It is difficult to overstate what Russell Norman, the restaurateur who on Thursday died aged 57, did for London dining — and in turn, for dining across Britain. The list isn’t endless, but it is long enough.
There are the headline acts — he introduced Britain to the idea that sharing plates might mean more than tapas; he revitalised the Negroni; he rid us, for a while, of reservations — but it was the subtler things, too. Those filament bulbs everywhere? Very Russell Norman. Wine in tumblers? So Russell — and all the better if they came out of the Duralex factory. He championed lampshades, hated any light brighter than a candle, and made bare brick walls a feature. He worked in flickering oranges and yellows, in twilight.
