PizzaExpress

PizzaExpress is a restaurant group with over 400 restaurants across the United Kingdom and 40 overseas in Europe, Hong Kong, India and the Middle East. It was founded in 1965 by Peter Boizot. In July 2014 the group was sold to the China-based private equity firm Hony Capital in a deal worth £900 million ($1.54 billion).

History

Founded in 1965 by Peter Boizot, PizzaExpress opened its first restaurant in London's Wardour Street. Inspired by a trip to Italy, Boizot brought back to London a pizza oven from Naples and a chef from Sicily.

In 1969 jazz performances began at its Dean Street restaurant, London.

In 1995, PizzaExpress expanded into Ireland and currently operates 14 restaurants there under the brand name Milano. The company also owns the brand name Marzano. Originally Marzano was used in countries where the brand name Pizza Express was not available, as with the use of the name Milano in Ireland, but it also exists in some territories, such as Cyprus, to differentiate between the restaurants selling primarily pizza and those offering a wider range of non-pizza meals inspired by Italy. It is also used for a cafe-bar run as an adjunct to the branch of Pizza Express in The Forum in Norwich, "Cafe Bar Marzano".

Milano (cookie)

Milano cookies are a trademarked dessert manufactured by Pepperidge Farm as part of their series of "European" cookies. Each cookie consists of a thin layer of chocolate sandwiched between two biscuit cookies.

The Milano was created as a result of Pepperidge Farm's original cookie concept, the Naples, which was a single vanilla wafer cookie with dark chocolate filling topping it. The problem this posed was that Naples cookies would end up stuck together when shipped to and sold in warmer climates. The company resolved the problem by sandwiching Naples cookies together, creating the new Milano variety.

The original variety used a filling of dark chocolate. Many additional varieties have since been marketed, such as milk chocolate and double chocolate; other flavors include a layer of mint or sweet orange paste in addition to some form of chocolate.

Milano cookies have primarily been marketed towards adults, as an indulgence food, rather than children. Aside from being a processed food and using processed sugar, Milano cookies are made using partially hydrogenated oils of varying kinds.

Milano Due

Milano Due (Milan 2, also known as Milano 2) is a residential centre in the Italian town of Segrate (Province of Milan). It was built as a new town by Edilnord, a company associated with the Fininvest group of Silvio Berlusconi.

Overview

The main peculiarity of Milano Due is a system of walkways and bridges that connects the whole neighborhood, so that it is possible to walk around without ever intersecting traffic. It was marketed as a residential neighborhood for families of the upper middle class with children.

The works started in 1970, and were completed in 1979. Distinctive landmarks are the sporting facilities, a small artificial lake (il laghetto) and a children's playground.

Media

Milano Due also hosted the headquarters of the first Italian private television channel, TeleMilano, a small cable network who started broadcasting in the area in 1974. It later evolved into Canale 5, the first national private TV station.

External links

Zone

Zone or The Zone or In the Zone may refer to:

Geography

Place names

Zones

Zone (play)

Zone is a French-language three-act play written by French-Canadian author Marcel Dubé. Written when Dubé was 21 and based on memories of his childhood,Zone revolves around a gang of teenaged Québécois criminals who sell contraband cigarettes, and the internal conflicts that ultimately tear the group apart. The title "Zone" refers to the fact that each of the smugglers are stuck in a zone of society from which it is almost impossible to escape.

Cast

The original production of Zone was directed by Robert Rivard.

Characters

Zone (band)

Zone was an all-female pop rock band started in Sapporo, Japan in 1999. Although it initially started as a dance group, they turned to an all-female band. Zone has been categorized in a new genre called "bandol" (a portmanteau of the words band and idol). The band was started and managed by Studio RunTime and released their first single, "Good Days", under the major record label Sony Records, on February 7, 2001. The group has officially ended on March 2, 2013.

Their most famous song is "Secret Base (Kimi ga Kureta Mono)", released on August 8, 2001. The single sold about 744,000 copies on Japanese Oricon charts.

History

Zone started off with eight members in 1997, then reduced to six and finally to four – Miyu Nagase, Mizuho Saito, Maiko Sakae, and Takayo Ookoshi – by the time they released their first indie disc in 1999.

Tadayuki Ominami, a representative of Sony Records, noticed that the crowd reaction to the group's debut concert was particularly enthusiastic. Initially, Zone was solely focused on singing and dancing. Ominami watched a live video of the band playing with instruments at the KomeKome Klub and felt that, due to the overabundance of dance groups, Zone had the makings of a breakthrough act, provided they could play their instruments as well as sing and dance.