What do you do when your progeny have news that might interest visitors to your website? Tell them, of course.
Nick and I have been thrilled and very proud to see our son Will Lander follow in his father's footsteps and become a successful restaurateur before his thirtieth birthday. Will and his business partner Josie Stead, with major help from chef Shaun Searley, took over the listed Victorian working men's dining room The Quality Chop House in London's Clerkenwell on 12 November 2012 and swiftly made it into a very popular and highly acclaimed restaurant and wine bar with a particular emphasis on offering well-cooked, British produce on a daily-changing menu and a wide range of keenly priced, hand-picked bottles. (Contrary to some assumptions, the ever-changing wine list always comes as a surprise to me, and includes just the sort of interesting finds, new and mature, that I like to drink.) And this is not just maternal delusion. In last year's National Restaurant Awards, the upstart that was The Quality Chop House came in at number 27 in Britain's top 100 restaurants.
Last December they opened a butcher's and food shop in premises they had taken over next door and now they are beginning to run courses in the smart basement of the shop. Since they have in residence the highly competent master butcher Oliver Seabright, the first courses will be butchery courses. Many food-loving Londoners will have noticed that butchery courses have suddenly become quite popular, but these ones, on Monday nights in May and June, each focused on a single animal, also include a delicious three-course meal with wine in the restaurant next door, and top quality meat to take home and cook for yourself.
You can read more about these intimate and instructive evenings, £135 all-in, here. (I should point out that it was my sister-in-law, not my son, who drew my attention to these classes.)
The Quality Chop House, 88-94 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3EA
tel 0203 490 6228 shop@thequalitychophouse.com
