Many of us turning 60 might turn our thoughts to retirement. Not so Daphne’s. The Chelsea restaurant celebrated the big six-oh this week by carousing with all the energy of a launch party. Almost 300 guests knocked back flute after flute of Champagne and coupes of gimlets, decidedly heavy on the gin. Conversation strained to be heard over a five-piece band belting out Italian classics cheesier than the canapés of porcini and taleggio tartlets.
As pictured at the top of this page, Jermain Defoe and girlfriend Alisha LeMay were there, as too Donna Air and Elen Rivas, Frank Lampard’s ex. But if some of the partygoers were more Chelsea F.C. than SW3, Henrietta Gold, at least, was characteristic of the Daphne’s regulars out in force. The 74-year-old Chelsea local and former ballet dancer, elegant in a black sequin jacket, has been dining at Daphne’s since her parents brought her when it opened. What has kept her returning for over half a century?
“The staff,” she says, not missing a beat. “My husband and I are always recognised and welcomed. If we ring up at 5pm they’ll fit us in for supper every time.”
Many long-standing restaurants, of course, are kept going by looking after their regulars in the same way. What makes Daphne’s different? “It feels like part of the family,” Gold says. “We never knew when Richard Caring bought it. I mean that in the nicest way — I have nothing against Caring. But Daphne’s didn’t change.”
Perhaps Gold can be forgiven for not noticing the start of Daphne’s Caring era. The owner of The Ivy and Scott’s bought Caprice Holdings in 2005 but Daphne’s was swallowed up by Caprice in 1998, when Belgo went on a spending spree, purchasing Daphne’s for a then-whopping £5.5m from Mogens Tholstrup. The Danish entrepreneur was famous in the Nineties for dating Lady Victoria Hervey and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, and owned a trio of It girl-approved restaurants. But while The Collection and Pasha are as long forgotten as Belgo, Daphne’s remains a name to reckon with.
It was first opened as a French restaurant in 1964 by Daphne Rye, the theatrical agent who discovered Richard Burton and fed Alec Guinness and Laurence Olivier at her new venture. Tholstrup bought Daphnes’s in 1993, turning the kitchen Italian, which it still is today.
Gold says she always orders the linguine with Portland crab and chilli. My favourite dish — I’ve been here often — is the starter of garlic tiger prawns, which always appears in one form or another; when I came for dinner last week, five fat specimens flecked with chilli sitting in a sort of spicy broth.
Of course, there are classics like veal Milanese at Daphne’s, and calf’s liver seared in criss-cross formation. But there might also be a white truffle risotto. “We have many regulars who’ve been coming for over 30 years,” says head chef Chris Dargavel. “They like the comfort of knowing what’s going to be on the menu, but also mixing it with a showstopper every now and again.”
That denim-and-diamonds attitude feels very Daphne’s. A neighbouring table on my visit ordered a glass of Peroni along with a bottle of Pol Roger.
Daphne’s diamond anniversary isn’t the restaurant’s only milestone in 2024, however. This year also marks 25 years of suave general manager Gabriele Esposito presiding over the Amalfi Coast-style dining room. He comes over at the end of my meal to ask whether I would like a glass of limoncello. I politely tell him I can’t bear limoncello, and he says he hates it too, even though he’s from Naples and his mother used to make it. I wonder whether Esposito has spent the past quarter of a century always agreeing with his customers but when this proud Italian says he hates one of his home country’s national drinks, I believe him.
And perhaps that is the secret to Daphne’s evergreen appeal. This is no place for cynicism. Chanel is round the corner but here we are in the defiantly unfashionable land of navy blazers and Alice bands. Conversation revolves around holidays on Capri and boxes at Cheltenham. Cool it might not be; kind-hearted Daphne’s is. It’s the kind of place where well-mannered young chaps stand up to greet older ladies and hover behind the chair to glide them under the table. Daphne’s offers a very English taste of la dolce vita.
What keeps Esposito turning up to work in the same place after a quarter of a century? “Every day is different with new challenges that keep me on my toes,” he tells me, placing an amaro down instead of a limoncello, and thus earning my undying customer loyalty. “But for the most part, it is the glamorous and sophisticated clientele that brings me joy.
“Getting dressed up for an evening out, making an occasion of it, and chatting to the people you meet, whether staff or other diners – it’s something that always makes me smile when I see it.” And it is a recipe for success that should ensure Daphne’s is partying into the future for another 60 years.
Daphne’s, 112 Draycott Avenue, SW3 3AE, daphnes-restaurant.co.uk
