Staffing woes. No-shows. Giles Coren. Thought restaurants had it hard already? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Chefs’ newest nemesis are squatters. From the middle of last week, Gordon Ramsay’s Camden pub, the York & Albany, was occupied by a group of them, who took to Instagram with plans to open a community café “for victims of gentrification”. A soup kitchen may have been in the works. Ramsay put paid to all that on Tuesday, obtaining a claim for possession from the courts.
With that drama deflated, a few hours later, Marco Pierre White’s deservedly short-lived Leicester Square restaurant Mr White’s (shut since February) had similar treatment. Padlocks were slung on the doors and a sign went up wittering about occupier’s rights, neither of which stopped the police securing the building yesterday afternoon. But you get the idea — if your heyday was the Nineties and you own a restaurant, these are harrowing times. Has anyone checked on Antony Worrall Thompson? Is Rick Stein watching his back?
