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A restaurant in London has sparked criticism over its decision to introduce a minimum spend next month that will see solo diners charged double for their meals. In August, Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal, which boasts two Michelin stars, will increase the prices of its tasting menus. Currently, a five-course tasting menu costs £125 per person, while it’s £175 for seven courses. However, from 17 August, the restaurant will increase its prices by 11 per cent, bringing five courses to £165 and seven courses to £195. This is due to an increase in supplier costs and rising staff shortages in London, due to Brexit, that has put pressure on the business. For those dining alone, though, the new minimum spend means solo visitors could be charged a minimum of £330 to visit the restaurant due to the volume of requests they receive. However, the restaurant confirmed that they keep one to two tables for solo diners for every service without the minimum spend. So solo diners who book within 24 to 48 hours of their required booking time could be able to swerve the minimum spend depending on whether those tables are available at the time. Nonetheless, the initiative sparked outrage on Twitter, with commenters quick to point out the joys of dining alone, and how solo diners are often stigmatised. “F*** the Hotel Café Royal then… Solo dining is one of life’s great pleasures,” tweeted one person. “Oh great news. Yet another penalty for being single,” another added. Hugh Smithson-Write, who works in restaurant PR, tweeted: “A classic example of making the customer the problem, rather than finding a solution. “If you get ‘many solo diner requests’ how about you reconfigure your dining room to accommodate that and maximise the revenue? This is the very opposite of hospitality!” Victoria Sheppard, chief executive at Alex Dilling at Hotel Café Royal, told The Independent: “Since achieving our two Michelin stars the demand for solo dining has increased dramatically and whilst we make every effort to accommodate solo diners, we also have to be considerate to the running costs of our business. “That said, we are increasing our opening hours from 17 August and will be able to accommodate more solo diners (without any discretionary minimum spend). 95 per cent of our solo diners requesting tables since we implemented a discretionary minimum spend when we are at capacity for solo diners have been more that happy to proceed with their booking, enjoying wine pairings or champagne of wine alongside their meal. “Nightclubs in our local vicinity have minimum spends for tables or hotels you pay the same price whether one guest or two which is never under dispute.” Read More Michelin star chef Marcus Wareing gives controversial answer to the best pizza in London Tom Kerridge addresses backlash to his £35 fish and chips at Harrods: ‘They shout at me’ Chef defends viral chicken recipe after TikTok backlash: ‘PSA to the seasoning police’ Restaurant with ‘tips are a privilege’ policy sparks intense backlash on social media Cher is launching a gelato brand called ‘Cherlato’ Popeyes widely mocked for attempt to join ‘girl dinner’ trend

A mother who says she experienced “hell on earth” was among the British tourists forced to flee Rhodes this weekend as fierce wildfires continue to rip through the Greek holiday island. Officials on the island, which sits southwest of Turkey in the Aegean Sea, launched Greece’s biggest-ever evacuation operation as the blaze tore through vast swathes of land, threatening resorts popular with holidaymakers. Tourists were forced to shelter in schools, sports stadiums, airports and alternative hotels as firefighters desperately fought to contain the flames, which officials fear may worsen on Monday as wind speeds more than double on the island. As Britons rushed to book seats on packed flights home after the evacuations, holiday firms including Jet2, the UK’s biggest tour operator, announced they would be cancelling services to Rhodes and would be sending empty planes to bring stranded tourists home. Airline easyJet said they would operate repatriation flights to bring home stranded British holidaymakers. Two rescue flights are scheduled on Monday and a third on Tuesday, they said. Greek authorities also told people in some parts of Corfu to evacuate due to further wildfires on Sunday evening. Around 19,000 people in total are reported to have been evacuated from Rhodes, the largest of Greece’s Dodecanese islands, which has a local population of about 115,000. Becky Mulligan, a 29-year-old training manager from Leicester, was staying at the Princess Sun Hotel in the Kiotari resort on Rhodes’s southeast coast when she, her five-year-old daughter, and sister, 20, were forced to quickly pack their bags and flee as the sky turned “orange”. “Smoke started coming up against the window of the hotel so we decided to run,” she told The Independent. “There were helicopters hovering above making the whole building shake. “We ended up legging it down a dirt track as the smoke came up around our legs. I thought I was going to die. It was like hell on earth.” Ms Mulligan and her family were forced to seek refuge on the beach as they waited for coaches to come and pick them up, which she described as the “most scary point”. She said hundreds of people were waiting to be evacuated with grown adults “basically trampling on children to get to the buses”. The trio was then taken to Gennadi Grande resort and from there bussed to another location, where they were forced to spend Saturday night on the floor of a hotel room. On Sunday morning they managed to escape safely, sharing a taxi with another family to the airport where their flight back to the UK was due to depart after 11pm. Dan Jones, a sports teacher from Torquay, Devon, said he had to climb onto a fishing trawler with his sons on Saturday night, describing it as “the scariest moment in my entire life”, adding: “What brave boys.” Ian Wakefield told Times Radio he spent the night in a school playground in Faliraki after being evacuated from his hotel in Pefki. He said: “It didn’t really feel real – being in imminent danger of being burned to death. Between midnight and around 5am this morning we were going through an evacuation which was pretty chaotic. “There were a lot of upset people and children who were understandably quite hysterical. It was all very confusing – the instructions from the hotel manager were unclear. “You had to make your own choice in the end. I’ve had to leave quite a lot of luggage in the hotel.” As fire crews struggled to contain the blazes and thick black smoke continued billowing into the sky, British holiday firms began cancelling flights to Rhodes, although some planes touched down on the island on Saturday night and early on Sunday morning despite the emergency. Jet2 Holidays cancelled all flights to the island until 30 July and said it would send empty planes to bring stranded Britons home, while Tui said it would cancel all flights and holidays until Tuesday. Thomas Cook later announced it had cancelled all holidays to Kiotari and Lardos – the areas of the island most at risk – until 31 July and would be in touch with customers to arrange “swift refunds”. It has also offered full refunds to customers due to depart for other parts of the island on Sunday and Monday who wish to cancel their trip. But some holidaymakers suggested that operators should have cancelled flights to the island sooner. Lowri Jones from Crymych, Pembrokeshire, Wales, described scenes of “chaos” at Rhodes Airport when she arrived there on Saturday night. The mother of one, 52, travelled to the Greek island with her thirteen year-old-daughter for a holiday. “It was absolute pandemonium at the airport, with long queues of people trying to find out what coach they were,” she told The Independent. “We booked with Tui and there has been very little communication from them. “We had been due to stay at the Atlantica Dreams hotel in Gennadi but were driven – without warning – to a completely different resort in the north of the island due to the wildfires.” She added: “Me and my daughter ended up spending the night on the floor with other people in a room with no air conditioning in sweltering heat – it was horrible. “To be honest, I don’t think we should have even been there in the first place. The flight was delayed because the pilot had to do a risk assessment to see if it was safe to land because of the fires. “Tui should have told us it wasn’t safe and given us a refund – at least that way I could have made a decision about booking somewhere else. Now I’m stranded in Rhodes and having to look at booking flights home.” A spokesperson for Tui said it is continuing to monitor the wildfires and appreciated the “distressing and difficult” situation for its customers. Anyone who remains in Rhodes is urged “follow the advice of the local authorities who are managing tourist movements in impacted areas,” they said. Britain’s ambassador to Greece said the Foreign Office had sent a “rapid deployment team” to help UK tourists who were among thousands forced to flee for their lives on Saturday as the wildfire spread. Read More ‘It was hell on earth’: British tourists describe fleeing Rhodes wildfire inferno Rhodes wildfire: How are British travel companies responding to the emergency? Corfu evacuations begin as fleeing Rhodes tourists spend second night in airport Holidays and flights to Greek island ravaged by fire cancelled UK airlines still selling tickets to Rhodes despite wildfire inferno Greece: Smoke turns Rhodes sky grey and hazy as wildfires continue to rage

