‘A place of two halves’: how Margate’s art-led renewal has divided opinion

Harry Ryder and Simona Di Dio played host to a major pop star at their restaurant in Margate this week. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Not many chefs working in small, family-run restaurants expect global megastars to turn up for dinner and to design them a menu from scratch.

But that’s what happened to Simona Di Dio last weekend, when she cooked dishes inspired by her Italian grandmother’s recipes for Madonna, who sat on the single wooden dining table in Di Dio’s cosy, candlelit Italian restaurant in Margate’s old town.