Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines

Business trends

Table hopping

Business Breakfast

Moscow: Café Pushkin (26a Tverskoi Bulvar, tel. ) is a Moscow institution, partly because of its amazing building, partly because of the enormous portions of hearty Russian food its serves, and partly because the ground-floor café is open 24 hours. The last attribute is far better known among Muscovites than foreigners, and it’s definitely worth scheduling a breakfast meeting here; dinner and lunch can be dauntingly expensive, and the early hours are a rare chance to spot the politicians and business leaders waking up and the partygoers winding down.

Business Dinner

Warsaw: The 44-room Rialto (Ul Wilcza 73, tel. , hotelrialto. com.pl) has been getting good press as Warsaw’s first boutique hotel, but its real selling point is Kurt Scheller, the Swiss chef who oversees the restaurant. The elegant dining room is a great place for business dinners, and if you don’t manage to nail the deal over bison strip loin rolls with bison grass and baked apple sauce, you can repair to the cigar room of the art deco lobby for a glass of wine and a fine Monte Cristo. Dinner for two, including wine, costs around €100.

Business Drinks

Palma de Mallorca: A metropolitan temple of cool, The Harbour Club (Club de Mar, Muelles Pelaires, tel. ) is a spacious and contemporary hangout for aspiring lounge lizards. The vast and luminous bar serves up all manner of cocktails and is definitely the spot to flex your company plastic in style to impress your clients or simply to celebrate closing a deal!

Fabrica

Benetton recently celebrated its 40th birthday with a ‘radical’ departure: its first runway show, which featured, naturally enough, woollen clothes in 50 colours. The company, whose annual revenues now nudge €2bn, renewed its commitment to using different colours in its marketing campaigns to “unite the peoples of the world”. It will shortly open its first store in Iran and plans to have 10 stores in the country – where more than half the population is under 30 – by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Fabrica, the ‘communications research centre’ established by Luciano Benetton (pictured above) in 1994, is expanding into the European retail arena. So far, its activities have extended from graphic design to cinema, taking in industrial design, interactive media, photography and music along the way. In the new Fabrica Concept Shop in Paris (Artes, 135 rue St-Martin) you can find all sorts of gifts for business clients and family alike. A bargain at €2 are the politically aware erasers with the words ‘CORRUPTION’, and ‘IMPERIALISM’ printed on them, which disappear as you erase.

The place is definitely worth a look if you want to buy a thought-provoking present. All proceeds are in aid of the World Food Programme. 

Sleep in style in Milan The brand-new Straf Hotel (Via San Raffaele 3, Milan 20121, Tel: . straf.it), the brainchild of Italian fashion designer Vincenzo de Cotiis, has the most unusual interior of any of the city’s chic hotels. Some have walls of raw cement, in others everything from the slate floor to the toilet is black. Even more unusually, Straf does not have a restaurant – but, hey, you’re in Milan – although the bar serves food from 10.30am-1am. This is a good choice for business travellers looking for a fashionable location in central Milan but who don’t want to splurge and the lively happy ‘hour’ (6.15-9pm) suggests it is a winning formula.

CITY LOWDOWN Munich

Bed down

While Berlin is considered one of Europe’s most creative cities, Munich is getting on with the business of, well, being a good place to do business. It has efficient public transport and, increasingly, a good collection of business hotels.

The Mandarin Oriental is a new neo-renaissance palace close to the shopping area of Maximilianstrasse and the Hofbräuhaus is Germany’s most glamorous institution since Marlene Dietrich. It’s all thick carpets, marble bathrooms, heated floors and personal butlers. Business travellers are well served with high-speed internet and three phonelines, as well as free newspapers and shoe shines. There’s also a rooftop pool and bar, and a glitzy formal restaurant.

Alternatively if you want old-world charm, consider the Bayerischer Hof, built in 1841 for Ludwig I. The hotel has 395 rooms and suites, enjoyed by the likes of Luciano Pavarotti and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Found opposite the cathedral in the old part of the city, just 800 metres from the train station, it has three restaurants and the rooftop Blue Spa – considered the city’s best. There’s also wi-fi, games consoles, in-room safes and premium bedding. Then there’s the Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinksi, which was once considered the most palatial pit-stop on Maximilianstrasse, for visiting heads of state. It’s now a perfectly decent – if pricey – business hotel, more functional than fancy.

As well as all the business services one might expect, it has an indoor pool, sauna and rooftop bar, as well as a grand-hotel restaurant.

A taste of the city

The food in Munich is much better than it was a decade ago. But this isn’t the Med, and lunches tend not to turn into all-afternoon affairs. One of the most reliable places in town is Brenner Grill, dramatically done out in black and white, with open fires on which the chefs weave their magic. Reasonable prices ensure that lunchtimes and evenings are always buzzing. Food is modern European and there’s a huge cocktail menu.

Germany may not be the best place for veggies, but Zerwirk Veganes – housed in a former meat-processing plant –

comes up trumps. A trendy vegan restaurant, dishes include miso soup with shiitakes, and tofu-vegetable stew with jasmine rice and tamarind-peanut sauce. There’s also a performance space/ literary salon downstairs if you need to flex those spiritual muscles. For a more traditional eatery try Ratskeller, a cavernous neo-gothic Bavarian bierkeller complete with beamed ceilings, lanterns and fräuleins in traditional costume. The food is much better than similar tourist magnets, with more-than-decent bratwurst, knackwurst, sauerbraten and jägerlendchen.