Cher has revealed that she is launching her very own gelato brand in Los Angeles. The “Believe” singer, 77, shared a video on social media showing a colourful food truck emblazoned with the word “Cherlato” on the side, as well as graphics of her holding a cone with a scoop of the popular treat. She wrote in the caption: “Yep, this is real… I’m launching my gelato… Watch out LA! All started five years ago and now it’s finally HAPPENING. More to come…” The pop star has had other business ventures in the past, including in the fashion and beauty industry, but this is her first foray into the food world. Fans were excited by Cher’s announcement, with many declaring that they would definitely be visiting Los Angeles to try her Italian ice cream. Some were tickled by the brand name, “Cherlato”, while others suggested ice cream names that were puns on her song titles. “If I Could Turn Back Lime vegan gelato,” one person wrote, riffing on Cher’s hit song “If I Could Turn Back Time”. “Do you believe in scoop after scoop?” another said, referring to her song “Believe”. A third had several suggestions, and wrote: “Flavours had better be based on song titles! ‘I Got Ube Babe’, ‘Believe in Life After Rum’, ‘If I Could Turn Back Lime’, ‘The Scoop Scoop Song (It’s in His Hershey’s Kiss’)’. Best I could come up with at almost 2am.” In May, Cher celebrated her 77th birthday, but showed no signs of slowing down as she wrote on Twitter: “Will someone please tell me when will I feel old? This is ridiculous. I keep hearing these numbers, but I honestly can’t understand them. What’s the deal with numbers? I’m dyslexic and numbers are hard for me.” She added in a more poignant note to fans: “Thank you for staying, I know it’s been hard.” Cher made headlines in November 2022 after she confirmed her romance with 36-year-old music producer Alexander Edwards, who she called “AE” on social media. She told fans that “love doesn’t know math” after confirming they were in a relationship. Cher and Edwards first met during Paris Fashion Week last year. However, in May, it was reported that the legendary singer had called it quits with Edwards, despite rumours that the pair were engaged. According to TMZ, the couple ended their relationship after six months of dating. Cher previously prompted speculation that she and Edwards were engaged after she shared a photograph of a huge diamond ring she received from Edwards on Christmas day. But the publication quoted a source as saying that the pair were simply “playing into the speculation it was an engagement ring”. Read More Ruth Handler: The Barbie inventor who revolutionalised prosthetic breasts and narrowly avoided prison Fans defend Prince Harry and Meghan Markle amid breakup rumours Gemma Atkinson and Gorka Marquez share newborn son’s sweet name and first photo Barbie’s here: 7 other fashionable films to watch Popeyes widely mocked for attempt to join ‘girl dinner’ trend Three barbecue recipes to try that aren’t burgers

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