Doh! Balls

Aarati in the NTI newsroom is inconsolable. Despite the fact that we did a piece about Pizza Express exploring all restructuring options about three weeks or so ago she must have thought we were making it up. After our last bulletin on the upmarket pizza chain she messaged her Mum, asking her for the recipe for her home-cooked Calzone, in preparation for filling the gap in her life should the Brixton branch close down. She was bemused when Aarati Senior just emailed her the Pizza Express take-out menu in response. Alas, not a couple of hours ago the chain announced it is the latest domino in the casual dining sector outlet line to topple. It is to undertake a restructuring of its business after trading was halted by (guess what?) the Coronavirus pandemic. The news comes just a day after the Government launched its Eat Out to Help Out plan to boost the restaurant trade and it certainly boosted us last evening as we enjoyed a full rack of barbecue ribs to wash down our fiery nachos, and got change out of £30.