Jonathan Downey @DowneyJD Twitter profile

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Jonathan Downey

2 months

The hornet is the UK, the mantis is the government, the wasp is public opinion. I'm not sure who the ants are but they might be China.

Massimo

@Rainmaker1973

2 months

Life is amazing. One thing becomes another and another... A wasp eating a mantis eating a hornet. All surrounded by ants waiting for the final meal.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

Why is Gareth Southgate still England manager when there are so many blokes on Twitter who know how to do his job much better than he does? 🙄

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

6 years

It’s astonishing what some people will do for others. Wonderful.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

6 years

Twitter this week: 1. Trump 2. Brexit 3. Piers Morgan is a dick 4. A dog did something funny 5. A baby did something adorable 6. A celebrity I’ve never heard of did something I don’t care about 7. Someone is upset 8. Everyone is angry 9. No one cares 10. Food

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

Has anyone ever recovered a stolen iPhone/iPad using the Find My Phone app? My iPad was stolen from Shoreditch on Friday and I’ve been following it’s adventures today. It started out on a park bench in the grounds of St Leonard’s church and then went to Mikkeller for a pint.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

6 years

Selfie wanker.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

6 years

This is a great example of a fair play game. Both teams. No play-acting, rolling around or gamesmanship. A real match. The ref’s been very good too. #BELJAP

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

7 years

We're not going to make it.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

This is Milk & Honey in Soho. A very special place 18yrs old last week. It’s been the ‘World’s Best Bar’ and the making of many great bartenders, but we may never re-open. Annual rent is £200,000 but our landlord won’t allow any deferral/rent free. Expects full payment upfront.🤨

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

8 years

What's very clear in the aftermath of the vote to Leave is that none of the politicians, analysts and experts has a clue WTF happens next.🤔

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

Never in human history have so many graphs been used so often to explain so little to so many.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

RIP Milk & Honey London (April 2002 - September 2020). The first recorded case of a business dying of curfew. Thank you to all the brilliant people who’ve worked there and to all the lovely guests we looked after.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

And here it is. Back where it belongs, with me. It still had 37% battery life and was unscathed after a six day staycation in Shoreditch. Thank f•ck for that.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

It’s easy to forget when there is so much I-told-you-so from so many know-it-alls but, before its more recent struggles, Jamie’s Italian lasted 11yrs, created thousands of jobs for young people, turned over £750m and was profitable. Restaurants are hard.

I worked at Jamie’s Italian. It felt like the hottest club in town

I am hot-footing it down a long corridor in a white-walled, wooden-floored restaurant to the bread station — carrying a huge oval plate mounded with freshly shaved parmesan — when Jamie Oliver’s...

www.thetimes.co.uk

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

8 years

Well played @haitreason .

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

Lockdown’s best invention yet. 🤗

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

Hello Rob. Apologies for pissing on your popular tweet but I think you might have got that slightly wrong. Gary drives a Mini Electric 3 door hatch.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

Coming to terms with the fact that my iPad may not have been stolen but has left me for a better life in a more central London location. 😕

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

@GaryLineker Two impeachments is unpresidented.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

So hats off to @Apple for the brilliant battery life (you don’t hear that very often) and high five to whoever it was that created this remarkable App.👏 I didn’t get the homeless guy’s name and he was a bit flummoxed by the whole thing but he was fine and it was all friendly.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

5yrs ago today, we got the keys to this car park in Shoreditch. No power, no water, no drainage. 6wks and 3 days later we opened DINERAMA. So many new food businesses have been launched from here. It’s been brilliant fun and great to see it evolve. I hope we re-open one day.👊

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

I was on BBC News earlier talking about Milk & Honey, a business I opened in Soho 18 years ago. We’ve paid over £3.9m in rent since 2002. Our landlord is very wealthy, owns the building outright and has no debt on it, but he still expects rent to be paid in full. #NationalTimeOut

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

6 years

Oh no. Look at what happens when a local authority puts empty space to good use and then councillors and residents overwhelmingly support your licence application. Look at all these jobs we’ve created in Woolwich. 💪 #WoolwichPublicMarket

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

NationalTimeOut This is an edited copy of the letter I sent yesterday to the Chancellor, @RishiSunak . It’s quite long but there’s a lot to deal with. We’ll press on from here with our campaign to save 2 million jobs. Hospitality is really struggling and it will get worse.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

6 years

Our licence for #WoolwichPublicMarket has been APPROVED. Thank you to everyone who supported us. We’ll see you all at our opening weekend 01/02/03 Th/Fr/Sa March. Which is, YIKES, just over three weeks away. We had better get a move on and build it. 😳

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

If you’re tweeting articles from the Daily Express, you’ve already lost the argument.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

