THE BEST OF CITY EAST
& LONDON DOCKLANDS

ITALIAN RESTAURANT+Food You Can Bank On
It opened because the gourmet bankers at Morgan Stanley couldn’t find a decent Italian restaurant when they relocated to Canary Wharf, London Docklands. That Amerigo Vespucci is on the wharf below the banker’s HQ building is no coincidence and it makes it easy to drop in when the pangs for pasta occur. Other diners include top media execs that hammer the rare Corsican wines and the finest French brandies in traditional Fleet Street style. There isn’t a poor dish in the extensive menu that delights even Italian academics we’ve entertained there and the service at this family run ristorante is unbeatable. They told us the food was as good as the best in downtown Bologna, and that for a Northern Italian Professore is about as good as it gets.
Amerigo Vespucci, Mackenzie Walk, 25 Cabot Square, Canary Wharf, E14. Open weekdays lunch and evenings and Saturday evenings. Telephone 020 7513 0288.

WATERSIDE BAR+Bountiful With Winning Ways
It's been around for as long as anyone recalls, yet Booty’s Riverside Bar still provides a safe haven for locals, tourists and suits. Most Docks bars enjoy shorter spells of popularity before fading under the pressure of a new manager or a new rival down the wharf. Dennis Booty opened his place in Limehouse Village and seems to attract waves of new customers to his winning combination of different wines and de luxe pub food, good beers and friendly bar staff. You couldn’t get closer to the Thames than at Booty’s, because at high tide it sometimes flies in through the stable doors to water the beer and whatever else happens to be on your table. Some days it seems that whatever you want from a bar is on offer at Booty's, which is also a staging point for the Thames Riverside Path.
Booty's Riverside Bar 92a Narrow Street, Limehouse, E14 020 7987 8343.

WATERSIDE BAR+Roman Drinking outpost
When Docklands top barfly insists on personally introducing one to the new place on the block you know it's likely to be a serious drinking den. We crossed a windy, rain spattered wharf and entered a hole in 100 yards of warehouse wall. Inside it was a regular catacomb with its flagged floors, brick walls and cells off in every direction. Via Fossa might be yet another new bar concept from our old chums at Whitbread, but it works well it maintaining our attention. It clearly wasn't the night for gladiatorial contests but, nevertheless, hordes of media hacks and bankers were determined to have a good time with ales and wines of the Roman Empire. Our drinks were served fast and drunk slowly as we began a tour of what is Docklands biggest bar. Good rendezvous, good value grub and poised to be at the centre of this summer's new al fresco Forum.
Via Fossa, West India Quay, Isle of Dogs. Open seven days. Telephone 020 7515 8548. Email viafossa@hotmail.com

ACCOMMODATION+Stay One Night Or Forever
You could stay at the Four Seasons Hotel, enjoy slavish service with breakfast and Bloody Marys at international prices and magnificent water views or at London Millennium Suites with self service breakfast your own recipe Bloody Marys and magnificent water views. The landmark Canary Wharf Tower is halfway between the two establishments which both opened at the beginning of 2000. However, the accommodation costs are further apart. Four people at The Boardwalk Suites costs roughly the same as one person at the Four Seasons but each establishment will be successful in the burgeoning Docklands "hotel" market. Quality and international standards are generously provided by both. The stylish suites are well furnished with maxi-channel tv and hi-fi and overlook a bustling marina. Secure parking and nearby DLR station add to the convenience. Stay one night, six months or forever as a timeshare.
London Millennium Suites, The Boardwalk at Canary Wharf, London E14 Telephone 0800 074 8197. Info@millenniumsuites.com OR Home Page special limo offer.

ACCOMMODATION+A Place For All Seasons
The only luxury hotel for business and leisure visitors to Europe’s fastest growing business district, Four Seasons Hotel, Canary Wharf is fast establishing a reputation for good service and quality surroundings. This 10-storey riverside hotel has 125 rooms and 14 suites, many offering splendid views of the river or cityscape. The Quadrato bar and restaurant have not faltered since opening day and the inhouse recreational amenities are top notch, reinforced by the next door infinity swim pool, tennis court and spa. Nice touches in the rooms include window seats, king-size beds, computer points and a safe big enough for your laptop. Standard rooms are spacy, suites rising from double the basic 400 sq ft to six times as big with the Presidential Suite.
Four Seasons Hotel, 46 Westferry Circus, London E14 Telephone 44(20) 7510 1999. Email info@fourseasons.com.

