In the Vittles review they said it didn't look like much but every element is perfect. Sometimes Rayner says this of dishes too. I think this Vittles article is free to read, so worth a look
Between only accepting cash and an owner who scolds customers for not spending enough, I feel on the back foot with the place. But I’ll definitely have a look at the Vittles review, for an alternative POV. Thank you for pointing it out.
With their limited opening hours, I don't think they could cope if Jay had loved it .. but also the comments are typical 'they saw you coming'. My friend and I had actually looked at it but couldn't find a free date in her school holiday that's a non-working day for me. The bookshop attracted us!
I’d be really interested to hear your review if you did ever manage it. I was at a place in Munich this week that, felt like the warmest of hugs. That meant a lot as a solo female traveller. I don’t think it’s selfish to want a restaurant to display some sense they’re pleased to have me there.
I agree with that. And there's a lot of it in certain types of establishment. And even in local places .. I have now rejected a bunch of places that treat me differently as a solo diner than when I used to go there with my husband.
Jay’s review was interesting in that he highlighted how it’s already become a chef Mecca, and some of his dishes were excellent. But some decidedly weren’t. And if you’re going to run a restaurant surely you want ordinary customers to want to eat there.
In about 1997 I moved home briefly between girlfriends and my mum served something like this. I accused her of living in the post war austerity years and we all got cross. I was right though and this is gross.
I hear you. But you know the Americans (and I say this as a former American) will put us in this trench together. I’m sorry for the suffering your people continue to endure.
The fantasy he should be touting is of The Stockpot, the old cheap-and-cheery school dinnersy London chain that kept actors and artists from starving back in the 80s and 90s; unfussy mumsy work food for a few quid. But that was so noisy and lively and colourful. Austere idiot. It’s British Puritan.
He seems to have absorbed second-hand the idea of Soho as it used to be (he's only 34) and Irish music and literature, but has no empathy or soul or even an idea what it's like to have little money. He also comes over as one of those people who lectures Irish people on how to be Irish.
*Starts dreaming of the Stockpot stuffed aubergine with side order of white cabbage and water that comes in a school dinners glass with a number on the bottom.*
Basic food can nourish the soul, like with the Stockpot. This feels scoldy, like we should be grateful. (As well as spend more money, as the owner has already complained on Instagram about customers treating restaurants ‘like public benches’)
It’s funny to me particularly as I was just in Naples, which is stuffed with unpretentious restaurants serving basic food - which, because it’s Naples, is served as something that’s good for your soul. The celebration is implicit and tangible at the same time. We’re bad at that here.
Very much this! I’ve just had a similar experience in Italy (and the lone restaurant I ate at in Munich). There was a genuine sense of warmth, like I was being welcomed in their community for a night. Community is nice. I will gladly pay to eat in your community, thanks.
The best restaurants are the ones that make you feel that. Mrs K and I had at Prune in NYC years ago. The food was incredible but the magic was our sense of belonging , because they were saying something about food and love and togetherness and the universality of eating.
I remember the Stockpot. Used to work quite clise for very little money and a huge debt to pay to the bank and yet Stockpots food was cheap enough for me to eat lunch there.
Part of me warms to the idea of this place I must say, but the fact it’s a ‘big’ restaurant opening kind of sours that. As you say, memories of the Stockpot.
Good luck to them though, I hope they find their people.
The owner’s braces-wearing tuck-shop privilege vibes coupled with his prized portrait of Lenin evokes the daft “luxury communist” leanings that are all too familiar a part of modern life.
As an aside - and it’s really not a restaurant, so it’s a large sidestep - if you want really simple stuff to eat in a very not-online environment, I can’t think of anywhere better in London to go than The Southampton Arms. Now THERE is a love-letter to yesteryear.
The irony of the SA is that its own yesteryear was a carpeted pub that declined because of client death and the smoking ban. I never went but the manager told me getting rid of the nicotine stains was a job.
They also didn't accept cards until the pandemic.. problem with the SA (which was my local for two years) is the Sunday afternoon post-heath families occupying all the tables. Dad has a pint, Mum a performative softy, the kids have crisps and here am I drinking the taps and can't find a seat.
Yeah, it is small. I’m fortunate in that, when I visit the UK my time off tends to be midweek, so it’s usually a pretty happy place to just sit with a book, drink and pork pie for me.
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Good luck to them though, I hope they find their people.
The posh stuff reading great and the cheap stuff looking truly horrible seems a peculiar kind of communism too.