UK bonus earners 'not shy' to dish out #1,000 on luxurious meals

London, Jan 26 : Britons, who are lucky enough to get their early bonus, usually dish out a whopping 1,000 pounds on just a ingle super-luxurious dinner just to beat the blues, says a eport.

Although it's not raining money in the financial circuit, bonus arners spend the extra amount of money on luxuries-such as food, rink and art-to ease their troubles.

A London restaurant called Vivat Bacchus recently opened bookings or its new seven-course Bonus Tasting Menu, charging 1,000 ounds per head. Surprisingly, it immediately received a number f reservations for next week.

Neleen Strauss, the restaurant's co-owner, said that the menu was et in response to demands from clients.

"Many of them work in the City and often ask for something unique uring bonus season. People want to spoil themselves with their onuses," The Financial Times quoted her as saying. She also said that she was "amazed" by the quality and expense of he wines that the diners chose because she was not expecting uch indulgence after the festival season.

Even though city bonuses for last year dropped by 16 per cent as ompared to 2006, the Centre for Economics and Business Research aid that the desire to live the life of a bon viveur is plainly ndiminished.

"I have found over the years that when bad news begins to irculate around the stock market, our City customers never fully ose their appetites," said Ms Strauss.

Art was another domain where the bonus earners were spending in bundance.

Jussi Pylkkdnen, president of Christie's Europe, said that the uality of art works presented at auction presently was very igh. He said that this made them a safe investment for City onuses when other economic indicators were looking uncertain,

Mr Pylkkdnen added that the new, young entrants into the art arket were "not shy. The guys making substantial amounts of oney in hedge funds and the stock and money markets are very ttuned to the world of contemporary art and they are very onfident in their own judgments."

ANI