Two dogs hanging out at George
I sometimes wonder if my career choice of restaurant writer can be traced back to the mid-1980s and feeding the family dogs the offcuts that my mother rustled up instead of pet food. Brains and tripe has, to my mind, always seemed infinitely more appealing than Angel Delight.
Our Airedales’ offal-based diet might have anticipated gastronomy’s nose-to-tail movement by a good 15 years but we may soon all be making our own dog food. The huge growth in lockdown dog ownership has left Britain on the brink of a national pet-food shortage.
This summer, Exmoor Caviar is launching Dogviar, which at £50 per tin may possibly be the world’s most luxurious dog treat yet. The made-to-order canine snack is kibble coated in a patented mix of caviar oil and caviar protein, which, Exmoor says, equates to around 30g of traditional caviar per 100g of Dogviar.
Crunching numbers: ‘We know that less than 20% of people regularly buy a savoury snack with a drink and the main reason for not doing so is ‘I just didn’t think about it’,’ Matt Smith, marketing director for Tayto Group says. With the value sales of crisps, snacks and nuts in the UK’s pubs and bars totalling £24m pre-pandemic, The Morning Advertiser sinks its teeth into the art of the upsell.
With a third national lockdown in the rear-view mirror and pub gardens open as of 12 April, the on-trade can look ahead to a summer of blue-sky drinking as Britain’s parched, pub-going public return to their locals.
The next step on Boris Johnson s roadmap out of lockdown comes into effect this week and, if you re anything like us, you ll be itching to get your bum in the barber s chair and your feet planted firmly on the lawn of your local pub garden.
And though we ve got you covered on which do to ask for when you eventually manage to achieve the former, what to wear for the latter is the most pressing issue in the minds of
GQ s fashion team right now.
Indeed, with the weather looking set to stay moderately Baltic for the foreseeable, dressing appropriately for al fresco climes should be a prime concern for us all. But beyond that, will be many people s first chance to make a bit of sartorial effort since the start of the third lockdown, so it ll pay to think a little more about your outfit than you have in a while.