I’ve just recorded an interview for Ch 4 News, going out tonight. I have no idea how much of it will be used or if it will get bumped for other stuff but I talked about the devastating impact of #Coronavirus on hospitality businesses. I made the following points:

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

@AvonandsomerRob Hello Rob. Apologies for pissing on your popular tweet but I think you might have got that slightly wrong. Gary drives a Mini Electric 3 door hatch.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

Worried that Messi might do this to our defence tonight. #MUNBAR

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

So in the end I’ve got everything back (apart from my knackered old laptop which needed replacing anyway) and I’ve met one (and maybe two? - hard to know about the churchyard guy) very helpful homeless guy + seen the good work that hostels do. London is GREAT. 👊

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

LAST FOUR DAYS OF DINERAMA Dinerama closes this weekend. Gone for good. After five years, one fire and 2 million visitors, we’re finished because of our fucking landlord. Sunday is the last day’s trading of the best business I’ve ever been involved with. Come and say goodbye.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

Excellent.👊

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

Viva Ronaldo. 🇾🇪 #WoodwardOut

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

This is brilliant by @officialbarnesy . 💪

If every racist at football was silenced stadiums would still be full of racists | John Barnes

In times of stress, like the period we’re living through in Britain today, people look for ways to communicate their superiority over others

www.theguardian.com

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

6 years

@GaryLineker Trying to work out how I can like your tweet 1,000 times.👍 Look at the state of this prick. 🙄

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

@GaryLineker This is BOLLOCKS. When I was 13, we beat Millbrook Modern 12-1 in the semi-final of the Salford Trophy Cup Shield. #FakeNews @OptaJoe

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

LOOK at this. 👀 Well played France. 🇫🇷

Ed Conway

@EdConwaySky

4 years

A €300bn national bailout from France. That’s more than twenty times what the UK has given over to the economic impact of COVID-19. The question is not whether @RishiSunak will end up returning with another massive economic package. The question is how soon, and how much?

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

6 years

Legalise drugs, tax, licence and control their distribution, give all the proceeds to the NHS. Win WIN.

Norway is aiming to decriminalise drugs. The UK should choose legalisation | Daniel Pryor

The government must realise it’s hopelessly out of step with sensible drug policy. Legalisation would take the market out of the hands of criminals, writes Daniel Pryor, head of programmes at the...

www.theguardian.com

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

The new VAT reduction applies to food but not alcohol. So from now on: 🍺 A bag of crisps is £5 (includes a free beer). 🍸 A tiny bowl of olives is £10 (includes a free gin martini/gin & tonic). 🍷 A dairylea triangle is £25 (includes a free bottle of wine). 🤓

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

1 year

@AlexReilley1 @WeAreTheOverlap @GNev2 And they will in terms of trophies.😉

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

Hospitality is the UK’s 3rd largest private employer, creating 1 in 8 new jobs and 9% of all jobs. Often first jobs for young people. Our economic contribution is massive - £130bn annually (bigger than automotive + aeronautics + pharma combined) with tax receipts of £39bn.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

WE ARE what you eat.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

WEEK 42 The latest PHE weekly figures are in. Infections (outside of the home) traceable to hospitality venues is still at only 3%. Almost 80% is happening in care homes, schools, universities and the workplace. As everyone knows, it’s NOT HAPPENING IN HOSPITALITY. 😠

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

@thehistoryguy

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

These are great from BT Sport. Every time I see the penalty replay, I’m still not sure it’s going in. Love the way all the players immediately run to the Utd fans at the final whistle. I haven’t felt this anxious or elated watching my team since we beat Bayern in Barcelona in 99.

Rio Ferdinand

@rioferdy5

5 years

Morning morning morning people... MUST WATCH 🚨 Brilliant work once again from the #NoFilterUCL team at @btsportfootball 🙌🏽⚽️🔴

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

6 years

Message from my 13 yr old daughter who REALLY wants an iPhone X: ‘So basically I’m gonna trade in 2 iPhone 5s some 4s if we have any and this phone and get a 10 and if I need more money I will look in the sofas.’

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

There it was. My iPad was RIGHT THERE in his backpack. I’d followed its movements for 6 days and we’d finally tracked it down to a backpack on a park bench in a churchyard in Hoxton. Incredible. I reached in to pull it out. “This is mine,” I said. “Thanks for looking after it.”

