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Behind the restaurant boom: the urban delusion consuming our cities Behind the restaurant boom: the urban delusion consuming our cities
(about 20 hours later)
I ate a concept last Thursday. Not just any old abstraction, but a “heavily concepted restaurant trend”, in publicist-speak. No kidding: at the new Lobster Kitchen, the name is the menu is the business model. Here you can have whatever you want, as long as it’s pink: lobster tails, lobster rolls, lobster with macaroni cheese. Dangling from the ceiling are lobster traps and buoys. The seafood, the decor, the condiment trays, even the seasoning, it all comes from New England – a gigantic concept crammed into a small room just off the tat-selling fag end of London’s Oxford Street. I ate a concept last Thursday. Not just any old abstraction, but a “heavily concepted restaurant trend”, in publicist-speak. No kidding: at the new Lobster Kitchen, the name is the menu is the business model. Here you can have whatever you want, as long as it’s pink: lobster tails, lobster rolls, lobster with macaroni cheese. Dangling from the ceiling are lobster traps and buoys. The seafood, the decor, the condiment trays, even the seasoning, it all comes from New England – a gigantic concept crammed into a small room just off the tat-selling fag end of London’s Oxford Street.
As the last paragraph proves, I am no restaurant critic, no Marina O’Loughlin. Given the choice, I’d rather go for a walk than a meal. But if you want a glimpse of the near future for London and Britain, start here. Because part of how this country responds to the loss of its manufacturing base and a banking meltdown appears to be that it gets into eating. London is going through a restaurant boom. According to the website Hot Dinners, the number of restaurants born in central London has surged every year since 2011. In 2013, 196 new places opened; this year it’s 240. As the last paragraph proves, I am no restaurant critic, no Marina O’Loughlin. Given the choice, I’d rather go for a walk than a meal. But if you want a glimpse of the near future for London and Britain, start here. Because part of how this country responds to the loss of its manufacturing base and a banking meltdown appears to be that it gets into eating. London is going through a restaurant boom. According to the website Hot Dinners, the number of restaurants born in central London has surged every year since 2011. In 2013, 196 new places opened; this year it’s 240.
Part of what’s driving this is new investment – such as from Lobster Kitchen co-founder Abigail Tan. As the 29-year-old heiress to one of the wealthiest real-estate dynasties in south-east Asia, IGB of Malaysia, she’s part of a fast-growing group in Britain: the big-money investor getting into independent eateries. What’s more, within a few days of her place’s October launch, two rival lobster diners opened, one Russian-owned. Part of what’s driving this is new investment – such as from Lobster Kitchen co-founder Abigail Tan. As the 29-year-old heiress to one of the wealthiest real-estate dynasties in south-east Asia, IGB of Malaysia, she’s part of a fast-growing group in Britain: the big-money investor getting into independent eateries. What’s more, within a few days of her place’s October launch, two rival lobster diners opened, one Russian-owned.
Just like central London homes, the capital’s eateries are fast becoming a global asset class. This year’s most celeb-strewn joint is Chiltern Firehouse, owned by an American hotelier. This year’s most bizarre place is Beast, which serves oligarch food at oligarch prices; among its owners is, naturally enough, a Russian steel oligarch. The latest Gordon Ramsay is Jason Atherton, whose principal backer is Singaporean. Just like central London homes, the capital’s eateries are fast becoming a global asset class. This year’s most celeb-strewn joint is Chiltern Firehouse, owned by an American hotelier. This year’s most bizarre place is Beast, which serves oligarch food at oligarch prices; among its owners is, naturally enough, a Russian steel oligarch. The latest Gordon Ramsay is Jason Atherton, whose principal backer is Singaporean.
Meanwhile, town halls parched for investment scrabble after restaurateurs and their cash. “Every council has its own approach to regeneration, and food is a cornerstone of our strategy,” says Andrew Sissons, regeneration guru for Hackney, in east London. Coventry is turning an old shopping centre into a restaurant quarter. To lure big-name chefs, Gloucester is waiving financial incentives. And samey food festivals are rolled out everywhere – so one can hike from Llangollen to Broadstairs and never go short of craft beer or organic double-chocolate-chip brownies. Meanwhile, town halls parched for investment scrabble after restaurateurs and their cash. “Every council has its own approach to regeneration, and food is a cornerstone of our strategy,” says Andrew Sissons, regeneration guru for Hackney, in east London. Coventry is turning an old shopping centre into a restaurant quarter. To lure big-name chefs, Gloucester is waving financial incentives. And samey food festivals are rolled out everywhere – so one can hike from Llangollen to Broadstairs and never go short of craft beer or organic double-chocolate-chip brownies.
