The Gourmet's Guide to LondonNewnham-Davis, Lieut.-Col. (Nathaniel)
General
The Gourmet's Guide to London
Newnham-Davis, Lieut.-Col. (Nathaniel)
Restaurants -- England -- London -- Guidebooks
The Rendezvous Restaurant is now one of the landmarks of Dean Street.
The wide windows of its ground floor are of little square panes, each
window set in a white wooden frame, above a facing of glazed red tiles,
and before them stands a line of Noah's Ark trees in green tubs. Over
these ground-floor windows the restaurant's name is written in Old
English characters on a white ground. A line of shrubs in winter and
flowers in summer is beneath the windows of the first floors of the two
old houses, and at night a row of globes blazes with electric light
above the name of the restaurant.
The interiors of the two front rooms on the ground floor of the
restaurant have been decorated to represent the parlours of an Old
English farmhouse. There are heavy black beams supporting the ceiling,
the walls are panelled with green cloth in wooden frames, the electric
lamps give their light in old lanterns, and there are silver wine
coolers with ferns in them on the broad window-sill. Upstairs, and
there are three staircases in the restaurant, one of the rooms on the
first floor is kept in its original Georgian panelled simplicity, while
the other is a Dutch room with plaques of Delft ware on the walls. The
new room at the back I have already described.
The clientele of the restaurant comprises every class of Londoner from
princes to art students. The late Prince Francis of Teck often dined
there. I have seen ladies in all their glory of tiaras of diamonds
and of pearl necklaces eating an early meal at the Rendezvous before
going to the opera; and the youngster who is one day going to obtain
Sargent's prices for his pictures, but is still in the chrysalis stage,
and the as yet undiscovered Melbas and Clara Butts receive just as
much attention when they eat the one dish which forms their lunch or
dinner as do the great people of the land who indulge in many courses.
The Royalty is but a score of steps away from the Rendezvous, and many
playgoers on their way to that theatre dine at the restaurant or sup
there after the performance. Messrs Vedrenne and Eadie quite appreciate
the advantage it is to have a flourishing restaurant just outside
their doors, and gave M. Gallina every encouragement when he first
established himself in Dean Street.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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