The Harrods Food Hall in London has been nominated for a Luxist Award in the Best Gourmet Grocer/Food Hall category. Harrods is known worldwide for its opulence and grandeur, and the Food Halls are no exception. Harrods has been around since 1834, founded by Charles Henry Harrod and originally operating in a single room selling a mix of grocery goods, perfumes, and stationary items.

Today, it's grown to boast a series of food halls (a luxury food court of sorts) that each specialize in something different but combine to make for a total experience. Many visitors are struck by the sheer volume and selection of international goods, all presented in breathtakingly beautiful displays, counters, and luxury eateries. Harrods is known for offering everything from fine chocolates to lavish cuts of meat and seafood, cheeses, baked goods, and even fine wines, with tasting events scheduled in-house. There are also restaurants serving up gourmet meals, sandwiches, and snacks so you can taste before you buy (or simply enjoy a good meal).

The holidays are an especially grand time of year for Harrods, with many finding great gifts in their selection of food hampers. Prices vary but this year their most divine option is called The Supreme (£1,250) and includes the best of the Food Halls offerings from main courses through dessert, wine and spirits not to be left out.

Many of its products are available for purchase on its website, from pate, biscuits and jam to chocolate, coffee and an impressive selection of teas.

Vote now for what you believe is the best of breed in Gourmet Foods. Readers' Choice Awards for Food will be announced on November 30th.

This might be one of the most beautiful billiard tables ever created. The black walnut billiard table was commissioned for Queen Victoria's Jubileee Exhibition in Manchester in 1887 and created by Orne & Sons Ltd. The cushion friezes are decorated with ribbons of quotations from Shakespeare, Tennyson, Scott and Byron embellished with over fifty species of wild flowers and native British birds. Beneath the friezes are two long and six short panels depicting numerous countries. Between the panels and above each leg are carved portraits including William of Normandy, Henry I, Henry II, Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, Edward II, Edward IV, Elizabeth of York, James I and Charles I.

The matching cupboard is shaped like a door carved with seven panels. The upper four coats of arms show Victoria during the most important stages in her reign. The central horizontal section features Victoria and Albert beside Windsor Castle and the lower section depicts the royal residences of Holyrood and Caernavon. The second section slides open to expose a game with stars and colored counters, which can be rotated to form a scoreboard. The set is at Harrod's for £1 million.

With gold cresting over $1,000 an ounce many gold bugs are patting themselves on the back. Now for those who want to get in on the action there is a new way to buy gold. Buying gold bars isn't something you'd think of doing in a department store but Harrods is betting that some will want to buy their bullion in the same place that they buy their gold earrings.

The London Times reports that the Knightsbridge department store has begun selling bars of pure Swiss gold bullion out of a miniature vault. Gold lovers can also buy gold coins from around the world. The new gold sales are part of a collaboration with the Swiss refiner Produits Artistiques Metaux Precieux. Customers can also buy online and then collect their purchase in person. A full-sized gold bar would cost about $466,000 and those who don't have a place to store it can also arrange for a safe deposit box, vault or international service courier.

Looking for a fresh new fragrance for the coming season? Others may not know about Bond No. 9's three new options created for Harrods so you could be the first to step out with one of these captivating new scents. Choose from Bond No. 9 Harrods for Him, Her or the Swarovski Crystal Edition which is unisex. While this seems like a great treat for yourself it would also make a fantastic gift for someone close to you (you get to pick what they smell like which is fabulous) or a holiday stocking stuffer! Is it too early for me to mention Christmas?

The elegant all-male scent features an herbaceous and woody combination with touches of lavender, sandalwood, violet leaf and musk mingled with rhubarb, star anise, chamomile, and pimento leaves. The purely feminine scent expresses a tuberose base combined with leather, neroli, mandarin, chamomile, clary sage and nutmeg accents amid a background of amber, sandalwood and vetiver. The sensual unisex fragrance highlights the rare Arabian 'oud' botanical resin paired with myrrh and amber notes and sprinkled with black pepper, cumin and vetiver.

