound’s battery life is rated at 12 hours and Miglia includes a plastic miniplug cover to protect the unit’s headphone plug when not in use. Obviously, the sound is tinny, if not tiny, but it does allow you to listen to podcasts while you shave or are on the go. It is also a handy accessory for using your iPod as an alarm clock while travelling. www.miglia.com

Spotlight on…

Berlin’s internet cafés

Make no mistake: Berlin is an expensive city to work from online. Most hotels charge hefty fees and the exquisite, but expensive Hotel de Rome has angered some guests by charging €20 a day for in-room broadband – although the hotel offers in-room laptop-sized safes, with in-built electrical sockets, so your computer can be charging up while it is hidden away. If you do need to check emails or do a little online work, you might be grateful to one of the city’s internet cafés. In an emergency, check out: Zentrale Bibliothek (Central Library) of the Humboldt University (Dorotheenstr. 27, 10099 Berlin–Mitte, tel. + 49 (0)30 63 66941; Times: Mon-Fri 10am-7pm, Sat 11am-3pm) is open to the general public and can be used free of charge. Not all of the computers have web access, however. Kill two birds with one stone: Surf and Sushi, (Oranienburger Str 17, tel.+49 (0)30 2838 4898, surfandsushi.de) is a sushi restaurant that doubles as an internet café, offering great food, at low prices, and computer services. If you just need an informal place to work on your laptop or to borrow a machine for free, try Neue Bohnen (Schlesische Straße 28, Berlin), a comfortable sofa-strewn café, which serves lunch (soups, salads, sandwiches and small warm dishes) until 4pm – a rarity in this city – and homemade cake and cocktails all day.