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

@stirlingduncan Yep. Over £2.5m rent paid. Won't even defer £50k by three months. What a prick.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

I can’t wait to not go.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

FFS that Richard Corrigan knows how to write a menu. Look 👀 at it. LOOK. AT. IT.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

7 years

@GaryLineker

trouteyes

@trouteyes

7 years

Tell them about last night's INCIDENT in Sweden. You will sound like a bossman & they will not know whether to go for a shit or a haircut.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

6 years

What a good idea and the best £499 I’ve spent. Buy the store or anything you can.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

Huge admiration for all the Tier 1 and 2 hospitality teams working flat out to get open and going from tomorrow, despite everything this government has done to our industry. Huge sympathy for the Tier 3 teams trapped in lockdown with no idea when, or if, they'll ever work again.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

@WillLongman @GaryLineker Well played Luton (and I bet you don’t hear that often). 👍

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

7 years

As Trump's immigration ban takes effect, meanwhile in Streatham.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

Lockdowns: If at first they don’t succeed, fail, fail and fail again.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

I miss my iPad but it’s bittersweet because it’s clearly having a great time. What to do though to get it back? Do I send in a SWAT team to @cevicheuk Old St and hope they find the f•cker that nicked it? 🤷‍♂️

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

I've just received a letter from my landlord's solicitor demanding interest at 4.1% on the rent we've not paid, for the period we've been forced to close by Government order. To coin a phrase 'What planet are they on?'

Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

I was on BBC News earlier talking about Milk & Honey, a business I opened in Soho 18 years ago. We’ve paid over £3.9m in rent since 2002. Our landlord is very wealthy, owns the building outright and has no debt on it, but he still expects rent to be paid in full. #NationalTimeOut

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

We re-open Milk & Honey tomorrow and then every Th/Fr/Sa 18:00-01:00 for the next 10wks before closing for good because we cannot agree a rent deal with our landlord. This place is a gem. I hope some of you make it down before the end of Sept to see the place out in style. 🍸🍹

Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

This is Milk & Honey in Soho. A very special place 18yrs old last week. It’s been the ‘World’s Best Bar’ and the making of many great bartenders, but we may never re-open. Annual rent is £200,000 but our landlord won’t allow any deferral/rent free. Expects full payment upfront.🤨

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

BREAKING: No news. Over 18,000 well-managed pubs opened in England on the weekend... and nothing happened. Sorry to disappoint those who were predicting carnage.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

Thank you to the lovely Londoner who anonymously returned my wallet, credit cards and cash all intact (apart from some 🦊 damage) by post.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

#Brunei

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

Only 1.3% of the population of England is in Tier 1. This means 99% of us can no longer go to the pub just for a pint. These restrictions will last well into the new year and possibly for the next 4 months. AND THERE IS NO FUCKING EVIDENCE IT'S HAPPENING IN HOSPITALITY.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

INFECTIONS ARE NOT HAPPENING IN HOSPITALITY PHE's latest Covid Surveillance Report for week 39 shows that only 2.8% of traceable transmissions (outside the home) happened in hospitality. Blaming hospitality is a LIE. The curfew is BULLSHIT.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

11 months

@AyoCaesar Take two of these three times a day with meals.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

Most of us went along with lockdown because we didn’t know what we were dealing with at the time. But we know now and this curfew is a huge mistake which will cause infections to rise. It’s also a catastrophic example of economic self-harm. It must be cancelled. #CancelTheCurfew

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

We thought we had him at Tesco’s. We just missed him by M&S but then lost him north of Finsbury Square. Always moving, evading capture. Blending in with the night crowd. Too many people at this time of day. I drove home and had a chicken kiev.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

7 years

#HawkerHouse LIVES to DELIGHT another day. 40 direct jobs saved, 100+ others through the small businesses we support. LB Southwark licensing sub-committee made a sensible decision in the end. Thank you everyone who supported us. 👏

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

After the re-opening of pubs, bars restaurants on 04 July, there were 8 straight weeks of flat/falling cases. Almost 500 million visitors and countless billions of interactions without any increase in infections, including all of August. It’s not happening in hospitality.

Mark Wingett

@Wingers76

4 years

The Treasury rejects theory 'eat out to help out' contributed to Covid rise

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

There's an army of idiots on here blaming August's #EatOutToHelpOut for the 100k deaths. Hospitality re-opened on 04 July 2020. We then had 8 great weeks of flat/falling cases. Almost 500m visitors + billions of interactions and no increase in cases. And then schools re-opened.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

If, like me, you don't feel you should benefit from a £10 taxpayer-funded discount on an #EatOutToHelpOut meal, please consider donating all your discounts to @magic_breakfast . They do fantastic work feeding kids and it only takes a few minutes.🤗

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

From Public Heath England data: Only 2.8% of out of the home infections traceable to hospitality venues.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

“To anyone who's anxious about this I want to give them reassurance today that there will be no cliff edge to the furlough scheme. I am working as we speak to figure out the most effective way to wind down the scheme and ease people back into work in a measured way.” Rishi Sunak

