The last time I wrote about Daniel Land was in 2011. He, together with his then business partner, had opened the first of several branches of Coco di Mama (Mummy’s boy) which became successful selling pasta ‘to go’ as well as coffee. He ended our interview marvelling, ‘I’ve no idea how anyone manages to open a restaurant on their own.’
Having sold Coco di Mama in 2018, last January Land opened Don’t Tell Dad in Queen’s Park, north-west London – on his own. It’s an unusual combination of bakery, coffee shop and neighbourhood restaurant. When I called in for a coffee, I bumped into him. He lives nearby and is clearly able to spend a great deal of time there. He was busy serving when we returned for dinner.
Little, physically, seems to have changed. He wears the same broad smile and conveys the same exuberance. He seems extremely happy as the father of two young children, particularly so as his latest venture has survived its first, and inevitably most traumatic, three months.
The restaurant is best explained by its layout. It occupies a long, low, U-shaped building with two entrances and a flight of stairs to offices above in the middle. During the day the entrance is via the door which leads directly into the bakery, takeaway counter and the all-important coffee point (behind Land, pictured above). This then leads to an open kitchen along the back of the establishment, with counter seating and a series of booths in front. This continues on to the restaurant proper with a semi-private room for eight and more comfortable tables accessed in the evening and weekend lunchtimes via the other door.
It is obviously early in this restaurant’s life but Land seems confident that the two biggest challenges posed by this combination of bakery/coffee shop and restaurant have been overcome. The first comes from trying to combine a takeaway – crucial for keeping the place busy every morning from 8 am – together with a more formal and more expensive restaurant. And the second is the challenge of switching from a casual takeaway service to a more formal restaurant service. All in the same space.
‘The importance of coffee is something I learned at Coco’, Land explained. ‘It keeps the place busy and the staff smiling. The financial aspect is important too and the bakery was the first aspect of the business to settle down. We have pretty consistent sales of around £22,000 a week from that section.
‘But how to accommodate the restaurant presented challenges. The restaurant is open Tuesday to Saturday evenings when the bakery is closed and for lunch Friday to Sunday when the bakery is open. So we have to be extremely firm. From 10.30 on Fridays the bakery is takeaway only and then at 10.45 we have to put a couple of benches across the walkway that leads from the bakery to the restaurant to prevent people walking across’.
The conversion of a former bathroom showroom cost £500,000 and incorporates some of Land’s experiences learnt at Merrill Lynch. The booths, the counter seating, the general finish of the space are all aspects of restaurants Land has experienced as a customer. He added, ‘I take it as a compliment when a customer says they are going to borrow an aspect of our design in their new design at home.’
Don’t Tell Dad succeeds as a neighbourhood restaurant in a characterful street that has been thoughtfully developed by Akoya, a development company. Lonsdale Road is lined by low buildings not unlike mews houses that today house lager brewery Wolfpack, Pizza Pilgrims, Carmel restaurant immediately opposite Don’t Tell Dad, as well as vet and a medical centre. On Sundays the street is pedestrianised for a busy farmers’ market.
A bakery, coffee shop and restaurant for tired shoppers and hungry residents surely fits perfectly into this. The menu begins with a selection of their excellent breads, their signature small crumpet with oxtail and dripping crumb (on which we passed), six starters, four main courses and a couple of dishes to share which on the night we were there included a cassoulet and a large skate wing with wild garlic for two to three.
We began modestly, JR choosing two first courses as usual. Her salad of chicory, pear, candied walnuts and Comté (£10) was fresh but difficult to eat without using fingers while her ‘main course’ was a starter portion of a dish described as ‘braised pork, celeriac remoulade’ (£12). It was light on the celeriac but heavy on the stick of crisp pork which ended up in a doggy bag for her lunch next day, along with half of the pommes anna we ordered and the spinach and artichoke that came with my fish.
I thoroughly enjoyed my very crabby crab tart with crab-oil mayonnaise (£14) and a fillet of monkfish with a dill bearnaise (£33). The side order of crisp, salty potatoes was £6. We shared a dessert of chocolate and olive oil mousse on an orange cream necessarily enlivened by caramelised orange (£9). JR was very taken by the fact that the silver spoon she was given, the one on the left below, was a hallmarked antique with, purely coincidentally, the letter J on it.
We were both intrigued by the eclectic wine list. It opens with an 2023 Atma Assyrtiko from Thymiopoulos in Naoussa, northern Greece (£36), a 2022 Riesling trocken from Sybille Kuntz in the Mosel (£55), a 2021 Zweigelt from Ehmoser in Austria’s Wagram (£60) and Susucaru Rosso from Cornelissen in Sicily (£72) inter alia. We shared the majority of a bottle of unusually smooth Baga in the form of Niepoort’s Lagar de Baixo 2020 Bairrada for £58. The list’s quirkiness is partly explained by the enthusiasm of Ben, their notably tall assistant manager, for all things vinous. My bill for the two of us came to £165.38.
When I questioned Land about his emergence as a solo restaurateur, his immediate response was extremely honest. ‘Quoting my mid 20s “wisdom” back at me! I clearly didn’t appreciate the value of experience at that time. Through many mistakes, I’ve started to learn the difference between working hard and working smart, and something that seemed unimaginable to me in 2011 wasn’t so scary in 2024. No business partner has certainly been a big difference this time around – with advantages and disadvantages. The greatest difference, however, has been starting this business while I have young kids. In the Coco di Mama days, I could just work all night if something was wrong. Now, there’s something more important than the business and the challenge is trying to keep it all in perspective.’
Don’t Tell Dad is also highly personal. Two years ago, Lesley Land, Daniel’s elder sister, Channel 4 television’s publicist, died suddenly at the age of 41. Her memory is kept alive in the restaurant’s name (a phrase often used by the siblings) and the playlist in the bathrooms (‘Maria’ and ‘Cabaret’ when I visited). ‘It’s a more thoughtful way of keeping her memory alive, I believe, than even naming the restaurant after her would have been’, Daniel explained. ‘After all, this is a family business.’
Don’t Tell Dad 10–14 Lonsdale Road, London NW6 6RD; no phone. Open seven days.
Every Sunday, Nick writes about restaurants. To stay abreast of his reviews, sign up for our weekly newsletter.
