The 1pm girls ladies who lunch

Not bitter or twisted

Sometimes the abbreviated words on a till receipt can get lost in translation. The ladies who lunch found themselves in the rather pleasant Plough at Cropwell Butler, Nottinghamshire. After a couple of pints of Deuchars and a bargain three courses for £12.95, the ladies were presented with a bill that read 2x bitter guest. At £2.70 a pint, we were hardly bitter. 

How now pantomine cow

It was fantastic to see the energy and passion put into Spirit's new Two For One menu launch. The company's focus day to launch the menu to managers and chefs was full of excitement and enthusiasm for the new offer, which now features a create-your-own-steak option.

A pantomime cow, called Ray (as in "raise the steaks") was even drafted in to help illustrate the different cuts of steak, and was seen grazing at various spots around Spirit's head office. For an extra £2, customers can choose from four toppings for their steaks. To launch the menu Two for One hosted Free Twin Tuesday — with twins eating for free.

Gossip from the gastronaut

The brunette (well sort of) was lucky enough to enjoy a gourmet evening with the legendary Keith Floyd at his friend and former colleague Jean Christophe Novelli's pub the White Horse in Harpenden, Hertfordshire.

The chef, who used to work with the French fancy at the Maltsters Arms in Tuckenhay, Devon, and now has a restaurant in Phuket in Thailand, revelled in an evening of "political incorrectness" and shared anecdotes from his career in food and drink describing food on offer when he was in the army as "unidentified frying objects", fusion food as "confusion" and criticised chefs for Eiffel Tower food and culinary Lego.

Floydy bought along his own suitcase of supplies for the event, which included a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, a ham sandwich, a big bottle of red wine, a supersize Zippo lighter, a banana, a packet of sweets (as he says you should never accept sweets from a stranger) and four packets of Thai cigarettes.

Floyd reckons nobody reads cookbooks properly, as he has deliberately printed lots of wines which don't exist in his many books published over the years and nobody has ever noticed.

When asked by a diner what he thought of Michael Winner he quipped, "Who's he?". At 64, Floyd's still got it going on.

End of the pub as we know it?

Always looking to selflessly try out new concepts, the ladies who lunch happened upon

a new dining/drinking/takeaway culture in Nottingham. After a major spruce up of the city centre, café culture is alive and well, with chairs out on the pavement and paninis a plenty. Tonic — a bar/restaurant/deli offered up Sunday roasts beside takeway coffees and croissants. To paraphrase REM, perhaps it's the end of the pub as we know it.

Lyrical legumes

As reported in last month's diary to get staff excited about the launch of Chef & Brewer's new menu which features a strong focus on provenance and British vegetables, Punch's marketing team ran an internal competition

to come up with amusing song titles with vegetables in. The winning entry was Everbean by Will Young.

What next - dinnerladies? Even the City boys like the idea of going back to school, according to Fuller's. The London-based brewer's canteen-style dining concept is proving a massive hit with local high flyers. The pin-striped brigade love taking a ticket from the bar at the aptly named the Banker, off Cannon Street, and queuing up at the fridge counter and rotisserie to collect their freshly prepared lunch. The pub serves an average 100 covers a day. Basic BBQ instinct Not that we stereotype, but a barbecue brings out the chef in many a man. Give many a sniff of charcoal and it induces those primal instincts for man to make fire and cook meat. So the BBQ-style charcoal Jospor ovens, being used in Spirit's new Grill House Kitchen pub to cook up fresh food, is going down a storm, with the licensee who gets the opportunity to barbecue everyday. Host Kevin Brady of the Nags Head in Mickleover, Derby-shire, is certainly enjoying the results of his new oven. "You can really taste the difference," he beams. You snooze, you win

The ladies who lunch enjoy their sleep and were keen to climb the wooden hill to Bedford-shire on arrival at one of Spirit's new Good Nights Inn concepts, the Old Mill, at Baginton near Coventry, which has had a £200,000 investment. And we are lovin' their work. The concept is a dream come true for people looking for a quality budget-hotel experience.

With a large bed, quality duvet, remote control plasma TV with freeview, floral wallpaper, large desk, free Wi-Fi and iron and ironing board it really did the job of making sure we got our eight hours.