Established 1929 Street address 16 Bury Street Country England | Current owner(s) D&D London City London | |
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Website quaglinos-restaurant.co.uk | ||
Quaglino's is a restaurant at 16 Bury Street, St James's, London, founded by Giovanni Quaglino in 1929. The restaurant achieved huge popularity with the British establishment in the 1930s through to the 1950s after which it entered a period of relative decline, being purchased by the Conran Group in 1993 and relaunched by D&D London in the 2010s.
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Early history
Giovanni "John" Quaglino was a waiter who was maître d'hôtel at the Martinez Hotel in Cannes and who subsequently worked at The Savoy in London with John Sovrani. Sovrani left The Savoy to start Sovrani's Restaurant in Jermyn Street in 1927, taking Quaglino with him, however, according to rumour, Sovrani took too much interest in Quaglino's wife, causing him to resign as head waiter in 1929 and start Quaglino's in nearby Bury Street. Sovrani's lost a lot of business to Quaglino's and closed in 1931. A version of the rumours was repeated in the Tatler on 6 January 1932 in which a restaurant owner was quoted as saying "my boss, he pinch my brother's wife, so now I pinch his business", causing Sovrani to sue the publishers and printers of Tatler for libel. The defence argued that the words could not apply to Sovrani as his restaurant had already closed by the time they appeared and Quaglino's only brother was not married. The jury, however, found in favour of the Sovrani and awarded him £2500 damages with costs.
1930s & 1940s
Quaglino's became highly fashionable in the 1930s. It was patronised by the Mountbattens and Evelyn Waugh dined there. As Prince of Wales, King Edward VIII was also a customer.
Leslie "Hutch" Hutchinson, one of the first popular black entertainers in Britain, became a regular performer at Quaglino's in the 1930s and 40s. According to The Mirror, his affair with Lady Edwina Mountbatten caused her husband Lord Mountbatten to complain to the band leader at Quaglino's that "Hutch has a p***** like a tree-trunk, and he's f****** my wife right now."
In the 1930s, romantic novelist Barbara Cartland found a real pearl in an oyster served at Quaglino's.
1950s
In 1956, Queen Elizabeth II dined at Quaglino's, making her the first reigning British monarch to eat at a public restaurant. The restaurant was said to have a table permanently reserved for the regular visits by Princess Margaret, the Duke and Duchess of Kent and Princess Alexandra.
1960s
In 1963, John Profumo and his wife made a show of togetherness at a dinner-dance at Quaglino's after the scandal of the Profumo Affair broke.
In March 1969, Judy Garland held the wedding reception for her marriage to Mickey Deans, her fifth, at Quaglino's. The reception was reported to have been poorly attended with more waiters than guests, even Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli failed to attend.
1990s
In 1993, the Conran Group bought the restaurant.
The restaurant became a staple of the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, the original series of which ran from 1992–96, before being revived after 2000.
2010s
In 2013, Quaglino's hid a £2000 South Sea Ronirose pearl in an oyster to be served at the restaurant as a publicity stunt based on the incident when Barbara Cartland found a small pearl by accident in the 1930s.
In 2014, the restaurant reopened after a £3 million renovation under its new owners D&D London.
Chefs
Early in his career, John Torode worked at Quaglino's as a sous chef.