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My computer guru used to be a regular eater-out. When fixing me some new software the other day I asked if he had had any good meals lately. “Only at home”, he said, “The places I used to go to seem to have tackled the recession by increasing their prices. So they won’t be getting my custom any more”.
Contrast this with Dinos Costi (pictured below receiving his Cyprus Gourmet “Chef” Award from our marketing manager Olga Glyki).
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His Art Café continues to do sell-out business. Why? The answer is simple – he has created a fantastic ambience and he serves very good food for which he charges very reasonable prices. This is especially noticeable with the wines he sells. The mark-up on the bottle our reviewer Matthew Stowell drank was just 33%! This must make Dino just about unique in Cyprus, where an average mark-up is about six times that.
The UK in Recession
Having just returned from three weeks visiting friends and relatives in various parts of southern and eastern England, I can report that “the Dino Factor” is at work all over. Many prices have come down perceptibly since our last visit two years ago and there are special offers everywhere – in restaurants, pubs, wine stores, supermarkets and shops generally. After talking food and drink prices, costs of fuel, taxes, etc., with a number of householders, I formed the impression that the UK may well be cheaper to live in than Cyprus at the present time (I was calculating 85 UK Pence to one Euro – it is more than that now). It continues to mystify me that in general businesses here are happy to go on raising their prices.
What gift to take?
Great deliberation took place in my house about what to take as a typically Cypriot gift. Eventually, we chose six of the delightful gift boxes of “Moskatel”, the award winning dessert wine from Ayia Mavri winery. It was a good choice. All were well received and the wine was much praised. As an instance, a dear friend, Teresa, a life-long food and wine devotee and super cook, with relatives long in the wine trade in England and Bordeaux, Emailed her comment:
“The day after your visit, I went to see my brother, R. I took that beautiful bottle of wine with me, as R loves dessert wines, as I do, and it is better to share than drink on one’s own. It was just lovely. R said it beats lots of the wines of that kind he deals in from France, so please feel proud”
Indeed I did feel proud, on behalf of the delightful producers, Dr Yiannis and Yianoulla Ioannides at Kilani. We need more people like them, and more wines like theirs to promote the image of this country.
We liked what we saw of how the “ordinary” people in England (i.e. non politicians and non bankers) are tackling the recession and I shall report more another time. Meanwhile, newspapers there are still using the good old Newsbill to attract readers – how could this one fail?