ABLUTIONS+Spend A Penny With Red Ken
As London's Mayor, Ken Livingstone flexes his muscles and gets down to work, it's worth spending a penny at the Marriott County Hall Hotel. Whether staying, dining or simply cooling out in the bar you would sooner or later feel a need to head towards the cloakroom ablutions. In the gents and ladies are cartoons depicting the earlier battles of Red Ken and Margaret Thatcher over the future of Ken's fiefdom, the Greater London Council (GLC) and his County Hall stronghold. Successive rounds of the battle are framed around washstands and in cubicles, so be prepared to spend a long penny if the subject interests you. After that, the bars provide good service and restaurant offers excellent food, service and river views. This summer try the riverside terrace and gaze at the parliamentarians swanning at their five star establishment across the river.
Marriott County Hall, Westminster Bridge Road, SE1. Tel 020 928 5200.

TRANSPORTATION+ A Limo To Lookout For You
Located in the shadow of Canary Wharf, Flightlink International specialises in transporting every company’s most precious commodity in a carefree, luxurious environment. We’re talking about top corporate executives, those busy people not allowed to waste time queuing for a black cab at the airport or getting stuck on unreliable Tube trains. Flightlink works 24 hours round the clock mainly for banks and plcs, shuttling their people smoothly to and from planes and meetings in stretch and production limos or using a fleet of people carriers for R&R at Ascot, Epsom or Henley. Their chauffeur service includes meet and greet, onboard mobile phones and good knowledge of London and its fast growing Docklands Business District. We find their drivers extra helpful and can be summoned by mobile for pick-ups from City meetings or restaurant meals.
Flightlink International, 5 Cannon Drive, London E14. Telephone 020 7537 4777. Email limo@london-docklands.co.uk

TRANSPORTATION+Lightweight Champion
The Queen was the very first passenger on the Docklands Light Railway but the jammed doors of carriage eleven entrapped her for an hour as she travelled on that hot summer day in 1987. Her Royal criticisms were followed by thousands more from frustrated passengers as the computer-driven train set struggled to overcome bugs, planning failures and done on the cheap construction. Now, after spending £1B on upgrades and route extensions, the DLR is a reliable lightweight champion. Tourists love the roller coaster rides across Docks, between shiny new offices and connections to every other rail network in the Capital. A £100M expansion will take its trains into the terminal building at London City Airport.
Docklands Light Railway telephone 020 7363 9600.

AIRPORT+Hotel With Planes
Conceived to stimulate the economy and change the perception of early Docklands, London City Airport was Britain's first privately developed airport when it opened on 27 October 1987. Five years later it was so successful the runway was extended to take planes offering links to European cities within 1,000 miles range. Quality design, opened by the Queen and expanded every year since, LCY remains a business class only facility with a terminal building more akin to a hotel with its spacious lobby and ten minute check in. Even the restaurant and duty free shopping is luxury hotel standard. All parking is onsite and the check-in desk is five minutes walk at the most. A bus shuttle links to nearby Canning Town Jubilee Line station and an extension of the DLR will serve the airport.
London City Airport, King George V1 Dock, London E16 020 7646 0000.

AUTO SERVICES+MOTs and much more
There's a VW mechanic done good over the ten years he has been building up a clientele of proud owners and fleet managers from around the area. His expertise in the marque and other German cars, like BMW and Mercedes, keeps his workshops busy seven days a week without charging customers the proverbial "arm and a leg". Bob Modwadia has geared his MB Autos to offer a same day service for gearbox, clutch and brakes and the body shop does a polished job on even the most crocked cars. You might be amazed how many East London firms entrust their fleets to this smart outfit, especially their weekend service which promises "in Friday - ready on Monday". There is also a collection and delivery service and a MOT centre onsite with a special deal for the autumn/winter of £25 for the test.
MB Autos, 58 North Woolwich Road, Silvertown, E16. Telephone/fax -020 7473 3302. Mobile 07946 028121. Book a service/check-up by email and include your contact numbers. mailto:mbautos@london-docklands.co.uk