Tastier eateries are meant to tempt tourists or business travellers to stay a while. But they reflect the influence on our city authorities of Richard Florida and Ed Glaeser. Read these American urban theorists, and there is an image of the ideal postmodern city as a menagerie of apartment-dwelling “creative” freelancers who roam from start-up to eatery, clutching only a MacBook and a flat white. I exaggerate a little – but it remains a concept as imported and imagined as Tan’s restaurant. And it’s the corollary of the delusion that what replaces old industry is a new knowledge economy – if only city leaders knew how to kindle one.Tastier eateries are meant to tempt tourists or business travellers to stay a while. But they reflect the influence on our city authorities of Richard Florida and Ed Glaeser. Read these American urban theorists, and there is an image of the ideal postmodern city as a menagerie of apartment-dwelling “creative” freelancers who roam from start-up to eatery, clutching only a MacBook and a flat white. I exaggerate a little – but it remains a concept as imported and imagined as Tan’s restaurant. And it’s the corollary of the delusion that what replaces old industry is a new knowledge economy – if only city leaders knew how to kindle one.
I asked IBISWorld, a firm of market researchers, to look at the spread of restaurants across the UK. What they came back with showed what happens when you put most of the politicians, media, and big-boy jobs in all-powerful, recession-proof London: sharp economic inequality produces gastronomic inequality, too. I asked IBISWorld, a firm of market researchers, to look at the spread of restaurants across the UK. What they came back with showed what happens when you put most of the politicians, media, and big-boy jobs in all-powerful, recession-proof London: sharp economic inequality produces gastronomic inequality, too.
London has more restaurants per head than anywhere else in the UK – 50% more than the national average, and almost twice as many per head as the East or West Midlands. As for Michelin stars, London and the south-east have more than the rest of the UK put together. Ask Tan if Lobster Kitchen might launch in Leeds, and she is commendably frank: “My Asian investors would ask, ‘What’s Leeds?’” Then she concedes that there might be regional versions, but they’d be smaller and cheaper.London has more restaurants per head than anywhere else in the UK – 50% more than the national average, and almost twice as many per head as the East or West Midlands. As for Michelin stars, London and the south-east have more than the rest of the UK put together. Ask Tan if Lobster Kitchen might launch in Leeds, and she is commendably frank: “My Asian investors would ask, ‘What’s Leeds?’” Then she concedes that there might be regional versions, but they’d be smaller and cheaper.
When provincial cities were sites of production, they had distinct economies and identities: Cottonopolis Manchester; Worstedopolis Bradford; Brummagen Birmingham. As Leeds boy Keith Waterhouse wrote: “If they had soot in their lungs they also had red blood in their veins, and there was such a thing as provincial pride.” Now that they compete to be centres of consumption, the pecking order is sharper and harder. So London gets Heston and Marcus, while Birmingham must wait for even a Byron or a Leon. When provincial cities were sites of production, they had distinct economies and identities: Cottonopolis Manchester; Worstedopolis Bradford; Brummagen Birmingham. As Leeds boy Keith Waterhouse wrote: “If they had soot in their lungs they also had red blood in their veins, and there was such a thing as provincial pride.” Now that they compete to be centres of consumption, the pecking order is sharper and harder. So London gets Heston and Marcus, while Birmingham must wait for even a Byron or a Leon.
And what if you come to London, where rents are a rip-off, first-time buying is unimaginable, and freelancing in one of those creative industries beloved of Richard Florida means earning sod all? How does a twenty- or thirtysomething in those circumstances take up the lifestyle offered by the capital? By parking any idea of buying a place, starting a family and settling down. “They haven’t the money to grow up, so they go out,” suggests the Manchester University anthropologist Sean Carey. They queue for burgers, eat at concept diners and Instagram the results – perhaps it makes an unliveable settlement bearable for a while. And what if you come to London, where rents are a rip-off, first-time buying is unimaginable, and freelancing in one of those creative industries beloved of Richard Florida means earning sod all? How does a twenty- or thirtysomething in those circumstances take up the lifestyle offered by the capital? By parking any idea of buying a place, starting a family and settling down. “They haven’t the money to grow up, so they go out,” suggests the Manchester University anthropologist Sean Carey. They queue for burgers, eat at concept diners and Instagram the results – perhaps it makes an unliveable settlement bearable for a while.
The new consumer is summed up by Gareth Grundy of Observer Food Monthly. He recalls a young woman who kept a list on her phone of all the new restaurants. “She was sharing a house and couldn’t really afford to eat out, but she kept trying to tick them off.” The new consumer is summed up by Gareth Grundy of Observer Food Monthly. He recalls a young woman who kept a list on her phone of all the new restaurants. “She was sharing a house and couldn’t really afford to eat out, but she kept trying to tick them off.”
Abigail Tan is smart. Her restaurant deserves to do well. But in the nicest possible way, I hope Britain’s future isn’t full of Tans. A concept’s fine for a night out – but it’s no way to run an economy.Abigail Tan is smart. Her restaurant deserves to do well. But in the nicest possible way, I hope Britain’s future isn’t full of Tans. A concept’s fine for a night out – but it’s no way to run an economy.