Town mouse goes retro
A pop-up restaurant in Old Burlington Street is appealing to a sense of nostalgia

Do you secretly miss gherkins, fish-paste sandwiches and peardrops? Does your palate yearn for a menu of cream of tomato soup, fish in parsley sauce and rice pudding, washed down with a piña colada? If so, make your way to 29, Old Burlington Street, W1, home until November to Retro Feasts, ‘a food-and-drink concept inspired by our childhood favourites'. Its Wünderkind chef, Luke Thomas, is only 19-too young to remember the Berni Inns to which his creations pay homage-but there's prawn cocktail, steak with peppercorn sauce and Black Forest gâteau.
** Subscribe to Country Life; Country Life on Ipad
You half-expect Alison Steadman to appear bearing a tray of cheese-and-pineapple skewers. Interestingly, although the recipes are well into their fourth decade, the diners seemed to come from a much more recent vintage. We were the oldest things in the room-apart, perhaps, from the carpet on the stairs, which looked as if its origin had been a provincial bingo hall.
Two teenage girls in denim shorts cooed over every breaded, deep-fried mouthful. ‘Do you think they're tinned?' whispered one ecstatically when her peach Melba arrived. A line from Beckett's Murphy came to me: ‘The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.'
* Follow Country Life magazine on Twitter
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
-
From California to Cornwall: How surfing became a cornerstone of Cornish culture
A new exhibition at Cornwall's National Maritime Museum celebrates a century of surf culture and reveals how the country became a global leader in surf innovation and conservation.
By Emma Lavelle Published
-
Jaecoo 7 SHS: Can you really get a luxury SUV for £35,000?
The Chinese automaker Jaecoo lands on UK shores with the 7. We take it for a spin around Scotland and the north of England to see if the hype is real.
By Charlie Thomas Published