Shaun Dickens at The Boathouse in Henley has introduced igloos on its decking area overlooking the river. Why not book a weekend breakfast there for a full riverside dining experience, a lunch or even pre dinner drinks?

Venture inside the famous restaurant on Thursday nights for dinner during November and bring your favourite bottle of wine without being charged corkage. Or book New Years Eve for a night of fine food, wine and seeing in 2019 with Shaun and his team. The five course menu costs £125. Call 01491 577937.

Native Feasts is teaming up with L’Altre Vi for a night of Catalan sparkling wine and snacks inspired by the region, in Thame’s newest café, The Woodworks Trading, next Thursday night from 7pm.

Ruben and Rachel are Oxford based importers of Catalan wine, and will be tasting six wide ranging sparkling wines from the region. Native Feasts will serve regional vegetarian snacks to enjoy while learning a little about the region, its winemakers and its wines. Over 18s only. Tickets are £25 for 6 wines and snacks. nativefeasts.co.uk

Hamblin is a new neighbourhood bakery and cafe in East Oxford on Iffley Road, which makes artisan bread from stoneground British flour, salt and water.

The cafe there serves coffee and sandwiches or pizza at weekends. It also runs regular workshops on breadmaking using wild yeast. Several pop up supper nights have already taken place, catering to those in the know. Call 01865 243545.

AMT at Oxford railway station has launched 100 per cent compostable coffee cups – making them one of the first to do so.

Made from the waste of the sugar cane crop, the cup will naturally break down at room temperature and fully decompose within one year.

This is by far the greenest and best alternative to the traditional plastic lined cup and plastic lid served by many other coffee retailers and which take decades to break down.

The launch will help reduce the estimated 2.5 billion coffee cups sent to landfill every year and will help save trees too.

AMT Coffee Limited started life trading from a cart on the streets of Oxford after founder Alistair McCallum-Toppin claimed he could not find a decent coffee to buy in the city. He asked his two brothers Angus and Allan, to join him. Two decades on and AMT has more than 50 coffee bars across the UK and Ireland. See amtcoffee.co.uk

By Katherine MacAlister