Is a new Carluccio-style Italian chain in the cards? Owned and run by Villandry maestro Jamie Barber, and designed by Michaelis Boyd (Pizza East), all-day cantina Kitchen Italia (the second after the original in Westfield) hits Covent Garden 8 December. The mid-range menu will fill a comfort niche, offering rib-sticking staples like macaroni cheese, pumpkin gnocchi with sage butter, and tiger prawn, chilli and garlic taglioni (41 Earlham Street, WC2; 020-7632-9500).

– Roger Clarke

Following the template of its sibling, Mayfair’s celeb- and royal-courting Mahiki, City tiki bar Kanaloa serves very expensive tropical, rum-centric cocktails in coconuts, treasure chests and other novel vessels alongside Asian nibbles in a setting rife with Polynesian masks, bamboo and trees with hideaway seating below and atop; its locale on Goldman Sachs’ doorstep makes it a magnet for suits, but in an effort to woo the fairer sex, manicures and other beauty treatments are performed in the ladies’ loo.

8 Lime Office Ct., EC4A; 020-7842-0620

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• – By 2018, 43% of Americans are expected to be obese. [NYDN]
• – Gordon Ramsay has lost his right-hand man. [Bloomberg]
• – The Senate is considering requiring beef to be tested for E. coli. [NYT]

• – Top Chef contestants aren't being paid for the TV dinners that feature their faces (and recipes). [Time]
• – First canned pumpkins, now an Eggo shortage looms. [NYDN]
• – The art of complaining to a restaurant. [Guardian]
• – A modest proposal for fixing restaurant and bar smoking bans. [Eater]
• – Related: the science behind banning smoking outside. [Time]
• – Ever wonder what it would be like to cook dinner for Thomas Keller? [Esquire]
• – Talking cooking with Coolio. [Fork in the Road]
• – NBC's newest cooking show, United Plates of America, will give away a four-restaurant chain. [Reuters]
• – Hey, so, while you eat that sushi, this guy here is going to swallow a sword. [WSJ]
• – Starbucks continues to roll out its unbranded coffee shops. [Diner's Journal]
• – If New York loses its lawsuit, Tavern on the Green will become Tavern in the Park. [Crain's]
• – Restaurants embrace Twilight. [NRN]
• – Martha Stewart is not a fan of Rachael Ray. [ABC News, via EMD and GS]
• – The Rolling Stones, the wine. [Examiner]
• – Pork belly and other over-served dishes. [Between Meals]
• – Students arrested for not paying their tip. [Philly]
• – Plastic wishbones: what will the kids fight over? [SE]

Douglas Santi, who worked for Alain Ducasse at Louis XV in Monaco, St. Regis in New York and MiX at Vegas, is now at a new Mayfair restaurant specialising in Tuscan cuisine. At Babbo (no relation to the Mario Batali Greenwich Village favourite), family recipes feature squarely on the menu – including the signature lasagne al ragout di chianina, prepared according to a secret 100-year-old recipe, passed to Douglas Santi by his grandmother. The ingredients and wine have all been sourced by Santi from his native Tuscany (open Monday–Saturday, lunch noon–3 PM, dinner 7–11 PM; set lunch £22 for two courses and £24 for three; 020-3205-1099).

– Roger Clarke

Sketch pop-up cafe

Photo: courtesy of the restaurant

The holiday season tends to stir up surprises, which this year include two pop-up restaurants of note: Serpentine Bar and Kitchen's Christmas marquee in Hyde Park, and a bespoke eco-friendly Sketch pop-up cafe from Pierre Gagnaire at the Royal Academy of the Arts in Piccadilly.

From tomorrow, 19 November–23 December, you can feast on long wooden communal benches with up to 250 diners while listening to live jazz and festive music in the Serpentine cafe. A distinctively Christmassy – almost Dickensian – air is created by the menu, which includes mulled wine, ciders and Cornish cask ales along with hog roasts, cheese and cured meats. For pudding there's housemade ice cream, stewed fruits, plum pudding and mince pies, plus locally made brandy and flavoured schnapps (10 AM–8 PM daily; £35 per person; 020-7706-8114).

• – Marcus Samuelsson will be working the kitchen at Obama's first state dinner. [Obama Foodorama]
• – The fight for Cadbury intensifies. [WSJ]
• – Chipotle sets its sights on London, Europe. [NRN]

• – Costco drops Coke. [AP]
• – Related: Coke bottles, 1899–1986. [Pixdaus]
• – Milk producers wish they could sell their product "raw." [NYT]
• – Hooters is having trouble in Vegas. [Eater]
• – A canned pumpkin shortage looms. [Diner's Journal]
• – Putting things in perspective with the Fat Map. [HP]
• – Jamie Oliver wants to help you find a date. [Marketing]
• – A Shake Shack in Boston looks increasingly possible. [GS:B]
• – What a $20 Thanksgiving feast from Walmart gets you. [The Awl]
• – A word we'd like to quickly forget? "Koodie." [SE]
• – Foods named after people. [Mental Floss and Cakespy, via SE]
• – They found water on the moon...can you drink it? [Slate]
• – Making mushrooms with coffee grinds. [Chronicle, via Coldmud]
• – Making art with meat, some wires, a videocamera and a stove. [EMD]

Tike

Photo: Cindy Chen

Nestled next to Fenchurch Street Station in a new Richard Rogers–designed building, Med brasserie Tike serves a midpriced menu, including Turkish meze and sharing plates, in bright, bi-level environs with floor-to-ceiling windows, purple-hued decor, communal tables and alfresco tables; N.B. it’s open weekdays only.

5 Fenchurch Pl., EC3M; 020-7702 9965

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Tike

Photo: Cindy Chen

The gastropub brand Geronimo Inns is slowly introducing a whole cow concept to a select number of its eateries across London, including The Builders Arms, The Crown, The Eagle, The Northcote and The Prince Albert. Starting in January, chefs from each gastropub will regularly take delivery of an entire Dexter cow carcass, sourced directly from a single Yorkshire farmer, which will be butchered on-site and aged for five weeks instead of the usual two. Diners can expect a host of less common cuts with archaic and slightly startling names (including flank, clod, sticket, Jewish fillet, blade and knuckle). Prices will range from £5–£20 (currently in a trial run, call locations for specific dates).

– Roger Clarke

• – The FDA is targeting caffeinated booze. [WSJ]
• – Meanwhile, its efforts to ban eating raw oysters didn't work out so well. [NYT]
• – Burger King franchisees lose 10¢ for every $1 double cheeseburger sold. [NRN]

• – A special Subway franchise is set to rise up with the Freedom Tower in New York. [NYP]
• – U.S. chicken production is set to fall for the first time in 36 years. [Reuters]
• – Champagne sales are a bit flat these days. [NYT]
• – Musicians do covers of other bands' hits, why shouldn't chefs cover other toques' recipes? [Guardian]
• – Pinkberry's further expansion plans include Boston, DC, New Orleans and Mexico. [Eater]
• – Why we read cookbooks. [The New Yorker]
• – Want a new drug? Synthetic alcohol isn't out of the question. [Scotsman, via ColdMud]
• – Just when we've gotten used to twist-off tops, get ready for wine in a plastic bottle. [Stuff]
• – Things a restaurant patron should never do. [Applesauce]
• – Related, 10 dirty restaurant tricks. [Slashfood]
• – Peace through hummus. [Economist]
• – Hard to turn down a "love dessert" made with passion fruit and...Viagra. [NYDN]