Pagoni has just turned 30 I was 29 when I opened L’Escargot a few hundred yards to the south in Greek Street in 1981. The comparisons between Pagoni and a much younger version of myself are quite close. ‘I’m afraid that we don’t serve champagne, sir, but we do have a Greek sparkling wine instead.’ Her customer happily agreed to the alternative and in fact I even heard him recommend it to his colleague when he arrived. He asked for a glass of rosé champagne and it was Pagoni’s response that gave me cause to remember my years as a restaurateur. Jenny Pagoni, the 30-year-old owner, had just escorted a middle-aged gentleman to the table next to ours. I was sitting at a corner table on the mezzanine level of the recently opened Ampéli restaurant on Charlotte Street, London W1, enjoying my second dinner there, when I overheard a conversation that filled me with a sense of déjà vu. A version of this article is published by the Financial Times. A brave new Greek restaurant in Charlotte Street – very unlike the old White Tower.

Brave new restaurant