Located in the heart of Essen, Germany, the first phase of the Limbecker Platz shopping centre opened its doors in March, providing over 100 retail and foodservice units in a three-storey covered mall. Phase 2 of the development, due for completion in autumn 2009, will see the number of stores doubled, and will take the GLA to over 70,000 sq m once fully open.

With success in Asia and the United States under its belt, Japanese-owned specialist bakery franchise Beard Papa is set to take the UK by storm.

With its stylish and sophisticated boulevard, acres of glazing, exposed brickwork and quality mix of retail and foodservice offers, thoughts of the Victoria Quarter, Leeds or Hays Galleria come to mind. It's only the departure signs for Paris Nord and Brussels that confirm that this is St Pancras International, the new multi-million pound home to Eurostar. And what a home it is!

Having started life on the high street, Giraffe decided a couple of years ago to bring its family-friendly restaurant concept to the shopping centre environment. But instead of replicating its high-street menu, the restaurant chain has enjoyed huge success with a menu designed specifically for fast-paced shopping centre clientele.

So it's fare thee well to all my loyal readers, Sid & Doris Bonkers.

For all the talk of hoody bans, young teenagers are an important demographic for shopping centres, not only because this is the age when they first shop on their own, and form preferences that can last a lifetime, but because they can influence where a family chooses to shop.

Spring signals the start of a pipeline of new shopping centres due to open in 2008. One of these, Eden in High Wycombe, is an 850,000-sq ft development encompassing the existing Octagon shopping centre, and is anchored by Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser. The Multiplex development, officially opened in March 2008, is not yet fully open, with some tenants still fitting out.

A decade ago the idea of going out to dinner at your local shopping centre would have been both unappetising and an impossibility, considering most centres offered a food court set-up which closed by 6pm.

Terminal 5 has only been open for two weeks and has received more publicity than either British Airways or BAA could have possibly imagined, sadly, none of it positive.

On a recent trip into Leeds, in between meetings, I was in need of something quick, healthy and most of all different, so I stopped by Bagel Nash in The Light. The Light is a leisure and fashion destination in Leeds city centre, and its foodservice combines national brands such as Browns, Nandos and Starbucks with local brands such as Brio, Maxi's and Bagel Nash. It is typical of modern developer thinking to incorporate a local flavour into the foodservice mix as a way of avoiding fascia fatigue.

Westfield has unveiled the first signings in what will ultimately be a collection of over 50 food operators within the £1.6bn Westfield London development which opens later this year.

Crest Nicholson Regeneration and Standard Life Investments have let two more units at The Atrium, their £130m mixed-use development in Camberley, Surrey.

F ifteen years is a long time. We all get a little forgetful after the years have passed, so let me see if I can jog your memory. 1993 was the year in which the European Community eliminated trade barriers and created a European single market. Bill Clinton succeeded George HW Bush as the 42nd President of the United States of America.

Smoothie bars are growing in popularity in the UK with a large number of shopping centres jumping on the healthy bandwagon and introducing one of these drinks operators into their mall line-up.

With the New Year comes a new and innovative way of reaching customers from the team at Pret, who have added another format to the traditional Pret retail units, Pret bicycles and Pret delivery vans that are now commonplace. Now we have the 'Pret Pod', which leads me to believe that Pret's New Year's resolution for 2008 is to introduce even more customers to its excellent range of products.

Latin American restaurant Las Iguanas and Costa Coffee are the latest signings to the newly developed East Side Plaza at Gunwharf Quays, Land Securities’ £200m mixed-use development on the waterfront at Portsmouth Harbour.

Coffee Republic has re-invented itself in the face of a growing market of coffee shops in the UK - with new branding and a new deli concept.

Atomic Kitten star Natasha Hamilton and fiancé Riad Erraji launched Hamilton's, their new coffee shop and delicatessen in Liverpool's trendy Metquarter last month. This intriguing combination of a café and bar is the first outlet of this fledgling brand from the couple, who also opened 'H', a late-night glitzy bar and private members' club, in Victoria Street, Liverpool, on the same day.

Please remember the date, 9 October 2007, the date Westfield Derby opened its doors and the day that the food court industry in the UK took a leap forward.

By the time this article appears, the BCSC group will have returned from a study tour of some of Portugal's best and most innovative shopping centres.

Shopping centres across the country are accused of offering the same bland, homogeneous mix of retailers. There's nothing new in this - a very similar argument surfaced some years ago - but now, shopping centre owners are increasingly looking to their catering offer as a way of highlighting that elusive point of difference, making their centre a unique experience that offers something special.

Food business Pret A Manger looks set to have an ever-greater presence in shopping centres with the impending launch of its first 'Pret Pod' that has been developed as a stand-alone unit to be placed in the aisles of malls.

We visited Meadowhall to see how it had coped with the recent flooding. The hoardings on the lower level of the shopping centre showed that the vast majority of units had indeed been affected.

Australian export Boost Juice Bars has been brought to the UK by former Millie's Cookies chief Richard O'Sullivan, who is putting a fresh spin on the juice and smoothie market.

Following its recent ICSC award for European Shopping Centre of the Year 2007, it was time to visit Dundrum Town Centre to have a look for ourselves. As Ireland's largest centre at 80,000sq m, the foodservice facilities are numerous and varied, with 26 units, in addition to a 600-seat, cook-to-order food court, feeding both shoppers and leisure visitors alike.

A beautiful late spring day found myself and a colleague at the latest offer from the Wyevale Garden Centre Group at its new Bicester unit, close to the factory outlet village. While not strictly a shopping centre, the site offers a variety of complementary retail stores and a selection of foodservice, as well as some striking architecture.

The stunning architecture of the Victoria Quarter in Leeds acts as the backdrop to this month's featured operator. Anthony's Patisserie is the latest addition to the growing portfolio of local operator Anthony Flinn. Best known for his award-winning restaurant offer in nearby Bull Lane, the patisserie sees a first foray for the operator into a retail environment. Anthony's Patisserie, surrounded by boutique retailers and the Quarter's anchor, Harvey Nichols, provides an upmarket daytime offer for the discerning shopper.

As part of the BCSC Study Tour, I was fortunate enough to take a colleague from Gunwharf Quays, in my view one of the best mixed-use developments in the UK, to dinner at the Mall of the Emirates.

Restaurant Group has taken three new restaurants at X-Leisure destinations across the UK; Chiquitos is to open at Tower Park Poole and Bentley Bridge, Wolverhampton while Frankie and Benny’s has taken a unit at Parrs Wood in Manchester. These lettings mean that TRG has now acquired six sites from X-Leisure in the past year.