PEOPLE DRAW+Flying Around the Capital
For many North American visitors London’s streetscape means going round in circles, as confirmed when two US booze barons were our guests at the top of Tower 42 in The City. They looked down and exclaimed, "Gee, your London streets are all higgledy-piggledy." With the fourth official opening of the British Airways London Eye, a similar view of London can be enjoyed, while still maintaining the Capital’s tradition for going round in circles. The on the ground service is good now phone lines are freer with the start of an online flight booking service and the Eye’s aerial experience is first class. On a clear day you can see HM the Queen hanging out her flags on Buck House and Windsor Castle, her guards changing places and her bridge jam-packed at Dartford. In the twilight zone of our latest trip we saw none of that through the rainy mist, but still enjoyed the flight – as did everyone else.
BA London Eye, County Hall, SE1 020 8738 5100.

PEOPLE DRAW+Torturers' Trails
The London Dungeon is there to scare the kids with its gruesome tableaux of tortures meted out in years of yore, but on our last trip one of the kids in our party decided to bite back. Lying as dead on a bench provided for the recovery of the faint-hearted, he waited until two dear grannies came alongside before leaping up with a shriek that was instantly surpassed by their higher pitched equivalent. Anything goes in this place so long as it scares. As with certain victims, this people draw has had its ups and downs over the decade it has been a major tourist draw, but recent improvements have found favour with a new generation hitting the torture trail.
London Dungeon, Tooley Street, London SE1. Telephone 020 7233 5678.

e-COMMERCE FUTURES+with brain food
Everything you wanted to know about the internet and e-commerce, but never knew who to ask? The switched on East London Chamber of Commerce have got regular courses with net experts and the four seminars we’ve attended were quite brilliant and illuminating on a subject that every business person should know about. Staged at the University of East London Stratford campus, the workshops come complete with documentation, refreshments and a bowl of jelly babies, described by speakers as "brain food." The good value sessions inspired, encouraged and motivated all but one of the attendees to work smarter and use the internet as a marketing tool. Limited to 30 people per workshop, so get in first.
East London Chamber of Commerce, 0202 8432 0551, mailto:mailto:mroyer@londoneast.businesslink.co.uk

CORNER SHOP+Smile from the Angel
On the wharfside at Cascades Tower, the Angel Services Minimarket is a busy place offering all the usual Seven/Eleven services plus a whole lot more. Friendly and listening service, specially requested shopper items, sandwiches and ready pasta and salads, newspaper deliveries, video library, film and laundry service and fast on the till drawer, it is not surprising that this place has attracted customers from miles around. It was built into the Cascades development to cater for the hundreds of residents and their visitors, but word spread to other parts of the island. It is well located to pick up passing trade because of the off road parking.
Angel Services, Cascades, Westferry Road, Isle of Dogs E14.

DRY CLEANERS+Stitches On Time
The family run dry cleaners compete well with the big chains because of the high level of personal service, but when mama is also a dab hand with the sewing needle and delivers when requested, then you know you're onto a winner. That's where Goldstar Drycleaners come in. Never let us down in ten years, not a garment returned for redoing, not a stitch dropped on buttons and zips. Even when customers forget to collect for months, their manual logging system quickly ferrets out the item.
Goldstar Drycleaners, 330 Burdett Road, Poplar E14. Telephone 020 7987 7685.

STATIONERY+Moving into e-commerce
He's hogged the name "Docklands" as his business has expanded from providing blueprints to pioneer developers. Docklands Reprographic Services Limited has also applied the "D"-word to Stationers, Printers and Graphics over the 15 years since owner Chris Tennyson set-up and now he’s embracing the "E" word by offering his products and services on the London Docklands Online website. With £30M of stock round the corner he can deliver a fully equipped workstation inside two hours and copier paper in far less time. As the Logistics Partner in e-local Shopping @ London Docklands Online his fleet of busy vans are now also working for online shoppers, delivering cleaning, hi-fi or special gifts from local suppliers to offices or homes throughout City East and Docklands.
Docklands Reprographic Services, Docklands House, Mandarin Street, E14 020 7538 4447. Chris@docklandsrepro.com

SHARE WITH US?
Have YOU got a favourite eaterie or service provider you could recommend and share with us? If it's within 15 minutes of Canary Wharf email best@london-docklands.co.uk

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