Having come across this place (reference 1) in Rathbone Place in the margins of a visit to the Wigmore Hall, we thought we would give it a try for our anniversary lunch. It was also an excellent opportunity to exercise the then nearly-new rollator on public transport.
But the day actually started with a crane over Wetherspoon's. What were they doing to need a crane of the job? The Wetherspoon's building is visible below and to the left of the little red man, but there was little doubt that it was them that the crane was there for. Not appropriate to investigate on this occasion, but maybe we get to find out eventually.
First offer of help came as I headed for the gates at Epsom Station. A pattern that continued through the day, with everyone being very pleasant and helpful.
Plenty of young families on the train, but there were seats enough for us too. Plus an interesting looking bicycle from some people called Duffy. An unusual looking grey frame, not your regular tubular job at all, at least as far as I can remember. A pity it was not convenient to take a picture, as all I can find now is a cycle shop in Dublin called Duff Cycles, people who sell cycles but who do not appear to make them. See reference 2. Maybe I will come across another one and get to the bottom of the matter.
Snap above taken coming out of Tottenham Court Road tube station, with the only event en-route being the discovery that the back rest of the rollator could be slid out of its fixing.
A little early for our reservation - 'we will recycle your table if you are more than 10 minutes late' - so we took ourselves across the road to the Flying Horse, which we learned was almost the last pub in central London not to serve food. Such places still exist!
But the bar maid thought that this was why the place was quiet this mid-week lunchtime. Food at lunchtime was what the tourists wanted. Grub in a traditional London Pub. The boozing trade came later when the workers knocked off.
And I had forgotten that part of their listed building paraphernalia was coloured cut glass mirrors. I could not bring to mind anywhere else where such things are to be seen.
Amused en-route to the restaurant to spot a tourist pulling a suitcase which had been decorated with the very same Van Gogh as had featured on one of BH's anniversary cards. Clearly a popular choice!
The restaurant turned out to be as big and flashy inside as the website had suggested. Busy, with a mixture of locals and tourists, a lot of these last from Japan, Korea and China, apparently drawn in by the magic of social media. Lots of staff and our waiter claimed to actually come from Naples. He thought the name of the restaurant might be loosely rendered as 'meeting place' or 'the hang out'.
A satisfactory wine, specially imported by Big Mamma: 'maso cantanghel sauvignon blanc'. Bing suggests that the first two words mean 'Cantanghel Farm', while gmaps turns up a place in Lavis in Trentino which appears to be closed. Wine fine, but the trail goes cold, except for the snippet at reference 4: a relatively young chain which has already sold out to the big money.
Bread and ham to start. Good.
Something crabby to follow. A little oily, but again good. More substantial than might at first appear. BH took some form of chicken.
Sliced at the table from a pie dish. A first, but a performance which I sadly missed, being elsewhere at the time. Taken with a spot of Calva. BH took Earl Gray tea, described, reasonably enough, on the bill as bergamot.
A fine lunch. well seasoned with sexual innuendo on the menu and in the dress of the female customers. Plenty of back on view. Plenty more on the back of the menu.
Out to inspect the garden courtyard which is part of the development. Very pleasant it was too. Complete with the new-to-us plant snapped above. But Google Images knew it to be Salvia ‘Amistad’ or Friendship Sage, which seemed fair enough. Unusually, there does not appear to be a Wikipedia entry with its usual botanical details.
The grand exit.
BH, in the exit, by a window back onto the restaurant.
No aeroplanes on the flight path at Clapham Junction and no trolleys at Epsom, but we did manage a taxi.
PS: interested to read (early this Tuesday morning) at reference 5, that Labour is already thinking of bringing back a version of PFI, widely used by the last Labour government before being dumped by the Tories on the grounds of poor value for money - amid a great deal of adverse comment. Talk of public servants being no match for the private sector sharks, expensively trained to extract private maximum advantage out of it. I would only offer two comments: first, that choosing a funding model is a different issue to deciding whether or not to charge, perhaps in part, for the product at the point of consumption - for which last I do see a place. And second, that the argument used against PFI before it became established, that PFI could never get over the hurdle of public borrowing being a lot cheaper than private borrowing, is still there. And I note that of the £9bn (current) price tag for this Lower Thames Crossing, we have already spent close to £1bn before we get to the starting gate.
References
Reference 1: https://www.bigmammagroup.com/en/trattorias/circolo-popolare.
Reference 2: https://www.duffcycles.com/.
Reference 3: http://masocantanghel.eu/masocantanghel/vini/vigna-cantanghel-sauvignon-blanc/?lang=en. Labelled insecure by Edge, no idea why. I generally take his advice in such matters, but I did get as far as the first page.
Reference 4: Big Mamma restaurant group sells majority stake to private equity: Deal with McWin values French-owned Italian company at €270mn - Oliver Barnes, Will Louch, Financial Times - 2023. 'Big Mamma, the French-owned Italian restaurant group known for serving Instagram-worthy dishes and drinks to diners in Paris and London, has been valued at €270mn after selling a majority stake to the private equity firm behind the Gail’s Bakery chain'.
Reference 5: Rachel Reeves weighs PFI-style deal for £9bn new Thames crossing: Treasury in talks over using private finance to deliver possible toll road and other projects amid tight spending constraints - Gill Plimmer, George Parker, Financial time - 2024.
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