The conversation is about phones and influencers in dining rooms, and why people revere the 1990s as the last decade before social media. Jones says what makes a restaurant is the mix of people and how they interact, and that this is why he doesn't particularly like new ones.
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To what degree, as someone who's spent a lot of time in these dining rooms that we're talking about, does the popularity and the, you know, it's everywhere, the mobile phone, people can take a photo of you eating at that table if they want to cancel or stop what is fundamentally some of the fun of it. Because I feel like back in the day you were relying on the discretion of the restaurateur and your fellow diners. And then if you could manage the paparazzi or manage the kind of narrative posts you leaving, you could have a lot of fun and still kind of be in good shape. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Whereas nowadays, I think if you're being loose in a place, everyone's going to know about it. It's completely different. I mean, no one's going to take a picture of me in a restaurant, but if you're a celebrity, yeah, it's going to be an issue. And that's another reason why people revere the 90s because it was the last decade before social media. Jeremy's just banned influencers from his restaurant. Of course. And quite right too, because it's performative and you're not interacting. And the whole thing about a restaurant is the mix. It's a mix of people, how they're interacting with each other and how they're interacting with the people around them, with the waiting staff, Matri D, with everybody. And it is, I mean, we've all been in those restaurants, and that's why I don't particularly like new restaurants. I mean, my idea of a great restaurant launch is a restaurant launches with great fanfare. Everyone talks about it, writes about it, and it's a really big thing. I don't go there. 18 months later, it closes. I haven't been there and my life has been uninterrupted. That for me is the perfect narrative of a new restaurant. If it's great, you'll get there eventually. Are there dining rooms? Sorry, Freddy. Are there dining rooms out there still that kind of can hold a candle to some of the ones back in the day? I mean, obviously, Jeremy's. I think Simpsons at the moment is a great restaurant. In fact, last Friday, I took my family to Romano's, the one upstairs, to celebrate my younger daughter's birthday. I know, I'd seen it before. I'd seen it in its kind of formative stage being painted and what have you, and I hadn't eaten there yet. And this is a kind of case in point. And I thought, is it just a diffusion version of Simpsons? What is it? It's probably going to be more female-friendly because it's lighter, looks a bit like spring, vaulted seating, etc. I thought it's magnificent. In some respects, I thought it was a better experience than Simpsons, because Simpsons is very male. But I thought it's brilliant. I absolutely loved it. I think that's a great room. I think Simpsons is a place, a proper business place. So that has a vibe at the moment. But probably the only other restaurant in London that I think has that at the moment is Scott still. You walk into Scott's, it's exactly the same as it's always been. Gordana's there, orchestrating everyone, making sure the mix is great, and it's pucker. It's brilliant. Doesn't feel any different from when it was relaunched 15, 20 years ago. But obviously, there are so many great restaurants. But if you're in Mountain or Club Row or Dorian or anything, Of these places, they're all brilliant, but I wouldn't say there's a vibe there. No, it's not like a central London uni-vibe. There might be that's a Shoreditch vibe and a Notting Hill vibe or a Peckham vibe, but you don't go there and thinking I am at the epicenter and everything. When you went to the Wolseley or the Ivy, you did. That's what it felt like. You really did.
We were at Le De Gasson the other day with obviously some of Marco's old boys, Robert Reithers, the chef, and Jean-Christophe out front. Halfway through the podcast, he took a phone call on a connected landline with his beautiful French accent, and that felt like when you arrived, you knew you were going to be
greeted and connected with the front of the house. Do you feel the sort of replacement of online booking algorithms has kind of taken away that magic of seeing Jeremy come and work the tables at Simpsons and things like that? No, because I think if you go somewhere often enough and you become a regular, you do know people. And actually, I think online, I think booking online is actually great. I think it's, of course, if you can't get in, if you're lucky enough to know, and you call up and harangue someone. But I think generally it's a very good thing because it has democratised eating out, which we need a lot more of. But no, I think it's like whether it's our local Greek restaurant or the park or anywhere that we go a lot. And I don't go to many places a lot because there are only so many opportunities. You can only have so many regulars. But I think you do build up a relationship. And I think that's really important.
But people like Eleanor Silvoni, like great front of house, are they dying out? That breed of just huge characters where you said earlier you would go for the vibe, the characters, the atmosphere as much