Pre-theatre business, from 6pm to 7.20pm, is likely to delight any restaurateur lucky enough to be close to a busy theatre or cinema complex. This is not just because of the significant extra revenue that such business can bring. An early evening boost of adrenaline is a great staff motivator. And the most switched-on restaurant staff will know at what time the various curtains go up — and also come down for any possible post-theatre supper business.
Moreover, this early evening buzz fills an otherwise empty room. There may be customers who decide to just stay on and talk rather than see the show, while there will invariably be waiters resetting the recently vacated tables. This activity is comforting on many fronts.
Recently, there have been three, very different, new openings close to one another in London’s West End, each of which offers anyone planning to eat before the show a really good time.
The most distinctive in terms of cooking and transformation, in that it used to be a casino, is Bocca di Lupo off Shaftesbury Avenue, the collaboration of chef Jacob Kenedy and his partner, Victor Hugo. Kenedy used to cook at Spanish-influenced Moro, but he has now turned his culinary skills to replicating all that he has eaten on travels around Italy. He presents his dishes sensitively and sensibly, not only by listing them under the cooking style he has used but also by offering most of them in half or full size portions.
At lunch and dinner, Kenedy delivers salad and fried dishes, pastas and risotto, soups, stews and main courses in this novel approach, but pre-theatre he also offers a range of one-bowl dishes, such as spaghetti with clams, polenta with sausage and pork ribs, and sea bream with lemon and olive oil.
Terroirs, close to Covent Garden, the ENO and the theatres along the Strand and Charing Cross Road, takes an equally enthusiastic but entirely French approach. Owned in part by wine importer Les Caves de Pyrène, Terroirs seeks to emulate those Parisian wine bars where the wine list is as exciting as the menu.
This objective they achieve not only by the quality of the cooking that emanates from another open kitchen but also thanks to the ultra-friendly layout of a menu that doubles as a paper placemat. One section is devoted to cheese and charcuterie, another includes a salad of beetroot, watercress and pecorino, and smoked eel with celeriac remoulade. Then there’s a section of daily-changing, more substantial main courses. I have eaten there many times, enjoying black pudding with eggs and wild mushrooms, Suffolk pork belly with vegetables and red mullet with scallops and artichokes.
Finally, there is the new Oyster Bar at J Sheekey, a restaurant long frequented by theatre-goers because of its position between St Martin’s Lane and Charing Cross Road, and also because of its food, predominantly fish, and professional service.
The restaurant has been extended next door to reveal a sumptuous counter that serves plates of oysters, fish pie, salmon fishcakes and, for those with an excellent appetite, spotted dick with golden syrup.
Bocca di Lupo, 12 Archer Street, W1, 020 7734 2223, boccadilupo.com
Terroirs, 5 William IV Street, WC2, 020 7036 0660, terroirswinebar.com
J Sheekey Oyster Bar, 33-34 St Martin’s Court, WC2, 020 7240 2565, j-sheekey.co.uk
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