The Italian Grand Prix is celebrating its centenary this year. Monza is synonymous with F1 GP like Silverstone in Bucks – the county not the club.
I admit I’d not heard of Monza until I was asked by a friend to the opening party of the eponymous restaurant in Yeomans Row. It’s a cul de sac in Knightsbridge in case you live across the galaxy, in Acton or Bermondsey. She knew the main investor – she cheerily called him horrible bits – and I got stuck into the booze, as usual. Once or twice I went back as a paying customer. The original investors were happy to sell out to the manager and now it is Giovanni. Owning a restaurant or a wine bar is a vanity project – I know, I’ve done it and lost my pants.
If I may digress, one of the original investors was Peter Mullen. I knew him in the 1970s when he was trying, without much success, to qualify as a Chartered Surveyor. That cloud had a silver lining. His brothers made high-quality shirts in Swords near Dublin airport. Most of their shirts were sold by high-end shops on Jermyn Street. The mark-up was staggering. So, as Peter had time on his hands, they rented half a shop by the cinema on the Fulham Road and started selling direct; Thomas Pink was born.
At the Monza party Peter told me his company had grown organically, funding new branches, including Paris and New York, from profits and swerving venture capitalist vultures. All good things come to an end and the brothers Mullen sold the business in 1999 to LVMH and trousered £45 million. It was a good call as others moved into the low cost, high quality, shirt market. LVMH sold TP shirts as a premium product but it was a broken business model. In 2018 it lost £23.5 million and in 2019 it effectively closed.
But you want to know about Giovanni. Remarkably, the capo cameriere was at Monza when it opened in the 1990s. Come to think of it the customers haven’t changed much either. It is a Knightsbridge enclave – as is its Chelsea equivalent, Le Colombier – for an endangered species: the gentry. Moreover, in no particular order, it is open every day of the year; the house red/white is about £20 a bottle in Knightsbridge where a glass can cost more; there is, hark, no service charge; the cucina is spot on.
Last week I had figs split open, anointed with Gorgonzola, warmed and served on a Homeric wine-dark sea of rippling Parma ham. Small fillets of sea bass in a vegetable broth were delicious. I am a small eater so declined pudding. The cc thoughtfully brought slices of water melon – a refreshing entree to the grappa menu.