Hold the schnapps

If you don’t fancy the uber-cool but pricey bars of the Mandarin Oriental or Bayerischer Hof, the perfect place to loosen your tie is the legendary Schumann’s Bar am Hofgarten. This stylish American cocktail bar is open until 3am, seven days a week. Roma is an allday café-bar popular with the city’s beautiful people, while Tabacco is more a traditional venue with its dark wood panelling, ornate chandeliers and leather seats than a gentlemen’s club.

Time out

The Bavarian capital has 46 museums as well as a large arts scene. Use a couple of free hours to check out the Old Pinakothek (Rembrandt, Rubens, Da Vinci), the New Pinakothek (French impressionists, art nouveau) or the spanking new Pinakothek der Moderne, which includes works by Picasso, Magritte and Max Beckmann.

There are also 56 theatres, including the ornate Staatsoper, the state opera house, and three great orchestras: Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Bayerisches Staatsorchester and Münchner Philharmoniker. You can attend open rehearsals by Bayerischer Rundfunk for €8. Visit br-online.de for more information.

When the sun shines

Munich has many open spaces. As well as the famous Englischer Garten, there’s Ostpark with its small lake, fine restaurant and obligatory biergarten, and Kabinettgarten, a quiet, modern garden behind the opera house.

It’s easy to spend an hour or two in the Schrannenhalle, a 150-year-old market that reopened just over a year ago. Here you’ll find a collection of artisan stalls, an events venue, bars and cafés. Daily classical, jazz and rock concerts make it a fun destination.

Honey you shouldn’t have

Shopping is terrific in Munich – nowhere is far away and taxis are plentiful. The Maximilianstrasse boasts many of the world’s glitziest brands. Discerning shoppers will also enjoy Theatiner Strasse, home to many exclusive boutiques. Check out Fünf Höfe (Five Courts), too, filled with a mix of designer shops, book stores, galleries and trendy restaurants. Maffeistrasse and Schäffler Hof offer traditional gifts such as lederhosen, beer mugs, wood carvings and speciality foods.

The business person’s little black book

• Mandarin Oriental Neuturmstrasse 1; tel. ; www.mohg.com
• Bayerischer Hof Promenadeplatz 2–6; tel. ; www.bayerischerhof.de
• Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski Maximilianstrasse 17; tel. ; www.kempinski.com
• Brenner Grill Maximilianstrasse 15; tel.
• Zerwirk Veganes Ledererstrasse 3, near Marienplatz; tel. ; www.zerwirk.de
• Ratskeller Marienplatz 8; tel.
• Schumann’s Bar am Hofgarten Odeonsplatz 6–7; tel.
  
• Roma Maximilianstrasse 31; tel.
• Tabacco Hatmannstraat 8; tel.
• Pinakothek Barer Strasse 40; www.pinakothek.de

Bed down in… Brussels

Situated right behind the European parliament and Schumann area, the Radisson SAS EU Brussels (Rue d’Idalie 35, tel. , Brussels, eu.radissonsas.com) is in a great location for the business traveller. Just 3km from the centre of Brussels, it’s also within walking distance of one of the Belgian capital’s main shopping districts, the Louise area. It features 149 rooms including 13 business class rooms and 15 suites exclusively designed by Italian designer Matteo Thun. He has added a sense of style and fun to the rooms not usually found in standard business class hotels. Free broadband and wireless internet access is featured throughout the hotel, and there’s a fully – equipped fitness club and sauna, which is the ideal spot to unwind after a heavy day in the boardroom. And the hotel’s Willard Restaurant and bar is the perfect place to wine and dine business colleagues, or simply to sample a range of Belgian beers.

Easy listening

Many business travellers will be only too delighted to slip a pair of Bose QuietComfort 3 Noise Cancelling headphones (bose.com) into their hand luggage. Significantly smaller than the popular QuietComfort 2 headphones, they feature an on-ear rather than over-the-ear design. You’ll have to pay €400 for the luxury of the new cushy memory foam that conforms to your ears, but the deafening silence you’ll get on your flight, in the airport and even in your hotel room may make you think they’re the bargain of a lifetime. The headphones have a fold-flat design and come with a protective carrying case. They’re powered by a rechargeable lithiumion battery, which should run for about 20 hours. The charger also fits snugly in the carrying case, and chargers compatible with international voltage requirements are available.

ME by Meliá

Spain’s Sol Meliá Group has launched its ME by Meliá brand with the opening of the ME Madrid Reina Victoria hotel in Plaza de Santa Ana (solmelia.com). The brand’s core mottos – Remember Me, Experience Me, Energise Me and Dare Me – can be translated into everyday speak as properties characterised by personalised service and electric atmospheres.

Each property promises 300-thread count linen, daily newspapers, a fitness centre and state-of-the-art business centre, wi-fi, CD/DVD plasma TVs, iPod adaptors and docking stations, and organic toiletries. Any guest who checks in iPodless can borrow a ‘mercy’ iPod containing 900 songs. ME plans other hotels in the Spanish cities of Barcelona, Seville and Palma de Mallorca.

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