Both Bond No. 9 Harrods for Him and for Her are available in 50 ml for £100 or 100 ml for £178. The Unisex Swarovski Crystal Edition is only available in the 100 ml quantity for £495 featuring a crystal depiction of the Harrods building in 1,600 emerald and white sparkling Swarovski gems.

Apparently among the many services offered by Harrods of London, the world's most exclusive department store, is a private aviation program. Air Harrods has now partnered with UK-based Watkins Yacht Management to provide air and concierge support via helicopter and corporate jet to the firm's superyacht clientele. Watkins, which has sister companies In Asia, Dubai and the U.S., provides yacht management services, sources yachts for charter, assists new owners, provides brokerage for sales and purchase, and offers a "discreet acquisition service with access to a number of high profile owners."

The two firms will now provide a "streamlined luxury travel experience" for yacht-goers. Transfers to the yachts will now start at the owner, charterer or guest's own front door and will seamlessly incorporate limousines, flights and/or helicopter transfers to and from the vessels, overseen by Harrods' highly-trained staff with all the perks one would expect of such a hallowed name.

Enthusiasm for the noble sport of polo and the luxurious lifestyle it entails has never been more in evidence. It seems the economic downturn has done little to dampen it, perhaps because polo's roots are so steeped in class and tradition. Over the past several months we saw Veuve Clicquot stage the first polo match in New York City in over 70 years; St. Regis inaugurate a major new International Polo Cup; the Snow Polo championships take place in Aspen and St. Moritz; and the first Desert Palm Nations Polo Cup in Dubai. Polo player Johnny Lynn (above) saw it all coming. In 2001 he founded Polistas, the first true polo lifestyle brand, made for polo players by polo players, and now he's opening up branches all over the world.

Lynn, a Canadian-born former financier who plays polo internationally and teaches as well, conceived of Polistas to outfit polo teams with high quality clothing and accessories both for playing in and for après polo. An immediate success, polo and equestrian enthusiasts of all stripes soon gravitated to his flagship store in London's famed Burlington Arcade. The name Polistas is Argentine slang for "polo players" and it is the classic Argentinian polo lifestyle - rugged, laid-back and timeless - that comes through in Polistas' products and attitude. For the past six years Polistas has had a major presence at Harrods and other high-end boutiques worldwide, and has been selected as the official supplier to several major tournaments, including the Veuve Clicquot British Open Gold Cup, The Hildon Queen's Cup, and the Prince of Wales Trophy in the UK.

Famed deluxe London department store Harrods came out with the ultimate holiday hamper this season, described as the "very best money can buy." Only eight of the extravagant Chairman's Choice hampers were made available by special order at about $7,500 apiece. Presented in an exclusively designed, limited edition handmade basket with leather trim, the hamper's contents include fruit, flowers, farmed smoked salmon, a truffle ham, half a Stilton cheese, double cream brie, and of course heaps of Beluga caviar. Drinks-wise, there's 30-year-old Macallan single malt Scotch, Krug champagne, Hennessy cognac, and several bottles of wine including the famous Chateau d'Yquem.

[via JustLuxe]

Veuve Clicquot has launched another Champagne Bar, this time in a place where you might need a break after holiday shopping, Harrod's in London. The Veuve Clicquot boutique is located on the first floor amid luxury fashion labels. There is also a lounge area with gray and yellow tones and glass topped tables for a more quiet place to contemplate money spent. The full range of Veuve Clicquot Cuvees are available by the glass and by the bottle and there is a small a la carte menu. The Boutique also offers the Veuve Clicquot gifts and carriers.

We've long been fans of the quilted riding jacket, as popularized by the classic British outerwear company Barbour. Now Miguel Caballero, the Colombian designer known as "The Armani of Armor", has introduced a totally bulletproof version (above), which manages to not sacrifice anything in the way of style. Since many devotees also wear this kind of jacket for upland hunting, it's practical even for those who aren't princes, presidents and out-of-favor oligarchs in fear of their lives, as some of Caballero's best customers certainly are.

