Quaglino’s rebirths ‘90s golden era with epic revamp

City AM was first to experience the new look Quaglino’s, the legendary St James restaurant where the late Queen celebrated her marriage, which has been revamped ahead of its hundredth birthday

How about a chocolate cigar, or even a chocolate ash tray? These are two of the unusual desserts available at the newly revamped Quaglino’s, which is attempting to return ‘90s hedonism to the London restaurant scene.

“Cigarettes and cigars were indulgent in the ‘90s, and desserts are indulgent now,” says Ron Cregan, historian for Evolv Group who led on the redesign.

These desserts will be available at a kiosk within the restaurant playfully called a ‘Tabac,’ the French term for cigarette shop.

The redesign features multiple stages for live music, and a seafood bar and cocktail bar, the idea being to divide the restaurant into what Copsey describes as “a series of stories”. “We think people want more than to arrive in the restaurant, sit in your chair and leave,” he tells City AM.

Quaglino’s: go for lunch, stay for dinner

Come for lunch and stay for dinner, hopes Copsey, just as guests did in the glamorous days of the long lunch, when corporates disappeared from their desks at midday and returned the following morning with a hangover. 

It wasn’t just corporates: the potent glamour of Quaglino’s lured the late Queen in on the eve of her Coronation, as well as Princess Diana, who entered through the kitchen to avoid waiting paparazzi; just two of myriad royal stories from nearly a hundred years of St James’ most glamorous restaurant.

With a central sweeping staircase leading to the subterranean dining room, ‘Quags’ – as Patsy and Edina from Ab Fab refer to it – was the ultimate hiding place, away from prying eyes. Copsey baulks at the restaurant’s reputation for being ‘naughty’, despite the fact that Lord Mountbatten’s wife Edwina was one of the famous names to rely on Quaglino’s to conduct their affairs (hers was with the venue’s legendary cabaret pianist Leslie “Hutch” Hutchinson). Nevertheless, he concedes that the venue’s discretion “encouraged people who were not necessarily with their partners.”

During the restaurant’s ‘90s golden era, Quags was a media haunt, a destination for fashion, advertising, design types, which drove Saunders and Lumley’s characterisation.

Night and day

Copsey describes his work as “trying to create a space that is night and day.” To create that effect, velvet has been used heavily in the redesign, most notably in the stage curtains and seating, with gold mosaic, white marble and the iconic ‘Q’ motif featuring heavily across fixtures and fittings in reference to the ’90s ashtrays, which guests used to steal as souvenirs.

Function, too, plays a large part of the redesign. Half-metre raised podiums, inspired by seating at the Royal Albert Hall, are now flanking the sides of the venue so every table gets a good view of the musicians. Adjacent to the raised central stage, in a similar position to where the original stage was, is a new champagne bar with a prime view of the musicians, and the dining room. 

The idea of inviting diners to drift around the room having different experiences at the various counters harks back to the restaurant’s original design. From 1929 to 1993 Quaglino’s was divided into a number of smaller rooms, featuring banqueting, small bars, music, with a dance floor in the centre. The band played on a podium, rather than on the stage as it is today, which occupies the space that was the seafood bar prior to Conran’s 1993 redesign. In the pre-Conran era, guests were encouraged to move around the space and engage with other guests.

Conran’s iconic staircase

In his epic 1993 redesign the late Sir Terence Conran added the sweeping staircase, establishing Quags for a new era. Key to Conran’s iconic redesign was commissioning eight artists to create artistic murals for the central structural pillars of the restaurant, the only parts which pre-date the restaurant being bombed in 1943 during the Second World War. The artists Conran used have since passed, but Copsey commissioned Paul Davis, one of Conran’s favourite still-living artists to design an emblem for each column that iconises each decade of Quaglino’s since the ‘60s. That era’s one, replete with Flower Power symbols, is particularly eye-catching, but overall, the playful, colourful designs bring a sense of youthful vitality to the space).

Under Evolv CEO and City AM columnist Martin Williams, the restaurant will take a more serious culinary slant. Colombian Michelin starred cook Miller Prada is consultant chef for Quaglino’s, and dishes include recreations of the food Her Majesty ate on her celebration night. Evolv has within their remit the Michelin starred Angler in the City.

Quaglino’s wasn’t about food

But this isn’t really about food. After all, says Copsey, the ‘90s were a glorious era for design – people were way more bothered about what was in their glasses than what was on the plate. Copsey notably says that ‘90s Quaglino’s was “pre food,” in the sense of the British restaurant trajectory as we know it today. “Pre St John and the reinvention of British cooking.” The £10 lunch deal reflects the realities of the day; they may want you to stay all night but, realistically, the long lunch has been relegated to wherever Patsy and Edina have gone.

With the band thumbing strings until way past midnight at the weekends, the rebirth of Quags looks set to breathe some much-needed life into Zone 1’s late-night economy, even if the smokes are made of chocolate these days.

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