Richard Corrigan chuckles as he lauds the electric carving knife, a relic of a kitchen implement that will be reborn at his newest restaurant, which opens today in the National Portrait Gallery.
“It’s back to basics for me here,” he says, explaining that a normal knife would shatter the jelly of his rabbit compote, but not this trusty old thing. Odd as it may seem, bringing back a gadget that probably had its heyday in the Seventies is emblematic of the approach he is taking overall here. The restaurant — full name, The Portrait Restaurant by Richard Corrigan — is about comforting, classic food, served in a dining room on the top floor.
In a wooden-clad space — showstopping partly thanks to interiors from Brady Williams, the man behind the likes of Bob Bob Ricard — will be a “proper” prawn cocktail, a whole artichoke with crab mayonnaise and a “reinvention” of the vol-au-vent, filled with brown crab and haddock. Prices, he says, will be egalitarian — people can spend if they want, but there’ll also be a two-course menu for about £28.
None of this is retro shtick, though, says Corrigan. “We want to be new and dynamic,” he insists. “But we’re not here to ruffle feathers, really, to change the whole game. That’s not what this restaurant needs to be. I’m mostly trying to bring soul and heart, to build something spirited for a merry feast. The food will be elegant, special, but most of all, it’s all a tasty morsel.”
The Portrait Restaurant was an idea cooked up over long lunch at Bentley’s, Corrigan’s seafood bar on Swallow Street. There, he and Alastair Storey, whose Westbury Street Holdings backs the project, had a “why not?” moment over a bottle of wine and pitched to take charge of the vacant restaurant space at the gallery. It was then still undergoing an extensive refurbishment and perfectly positioned for something new. For Corrigan, it was a second chance of sorts. “I was involved here 20 years ago, so this is a bit like a homecoming,” he says. “But this isn’t just an easy win; I’m not putting my name above the door and leaving it at that. We want this to be a success.”
The restaurant is a partnership between Corrigan — who backed the idea enough to put in more than £1 million of his own money into the project — the restaurant group Searcys, and the hospitality provider BaxterStorey. The latter two, owned by Westbury Street Holdings, know how to operate in these sorts of spaces — the confines of a famous art gallery is not traditionally where hospitality is at its best. Corrigan insists, though, that The Portrait Restaurant will be somewhere people head to for its own merits, not just because there’s a Monet downstairs. Views capturing some of London’s most cherished landmarks — Big Ben, Nelson’s Column and St Paul’s all included — will help.
“It’s Mary Poppins London,” Corrigan says. “The views are stunning. I’m not sure there’s a better window. There’s so much going on in the gallery, so much to see. I think it’s the greatest free show on earth. And this is more of an oasis. It’s all about the food and service. And the views.” Corrigan has tasked famed front-of-house man Jon Spiteri, the St John co-founder who made Sessions Arts Club such a hit, with the role of maitre d’ for opening. It is a powerhouse of a duo. Spiteri will look after the front of house while Corrigan focuses mostly on head chef Simon Merrick, whose mother took him to Bentley’s aged 19 to kick-start a career in food, and who has chopped, fired and basted ever since that first fateful day (he fainted).
A reclining Corrigan, excited as he is, is also a little more reserved than in past meetings. It’s less mystifying, more happily sentimental. Is he more subdued after accusations of staffing challenges at his restaurant in Dublin? Never before have I interviewed him without a bottle of wine (or three). But that doesn’t seem to be it. As he talks about the gallery he smiles, almost serene: “I’m entering my twilight years. I’m 60 next year. This restaurant might be a legacy project.”
London is full of high-profile openings. Somehow this one is more understated. Still, where else can you gaze upon a portrait of a chef before wandering upstairs to see him in the flesh, taking an electric carving knife to some jelly?
