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FT editor Roula Khalaf selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Biarritz in the open air
The Paris-based Experimental Group of bars and restaurants pioneered the club cocktail trend in the 2000s. Today, the group has branches from Verbier to Menorca, via Manhattan and the Cotswolds, and Christian Louboutin is a shareholder. Last year, it relaunched Le Regina, an iconic building from 1907. small palacelike Regina Experimental in Biarritz. Its once sober, grand public spaces now vibrate with exuberant colours and patterns, courtesy of Dorothmyand Meilichzon.
The ideal spot is Frenchie Biarritz, the hotel’s restaurant, a separate business that is open to the public but conveniently located next to the hotel. Locals and hotel guests sit at gleaming red enamel tables that fill its spacious terrace overlooking the Atlantic. Gregory Marchand, the chef, has created experimental directions that have been successful in Paris and Verbier. Here, you can play with some of France’s top chefs. raw materialfrom premium lamb and sheep cheeses to cuttlefish, the famous local calamari, and Bayonne ham.
A Roman Holiday
Full disclosure: I arrived at Casa Monti, one of Rome’s hottest summer 2024 openings, not knowing if I would like it. It’s owned by a French company and designed by a Parisian with an eclectic style (Laura Gonzalez), with spa products by Susanne Kaufmann (excellent, but Austrian), it was unclear what the place had to do with Rome itself. So the staff directed me to the upstairs bar: small, intimate, with a handful of tables and half a dozen stools at the backlit, densely stacked bar.
The palace looks fabulous, decorated with navy-and-white variations of ikat, brocades and ceramics, but it’s the terrace that really catches your eye: it runs the length of the palace’s top floor, planted with beautiful beds of wild flowers and dotted with deep blue enamelled tables and benches. The view stretches from the Palatine to the Vittoriano (the closest thing to Rome there is) and the sunsets are dreamy. It’s open to the public, along with another small terrace on the restaurant’s ground floor (also replete with flower boxes) that looks out onto the semi-secluded and remarkably quiet Via Cimarra.
A Soho House sanctuary in São Paulo
Soho House’s São Paulo property features 32 rooms, a gym and a poolside bar opening next year. It is located in Cidade Matarazzo, an early 20th-century complex that has been beautifully expanded and redeveloped as a multi-use lifestyle destination.Rosewood (already has a presence here, in a tower designed by Jean Nouvel).
The heart of the new home will be its courtyard, generously planted with tropical greenery and housing a 68-seat all-day restaurant. From here you can access the bar and the club and public lounges, which showcase a contemporary and indigenous collection from more than 60 Brazilian artists and artisans. The opening of a second phase next year will create a rooftop bar, pool and gym for members, doubling the outdoor bliss.
London’s Beaumont is on the mend
The Beaumont is not exactly new – Londoners will remember the stir caused by Jeremy King’s first venture into the hotel world when it opened in 2014 (the restaurateur walked away from the project in 2018). But over the past three years, a new owner has been quietly pumping tens of millions into an ongoing renovation.
Part of this has been the refurbishment of the hotel’s wide main entrance and coach house, punctuated by a sweeping circular drive and a spacious covered terrace. These belong to Le Magritte, the Beaumont’s bar, which is a dining destination throughout the day well into the evening. A pleasantly classic drinks menu pairs nicely with seafood and oyster towers, burgers and ribeye, all with a lovely view of the Brown Hart Gardens and Mayfair’s Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral.
Captivated in Capri
Capri isn’t as ruined as everyone likes to say. It’s still one of the most stunning and beautiful islands in the Mediterranean, it just requires a proper strategy at the right place and time: booking a beach club (or a boat) during the day and venturing into town at dusk, after the last sunset. Hydrofoil The Oetker Collection Hotel La Palma opened here last summer, with interiors by Francis Sultana (a Capri resident for over 25 years) and a restaurant overseen by Gennaro Esposito (whose Saracino Tower The Vico Equense restaurant, on the mainland, has two Michelin stars.
Bianca, their rooftop bar-restaurant, is unmatched in Capri town, boasting nearly 360-degree views over pretty terraces and tiled rooftops to the sea at Marina Piccola. It’s Sultana at its finest, with rich fabrics, textures and mastery of the aquamarine end of the colour spectrum. But it’s also Esposito at its finest, something you’ll understand as soon as the wafer-thin pizza with truffle flakes lands in the centre of your table (many of the dishes are meant to be shared).