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The Caprice in London
The Caprice in London Photograph: Steve Davies
The Caprice in London Photograph: Steve Davies

Le Caprice: 30 years and still going strong

This article is more than 12 years old
The London restaurant celebrates its 30th birthday this week. What has been the secret of its longevity?

Running a successful restaurant has always been notoriously difficult, especially in lean times such as these. This year, around 140 restaurant businesses have failed each quarter (according to Stephen Broome of accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers), but despite this, a clutch of eateries continue to thrive, whatever the economic weather. What is the secret ingredient that so many seem to lack, but which keeps some restaurants in steady business for decades?

This week one of London's best-loved restaurants Le Caprice – known for its celebrity clientele and unfussy, comforting food – reopens its door after a refurbishment to celebrate its 30th birthday. Thirty years, that is, since restaurateurs Chris Corbin and Jeremy King bought and relaunched it in September 1981. Le Caprice was originally opened in the West End 1947 by Mario Gallati, who had launched the Ivy 30 years before that. "There are these institutional restaurants," says Richard Harden, co-founder of Harden's restaurant guides, "which have gone on for ever. Rules is another one."

It is no coincidence, says Harden, that one of the longest-running restaurants, Le Gavroche in Mayfair, was founded by a French family. The British don't have a strong tradition of children taking over their parents' restaurants in the way they do in France or Italy, he says, so the natural lifespan of a long-standing restaurant is around 30 years, "when the owner decides to retire, or someone makes a good offer". The brothers Albert and Michel Roux opened Le Gavroche's doors in 1967, and it is now run by Albert's son Michel Roux Jr (his cousin, Alain, now runs the Waterside Inn at Bray, which Albert and Michel Sr launched in 1972).

"One of the secrets is staying true to your roots," says Roux Jr. Dishes such as the cheese souffle have been on the menu since the beginning. "We're a French restaurant, we're renowned for our classics so they have to be on the menu, but we have evolved. If you don't, you become staid, and your customers get tired." Holding your nerve through difficult times is key. "We have been through several recessions … the winter of discontent, the IRA bombing campaign, 9/11 … Experience helps, and [the ability] to make the best of what you've got without compromising quailty … when times are hard, you must never compromise on quality because that is the first thing your customer will see."

However, he continues, "restaurants are not just food-led. It must be a whole experience for the diner - service, decor, ambience. And consistency." To which hiring and retaining great staff is key – Silvano Giraldin was at Le Gavroche for 37 years before he retired as its general manager in 2008. And the general manager of the Waterside Inn, Diego Masciaga, has worked with the Roux family for nearly 30 years.

Similarly, Jesus Adorno was head waiter at Le Caprice in 1981 and is now the director; one of the fixtures its customers expect to see, along with the salmon fishcake that has never left the menu. If a restaurant serves intricate, overtly fashionable dishes, he says, "you end up changing them more often. Here people come expecting their favourite dish. Whenever we change it, I have an outcry."

It is also crucial to resist hiking up the prices in the wake of success, says Adorno. "People would say to Jeremy King and Chris Corbin, 'Why don't you put your prices up?' They would say 'Why? We're making money, customers are happy.' When they left [King and Corbin sold their restaurant group to Richard Caring in 2005], I followed the same philosophy. I don't want customers to feel they are being taken for a ride."

Of course, not all long-standing restaurants are celebrity haunts. Paul Milsom has worked at Le Talbooth in Essex, which his father opened in 1952, since he was 13. Their secret? "It starts with a great location, whether that's Jermyn Street [in Mayfair] or out here in beautiful countryside," he says. "Then it's about serving the kind of food your customers want to eat. So many restaurants don't end up cooking for their customers, they cook what their chef wants to, or they cook for the guidebooks or accolades … If a star chef spends two or three years with us, when they leave we have to start again."

Finally, he says, when you're out of town, success depends on local trade. "In London, if you have a great name for yourself, there will be a constant flow of new people who want to go. We don't have that, but we have a fantastic community of people who live near us and we have to look after them so they come back time and time again."

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