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

These guys are the absolute best in the business. They are a gold standard employer for our industry, with unrivalled training and treatment of their teams. A very sad day for hundreds of great young people who have lost their jobs.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

9 months

@afneil Yeah it’s a really good look. 🙃

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

6 years

We open Public at #WoolwichPublicMarket on Friday 02 March. We will be open every Friday from 5pm and every Saturday from noon. 8 great traders, 5 new bars and free entry. Last orders at midnight. See you in SE18.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

It’s hard to beat a pint outside a pub on a sunny Friday after work. *This is The Fox in Shoreditch. It’s BYO beer and pint glass. No dawdling, no toilets.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

9 years

Does anyone know this dog? I'd really like to meet him. Maybe hang out, go to Ibiza. http://t.co/pKWzZzrnm1

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

Can’t wait.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

6 years

Public in Woolwich. I bet you didn’t think it was going to look like this. I know I didn’t. 🤗 #WoolwichPublicMarket

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

7 years

#HawkerHouse is a wonderful street food market in a warehouse in Canada Water. On Mon we may lose our licence. No idea why. Let’s hope not.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

WE ARE Manchester.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

2 months

@777Charles @AlternativeMUFC

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

Are these the most manly crisps? Proper ✅ Thick cut ✅ Roast Beef ✅ Mustard ✅ Ideally should be cooked in lard. 🏋️‍♂️

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

I’ve written back to our landlord. I don’t expect we’ll get anywhere and without a #NationalTimeOut , we won’t be able to re-open Milk & Honey. Including VAT, we’ve paid at least £3.9m rent in 18yrs. (This is slightly edited - names, numbers and some other bits taken out).

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

There are MILLIONS of cheerful, skilful and helpful people who work in hospitality. We all have a can-do and a get-done attitude. We know how to adapt to challenging operating conditions. A 'social distancing' future will not work for pubs, clubs, bars and most restaurants.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

8 years

Street Feast has signed a 10yr lease on an amazing new rooftop space in E14. 10,000+ sq ft opening January 2017. 👍

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

2019: Was the year that people - who have never opened a business or created a job or an opportunity or nurtured a career for anyone but themselves, who have never signed a lease or a personal guarantee, or had to pay a commercial rent, an insane service charge and crazy rates..

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

Can we please STOP calling it social distancing? Physical distancing is a much better description of what we mean. It’s W.H.O. recommended and will help get our most social spaces - pubs, clubs, cafes, bars restaurants, theatres, cinemas - back to some kind of normal. Thanks. 👊

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

6 years

“On certain days, I just feel like going on to Parliament Square with a handmade placard saying: ‘What are you doing?’”

Damon Albarn on Brexit: 'We live on this stroppy little island'

The Good, the Bad & the Queen have been trying to figure out what’s become of England since the EU referendum. And the answers aren’t comforting

www.theguardian.com

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

Come on please. GET ON WITH IT. We need action. We need clarity. We need leadership.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

The number of professors and other commentators on TV and here who think a 10pm curfew is just one hour less. It’s much more significant than that. Most UK pubs, bars and restaurants are licensed to midnight. Many until much later. The level of meh and ignorance is astonishing.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

@gilescoren @MelisssfMelissa @willettasnotes @badvincegood

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

2 years

My greatest wish for 2022 is that chefs stop using truffle oil. 🤢

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

5 years

@HawksmoorMCR Whoever made this mistake, can they look after our table the next time I’m in please? Cheers.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

Unless you're in a part of the country that is already locked down, the next few days will be the last few days you'll be able to enjoy a drink or a meal in a pub, bar or restaurant. Please make the most of them. Hospitality venues are the safest places to socialise.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

4 years

Our Chancellor has committed £9.4bn of taxpayer cash to a job retention bonus scheme that gives 10s of millions to companies that don’t need it to protect jobs that aren’t at risk. He has done nothing about the mounting rent debt. That has to change.

Rishi Sunak urged to grant pubs and restaurants a year-long rent holiday

RISHI Sunak is being urged to grant pubs, clubs, and restaurants a year-long rent holiday to help them recover from the coronavirus hit. In a letter to the chancellor the Hospitality Union said the…

www.thesun.co.uk

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

6 years

Here are two new pictures of the former Woolwich Public Market building. It was built in 1932 and is now cleared and ready for rebuild. This should be wonderful when it’s done. We’ve only got it for two years but let’s make the most of it.

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Jonathan Downey

@DowneyJD

3 years

@GaryLineker This is Lockdown 3. Lockdown 2: November was a stinker and this latest one will be the worst yet.

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