Ffiona’s restaurant in Kensington is likely to be the oldest on the town to have by no means been reviewed by a critic. A magistrate-cum-writer from The Spectator used to return in, and as soon as penned a brief piece, however his visits had been largely for pleasure. “He would get pie-eyed,” proprietor Ffiona Reid Owen smiles.
That Ffiona’s has stayed largely off-radar is odder nonetheless when you think about how shut it’s to Derry Avenue, residence to varied nationwide newspapers. Nonetheless, the restaurant is just not with out status — it has had a listing of haughty regulars and a sturdy celeb clientele.
They got here quietly. “Jerry Springer was a daily. He was beautiful. Martine McCutcheon used to return by and Mick Jagger’s daughters are all the time excellent for us. They point out us right here and there.” She’s even turned stars away. “We mentioned no to Madonna and Man Ritchie one evening as a result of we had been full. Hugh Grant, too — he was standing exterior peering by means of the window. One get together provided to surrender their desk. I mentioned no.”
The restaurant is a Kensington traditional
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The diner who by no means totally left
However most of this occurred earlier than social media, earlier than — blessedly — the phrase “hype” was ever used when discussing the hospitality trade. Right this moment Ffiona’s is a fascinating place however a quieter one. It speaks of its years. The tables are pine, the partitions wood-panelled or canvas, and the ceilings are adorned with sheets of music. There’s a variety of historical past: outdated financial institution notes, Turkish charms, what appears like a badge from the outdated US Embassy. People have come to Ffiona’s of their droves, a lot to Reid Owen’s delight. “They tip ludicrously nicely,” she says. Notably the vital ones. One made her an honorary governor of Alabama.
Reid Owen factors out a postcard from the village of Twatt; an “I’m calm, now f*** off” poster; grand clocks borrowed (stolen) from an unmentionable palace. There’s even a collage honouring a former broadcaster from Vancouver: “He would go to every time he was on the town, sit within the nook and drink till the early hours. In the future I obtained a letter from his spouse after he’d died. He liked this place a lot that he wished half his ashes saved right here. So they’re — they’re constructed into this image, behind all of the stuff. It strikes me deeply.”
The meals at Ffiona’s hasn’t modified a lot because it opened 33 years in the past. Reid Owen is from the Simon Hopkinson college of retaining issues easy: unpretentious, no hullabaloo. On the menu at this time are king prawns, shell off, with chillies, ginger and garlic; duck pâté with toast; a hen Kyiv. “It’s in all probability the very best on this planet,” Reid Owen says.
Folks would keep till 3am. An accordionist would play. There have been homosexual opera singers.
Ffiona Reid Owen
The cod is minimize thick, meat flaky and pearl-white; lamb comes up from Cornwall, is roasted with thyme and paired with a quick walnut pesto. There’s a “potato menu”, too. Perhaps Clare Smyth wasn’t the primary to supply one in spite of everything. Greens are steamed and anointed lovingly with herb butter.
To know the restaurant requires an understanding of Reid Owen, who by no means has a day without work. She left residence younger and with desires. “I used to be 18 after I left Liverpool. I wished to search out my fortune.” Her mother and father inspired accountancy, one thing a bit extra steady.
“I didn’t pay attention. I wished to be a chef.” She realized the best way lots of the greatest cooks and restaurateurs did again then: on the job. And at 19 she obtained a job within the banqueting kitchen at a five-star lodge in Piccadilly. “I used to be 19, wanting fairly scorching within the banqueting division with a bunch of outdated dears.” Then the pinnacle chef provided her a job in the primary kitchen. “It was fabulous,” she says. “I used to be the one lady there for some time. It was massively sexist. A special time. Should you didn’t get a slap on the bum, you’d marvel what was the matter with you. I’m not saying it was proper, it’s simply the way it was.” The brigade numbered seventy males. “Everybody drank on service — these had been the nice outdated days.”
After work, they drank extra. “We used to exit in Shepherd Market. The gang was eclectic. I bear in mind this one bloke, Chinese language Pat the lodge thief. There have been plenty of prostitutes and membership employees.”
Scallops at Ffiona’s
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Chaos, attraction and actual chips
Such a lustrous, fortifying life is etched into Ffiona’s and its clients. Reid Owen remembers lunches lasting 5 hours. Wives would name the restaurant. “‘Ffiona, the place is my husband?’ Two bottles of Chablis in, I’d say.”
There’s a sustaining, unrelenting chaos to all of it. It’s the place romance is discovered. And Reid Owen, ever-charming, is the proper host, stuffed with tales. “Earlier than opening this place, I ran off and married a homosexual conman,” she drops in, casually. He ended up stealing all my cash. About £45,000.”
She got here again stronger and ended up right here. “I obtained drunk and acquired this place from a pair of similar German twins. They’d been right here 23 years. It regarded a bit like a brothel. It was unforgettable, flamboyant. Folks liked it. I did my greatest to hold it on in my very own approach.”
In debt however comfortable, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than a heady crowd arrived. “Folks would keep till 3am. An accordionist would play. There have been homosexual opera singers. And I discovered the bloke who conned me and obtained the wedding annulled.”
Reid Owen tells me the pandemic almost completed the restaurant off, however an area enterprise award saved her. She nonetheless does issues her approach. “I discover it humorous, the dialog round meals today, about sourcing and menus being ‘ingredient-led’. What else are they going to be? I’ve identified the place all our meals comes from for the reason that starting. We nonetheless make our personal chips. Not many eating places try this, .” However then, not many eating places are like this in any respect.
