Al la Colthard: Langans Brasserie/ Iberica

There is something both interesting and eerie to visit a restaurant that is still going strong but is past its hey day. I was meeting up with an ex footballer- footballers love Langans – and he suggested this place. Peter Langan started the restaurant in Stratton Street at the site of the Coq D’Or in December 1978 with Michael Caine and Richard Shepherd, the present owner and once the chef at the Capital Hotel restaurant which won a Michelin star. At that time the brasserie concept was not so widespread as nowadays and its buzzy atmosphere soon attracted a fashionable clientele. David Hockney designed the menu and his paintings together with those of Patrick Proktor, Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud adorn the walls. One day Alice Mansfield and I will pen a piece on art and restaurants – the finest collection is to be found at the Colombe D’Or in St Paul de Vence.

You could guarantee yourself a good time there in the eighties or this good time party girl could!!! The then MC who has passed away, Michael, a Chelsea supporter who squinted behind his specs and did not quite fit into his black tux, often used to make me laugh when he charted an affaire by the wine ordered: Champagne, Sancerre , house wine. One of the ingredients of the success was the retention of staff though truth be told the food was never that good. Another ingredient was that Richard Shepherd was superb at logistics and actually could organise and oversee so brilliantly the service of many covers. You had to know someone well there to avoid being sent to the Venetian Room (aka Siberia) on the first floor and know someone very well to get the top table on the right as you enter. On Fridays I would end up on the table of bon viveur of bon viveurs Bobby Keetch where cavorting ended at 4 (am not pm)!!!

By its very nature fashion moves on and the Caprice and the Ivy became more “in” venues. Still the footballers kept on coming. Many a transfer deal was done on those tables.

I noticed when I came that the clientele was silvery-haired as if they had grown old with the restaurant. One of the old crowd, Trevor East, was there: a veteran of tv ( ITV and Settanta) and in the traditions of John Bromley, Mike Murphy a hard living, tough negotiating tv mogul. I ordered the trademark cheer soufflé with anchovy sauce which was delicious followed by a plain but well-cooked liver and bacon. With a bottle of Merlot and gin and tonics beforehand the bill was £165 for two and, true to form in an age when the long lunch can cost you your job, we stayed till 4pm.

Iberica in Portland Place was not around in the seventies nor its ilk of modern Spanish. I met Neil Rosen there before we saw Moonlight. We ordered octopus, mackerel, tortilla, a plate of 3 hams and it was totally scrumptious. Interestingly there was not table to be had in Marylebone and this was midweek. Iberica was packed too. I enjoy Spanish cuisine, the shard platter has extend to other cuisines, and restaurants, and its wine is underrated. No criticism here though not cheap at £80 per head for less wine and less copious fare than Langans. Less exciting too: no part-time waiter/matador from the land of Cervantes, Picasso and Pep Guardiola to whisk this middle-aged senorita off her feet to dance a flamenco!!!