Always up with the latest is our dear government. Recently it sent a letter to the gun-totin' sharp-shootin' defender of the independent shareholder, David Webb, editor of Webb-site.com. The envelope, post-marked September 6, carried a call to action right next to the usual On Government Service lettering: 'Tackle the Millennium Bug Now.'
Final crunch: A tragedy has occurred in the busy little slab-rat lives of Quarry Bay media and IT workers. Yesterday it was confirmed that the makers of the World's Best Baguette - Le Pousse Cafe - is to join its sister cafe in Taikoo Shing as a piece of culinary history.
Soon those oven-warm, aromatic, crunchy takeaway treats will exist only on the bread plates of diners who have time to sit down in the new French restaurant which will replace it. No more of that oh-so French feeling of striding back to the office with a baguette the size of a rugby player's forearm poking out of the bag.
Oui, c'est vrai, Le Pousse est mort as a squashed frog, its little French frog emblem. It is to be reincarnated as, drum roll, Le Parisien, when renovation work finishes in October. And fewer than half the staff will keep their jobs after the cafe closes at the end of the month.
Unexpectedly, the supposed-bad guy of this piece, Grant Baird, group operation manager of the cafe's new owner, Epicurian Management, seemed to share our despair. 'I go there and eat them myself,' he protested, despite the fact his office is in Pedder Street in Central. 'It's a really sad thing for us to close it, but we took on the company along with all its problems.'
The problems refer to the fact that as much as we all love those baguettes, the week-day lunchtime rush was about the only dough the cafe was raking in. 'We loved the concept but they just didn't seem to take any money, everyone has been e-mailing me to say they love the quality of the food,' he said.
The company he refers to is none other than the famous Jimmy's Kitchen Group, established in 1928, in which Epicurian took majority ownership a few months ago. So now there will be changes in all of Jimmy's establishments, which include the Trattoria Restaurant & Bar in The Landmark.
