The crowded escalators at Tottenham Court Road tube station may not seem the most obvious place to get the latest information on the state of London’s restaurants, but it was here that I spotted a former restaurateur, now a director of a rapidly growing wine company which supplies several hundred restaurants.
What, who, where was doing particularly well, was my none-too-subtle question. “Well,” came the rather exhausted response, “all I can tell you is that most restaurants seem to be paying even later than usual. And I thought I knew after 25 years in the business quite how slow they could be.”
There seem to be two different factors at play. The first which affects every restaurant other than the most popular, and in fact most in retail, is that demand is uneven and unpredictable and has been for most of this year. Two leading London chefs whose restaurants are no more than three miles apart recently experienced completely different trading weeks: for one, the third week of September was wonderfully busy and the fourth week inordinately quiet while for the other the weeks were completely reversed. The lesson here is to try and be flexible when you book.
This current, fluid state of customer behaviour was confirmed by another expert on the London restaurant scene, a driver of a black cab. Taxis and restaurants are so closely linked that in the past when Conran Restaurants was in highly expansive mood it used to lay on breakfasts for scores of black cab drivers to ensure they knew exactly where to drop their customers.
But this particular driver, having abruptly answered my question as to how his business was with the phrase ‘utterly unpredictable’ then turned interrogator and, when he heard about my job, revealed himself as something of a restaurant expert. In fact he had begun his driving career 20 years ago delivering buffalo mozzarella to my restaurant amongst many others before a brief and commercially unsuccessful flirtation with making pasta. Since then it has been hands to the wheel to finance his personal passion for restaurants and fine wine.
Living in Kent, the garden of England, he waxed justifiably lyrical about meals at Chapter One in Farnborough and Read’s in Faversham before turning to the even more expensive charms of Sassicaia, one of Italy’s most famous and expensive wines, two cases of which were nestling in his 500-bottle cellar back home. And without even a mention of a discount, he then asked where he should take some German friends the following week. When I suggested that they might like game, he immediately asked me for my opinion on which would be more suitable, Rules in Covent Garden or the top floor of Smiths of Smithfield in Clerkenwell. I dodged the question in the face of such expertise.
The second factor is that restaurants are increasingly under pressure from competition that stays open for longer. Pubs, open by law from 11.00 seven days a week and now serving much better food than before, are the most ubiquitous example but more conspicuous and inviting are the outside tables and chairs of chains such as EAT, Pret a Manger and Carluccio’s Caffes currently securing sites on high streets at record rents of over £40 per sq ft. Another promising newcomer is Leon close to Oxford Circus whose working logo is ‘local, seasonal and fresh’.
Not surprisingly, therefore, some of the handful of recent openings in what is normally a busy period for new restaurants follow this example.
Paternoster Chop House, Conran Restaurant’s latest opening in the redeveloped Paternoster Square by St Paul’s Cathedral, proudly declares that it will be open for ‘elevenses’ as well as lunch and dinner offering a menu that is solidly British with impeccably sourced ingredients.
The same principle has just been adopted by the owners of Noura, the highly successful Lebanese brasserie whose initial branch in Hobart Place in Victoria put them on the map. They have now opened Noura Central close to Piccadilly Circus where their fresh and lively food will be available continuously from 1130 until 1230 am, 1.30 am Thursdays-Saturdays.
Even Heston Blumenthal, the chef/proprietor of the three-star Michelin restaurant, The Fat Duck, is moving in this direction, having just taken over his long established neighbour in the village of Bray, the Hind’s Head pub. His original intention was to create a demonstration kitchen at the back while raising the quality threshold of its more traditional menu but a chance encounter with the chef/historians who run the kitchens at Hampton Court has led to a collaboration which will feature three much older dishes – buttered beer, quackling pudding and fish mince pie – on the new menu.
It was, however, modern technique harnessed to impeccable good taste which distinguished what have undoubtedly been the most exciting meals of the past two months, a lunch and dinner at the recently redesigned restaurant in the Capital Hotel. Out have gone the swags and sashes and in has come a much cleaner, lighter look which, although it may take some months to bed in, already seems to have inspired chef Eric Chavot to new heights. Highlights of the dinner (£55) were langoustines with slow cooked pork belly and a sweet spice and a veal cutlet with a balsamic jus alongside some well chosen and not-too- expensive wines [Rudera South African Syrah 2001 for example – JR] from a sympathetic sommelier.
Finally, in a profession which no-one could ever describe as boring, even without chance encounters in the tube or taxi, two very different occurrences.
The first sees Gordon Ramsay advertising Walker’s crisps on television and in shops, a move that must prove conclusively in my opinion that there is no connection whatsoever between common sense and being able to win Michelin’s approval.
The second over in Smithfield sees St John restaurant celebrating its tenth birthday and the long-overdue re-publication of its cookbook Nose to Tail Eating (Bloomsbury £16.99). Celebrations at this milestone were only marred by the news that this time round chef Fergus Henderson’s name was not drawn out of the NHS ballot for the operation that could ameliorate his Parkinson’s disease. But judging by a recent meal there are plenty in the kitchen to maintain his impeccably robust standards.
Chapter One, Farnborough, 01689-854848
Read’s, Faversham, 01795-535344
Rules, WC2 020-7836 5314
Smiths of Smithfield, EC1, 020-7251 7950
Leon, 35 Great Marlborough Street, London W1
Hind’s Head, Bray, 01628-626151
Paternoster Chop House, London EC4, 020-7029 9400
Capital Hotel, London SW3, 020-7589 5171
St John, London EC1, 020-7251 0848.