Champion of comedy honoured

The New Year Honours will have caused considerable pleasure to comedians up and down the land. Not because any of them were given gongs - they weren't - but because the list of those appointed MBE includes Maria Kempinska, the founder of the Jongleurs comedy club chain. Kempinska saw a gap in the market when she attended the Edinburgh Fringe in 1982 and saw the wealth of comedic talent crying out for places to play. Her name may be unfamiliar but the list of acts who have appeared at Jongleurs reads like a Who's Who of modern comedy. Jo Brand, Rory Bremner, Jack Dee, Paul Merton and Frank Skinner all have much to thank Ms Kempinska for.

Restaurateur celebrated

Another unheralded name in the list of those appointed MBE is Nigel Platts-Martin, the restaurateur whose restaurants in London are among Britain's top eateries. The Square in Mayfair is probably his best-known establishment, although my own favourite is Chez Bruce, on Wandsworth Common. He originally bought the restaurant, then called Harvey's, in order to provide a canvas for Marco Pierre White's culinary talents, but it is under the aegis of Bruce Poole, the chef brought in by Mr Platts-Martin as partner in 1995, that the site has achieved not only excellence but consistency.

The new opium of the people?

New drinks launches are not normally my bag, but when I got a press release declaring “New pomegranate drink aims to reduce world heroin” I thought it was worth a read. It seems that Alibi, which claims to be the world's first pretox drink (you drink it before you go out and get hammered), has launched a pomegranate-flavoured variant and signed a partnership with POM354, a campaign which persuades farmers in Afghanistan to replant opium poppy fields with pomegranates. All very worthy and if it helps to prevent hangovers then so much the better.

Anything goes for Astoria party

The closing party in two weeks' time for the London Astoria, the historic music venue on Charing Cross Road, promises to be a real humdinger. Manumission, the Ibiza party night promoter, is hosting the final night with a promise that “anything goes”. Having looked at the company's website, I've decided to stay at home with a Horlicks.

businessfeatures@thetimes.co.uk

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