Enough anti-ballistics to stop an Uzi or a .44 Magnum - never mind some birdshot - doesn't come cheap of course, but at about $10,000 the jacket is more bang for the buck so to speak than Caballero's $12,000 bulletproof polo shirt. Plus it's waterproof, with an optional stab-proof lining. Caballero's only retail location outside of South and Central America is Harrod's in London, but the company takes special orders directly. They'll even make you one of these in cashmere if you insist (we asked).

Famed deluxe London department store Harrods, owned by the late Dodi Fayed's financier father Mohamed Al-Fayed, just announced plans to expand its private label product lines to put them on a par with the famous name merchandise it has long carried. Harrods branded products will soon include everything from golf and ski accessories to baby wear and plus-size collections, Vogue UK reports. The million square foot store, located in Knightsbridge, is the largest and one of the most luxurious in the world. It holds several royal warrants from the likes of the Queen, the Queen Mother and the Prince of Wales.

The over-the-top Palazzo Versace Dubai development, plans for which we first told you about back in 2005, is getting a dress rehearsal of sorts in London. Over the next six weeks, famed British department store Harrods in Knightsbridge will feature model rooms from the Palazzo, furnished with marble and gold accents and exclusive designs from Versace's home collection.

The massive 1.4-million sq.-ft. project, slated to open in 2009, is modeled on the Palazzo Versace Gold Coast in Australia. It's comprised of 213 five-star hotel suites and 169 private residences, over 50% of which have reportedly been sold. Amenites include a scuba lagoon, pool bar, rooftop labyrinth gardens, day spa, ballroom, marina, and of course a Versace boutique. Christian Lacroix had better get a move on with his own fashionable Dubai development if he doesn't want to be left in the dust.

The trend of Champagne bars seems to be booming lately, Europe's longest Champagne bar opened last November and the Liberty Hotel in Boston just got their own Veuve Clicqot Champagne bar. Harrod's, the posh department store in London already has a Champagne and Oyster bar but they are now opening the Dom Perignon Oenotheque bar on February 11. The bar will will offer two vintages by the glass: the 1995 at 65 pounds (around $127) and the 1975 at 250 pounds (around $490) per glass. The Dom Perignon Oenothèque is aged in cellars before the wine is disgorged so that the yeast can mature further. Champagne that is disgorged 15 years after release will taste different from the same wine disgorged five years earlier. The bar is only open for a limited time. Model Claudia Schiffer, who stars in a video by the designer Karl Lagerfeld for Dom Perignon Oenotheque, is scheduled to visit on February 26 and the bar will close on March 3.

One of the biggest trends in food is not just to care about where your food comes from or what is in it but also to monitor what goes into your food before it goes into you. Wine makers are focusing on biodynamic practices, beef that is grass fed is all the rage and now, a similar concept comes to honey. Honey made from different pollens tastes differently and Life Mel honey is made by bees fed on a specially formulated diet which includes selected herbs such as Siberian Ginseng, Echinacea and Uncaria Tomentosa. Life Mel is not artificially treated and no ingredients are added after extraction from the hive. It recently went on sale at Harrods for £42 per pot and is said to be popular with celebrities such as Sienna Miller and Kylie Minogue for its health benefits.

[via Sky News]

I'm especially liking the bottle of this Hennesy Ellipse Cognac from Harrod's, but obviously that's probably the least important part. Combining all the talents of master blenders from 7 generations dating back to 1800 and including Hennesy's very first master blender, Jean Fillioux, it combines the best of all seven masters for "an intensely complex bouquet with hints of candied fruit, wild roses and rancio."

No mention of who designed that beautiful presentation? Hm. £3350


Via Lussorian

The Versace safety-pin dress that first brought Elizabeth Hurley fame when she wore it to the 1994 premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral is now on sale at Harrods. The dress is part of the Harrods Timeless Luxury promotion focusing on the little black dress. The dress costs s £10,690 and will be delivered two months from the date of order. Quite a deal when you consider that another famous little black dress, the one worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffanys, went for over $800,000.