London has long had a fascination with film star Italian luxury. That Portofino sort of aesthetic where spaghetti is slurped up to the sound of jazz, Monica Bellucci stares at a martini and Gucci handbags are draped over fuzzy red velvet.
There is something about its almost gauche appeal. These restaurants are opulent and lavish and food doesn’t have to be their most discernible quality. The celebs are in? A phoned-in plate of Parma ham and strips of melon or a crab linguine that doesn’t propound much by way of culinary depth will do. Italian simplicity? You’re there for the glamour. Friends would travel by gondola if they could instead of the 25 minutes in an UberLUX.
That’s not to say there aren’t good dishes among the marble and high gloss. Today, more so: investment into elegant shellfish, Piedmont steaks and Chianti is almost riotous in 2023. Italian dining is, arguably, London’s most successful arena, safely attracting the 10 per cent in leaner times.
Coming soon are Langosteria — set to open at The OWO, which appeared in these pages last week — Bar Lina, from Lina Stores, and Azzurra, the latest restaurant from David Yeo, a culinary conqueror of Hong Kong. The Sloane Street outpost will present a “boat-to-table philosophy”, preparing Italian dishes with British seafood and serving them on white linen.
“Italian cooking tends to be timeless, focusing on provenance and seasonality,” says Yeo. “The obsession with both summer and winter truffles is a prime example.” He agrees that food is only part of the equation: “Instagram and TikTok have indeed made ‘being seen’ more important than the dining experience itself. But I think this makes us even more determined to make our cooking even more interesting. We have to create something that is most memorable for their phones, but of course their palates too.”
The list of Italian restaurants — often moneyed, usually chic, nearly always filled with scarlet red prawns and properly proportioned cocktails — is long. There are those where the food is grandly celebrated: Murano, Luca, Bocca di Lupo (happy 15th birthday), Locanda Locatelli, Franco’s to name a few.
And there are those that may or may not remind us of The Sopranos: Bardo St. James, Sale e Pepe, Il Pampero, Bocconcino — a second site, in Soho, arrived only last month — Cipriani, San Carlo. On a good night some of these might even echo, albeit only slightly, the glory of New York institution Carbone.
Chef Theo Randall says Italian dining has always been perceived as being “stylish and confident”. There is an aspirational element, he says, name checking Ruth Rogers, Gennaro Contaldo and Francesco Mazzei — all of whom helped solidify modern Italian food’s star quality in the capital. Then there’s the service. In the best, it feels dramatic but not overbearing. “Service is equally as important as the food,” Randall explains. “Having charismatic floor teams that make the customer feel good is key to the success of any high-end Italian restaurant.”
And so in sophistication, in the shaving of truffles and the pouring of Campari, there is longevity. If the high-end is crass at times, it has staying power to its credit. After all, Londoners have been sitting on plush banquettes and enjoying Parmesan wheels for well over a century. We have immigration to thank.
“Fine Italian dining started gaining prominence in London during the late 1800s and early 1900s, especially with the establishment of the Savoy Grill in 1889,” says Markus Thesleff, who owns Sale e Pepe and others. “But the true flourishing of Italian cuisine in the city happened after the Second World War when a wave of Italian immigrants brought [with them] genuine Italian flavours and culinary expertise. [They] enriched London’s culinary scene.”
Alberto Fraquelli, meanwhile, of Brasseria in Notting Hill, remembers Spaghetti House, which opened on Goodge Street in 1955 and quickly captured the appetites of the capital: “They were among the first to bring pasta to English customers, a great luxury at the time. The most influential has to be San Lorenzo, a classy restaurant on Beauchamp Place which opened in 1963, originally with just nine tables. It was famously frequented by Princess Diana, among others.”
Today, these grandiose Italians, celeb-filled and low-lit, sustain. They are welcome. Pasta la vista? Inconceivable.
