It’s always hard to take a food and drink sort claiming to be working on a “secret” at their word. Who can keep a secret in hospitality? The restaurant business runs on tittle-tattle — forget gas and electricity, if the price of gossip shot up, there’d be a nation of chefs signing on. You understand my scepticism, then, when Ewan Venters, the OBE’d CEO of Hauser & Wirth (the Audley, Groucho), walked around his Mayfair wine bar explaining it was a “secret”. Especially given he was on the record for a newspaper article. Mine.
Although, fair’s fair. This “secret” isn’t of the same mould as those speakeasies that did the rounds a decade ago; there’s no rotary phone to navigate, or wearisome doorman pretending this is Chicago. Rather, Venters has just taken the basement of his Mayfair cornershop — do not come expecting deals on scratch cards, or cut-price Smirnoff — had it painted a warm white, filled full of art and bentwood chairs, and not told anyone. Except me, of course. And The Times. He probably did a podcast.
