When a press release comes through selling a restaurant on the strength of its association with “the Mafia’s banker”, expectations of the cooking do not naturally balloon. In 2017, this was the case with 108 Garage on Golborne Road. But whaddya know? It was a critical smash. Punters though, possibly mob-weary, swerved it, and it didn’t last long. What came next didn’t either. “Difficult site,” I said to a friend.
But then, during the Notting Hill Revolution — not a real one, but last year’s cascade of new restaurants — the Counter appeared, from chef Kemal Demirasal. Upscale Turkish, but unusual. Also a bit Greek, Mediterranean, somewhat Levant-leaning. Any food boundaries in that part of the world seem to me blurred, the map perhaps smudged in olive oil. Whatever. Here was a room of romantic gloom where one might eat swampish olives, white-chocolate baba ganoush, lamb liver wrapped into a skewer. God, was it good. Everyone said so. And on that difficult site, too. Tell you where shouldn’t be a difficult site, though: Kingly Street. Bar Crispin is always packed, Ain’t Nothin’ But The Blues has for 31 years filled the street with the drumbeat of pint glasses, and Dishoom, a chain hardly novel at 14, continues to draw nightly queues. Imagine if somewhere new opened with room to scoop up the overspill?
