In Mayfair, where Aldford Road meets South Audley Street, there is a new corner shop. Not one with tabloids in stands, or phone cards for sale. Lottery tickets have been given the boot. The handsome building, in Grecian white, is split inside between Farm Shop and Butcher Shop, linked by a walkway. What it lacks in ciggies and miniature voddies is accounted for with produce from Bruton’s Durslade Farm and its surrounding Somerset; piles of cheese, English wines, things with crab-apple in them. Fine, fine. But much better than that — there’s a “secret” wine bar downstairs.
“Secret” — not secret — because practically everyone in W1 already knows about it. This is partly down to Ewan Venters, now freshly minted with an OBE, who is understandably excited about the place. Venters is the CEO of Artfarm, the hospitality branch of gallerists Hauser & Wirth, and it's Artfarm who own this place, which adds to their London collection of the Groucho, and the Audley pub and Mount St. Restaurant. The latter two are across the street from here; Hauser & Wirth are building a postcode empire (the old Thomas Goode building, directly opposite Farm Shop, is to become their new flagship gallery).
