Ruth Rogers
The co-founder of the River Café talks to Flora Watkins about Chelsea, bikes and keeping her business afloat
How did you come to live in London?
In 1969, I came for a term off from university —a small college in Vermont [New England, US] called Bennington—and I fell in love with city life. I begged my parents to let me stay; they said I could if I went to school. So I went to the London College of Printing to study graphic design.
Which part of town do you call home?
Home is in Chelsea, just off the King’s Road overlooking the Royal Hospital. We’d been living in Paris [when her husband, Lord Rogers, was working on the Pompidou Centre] and, when we came back, we wanted to find somewhere with light and space where we could do some architectural work. Our house is a kind of lateral conversion of two Edwardian houses. We’ve been there since 1983. I love being close to the river on one side and a big street on the other and I like the sense of community and being able to walk everywhere.
How do you get to work at the River Café in Hammersmith?
I use public transport and take black cabs and I bicycle. I have a beautiful Brompton bike (pictured below) that was given to me by my best friend, Josh Berger. He knows me so well—it folds up so I can throw it in a taxi!
How has the River Café restaurant adapted to lockdown?
Shop the River Café (www.shoptherivercafe.co.uk) came from the desire to sell our stock and stay in contact with our customers. It’s not a takeaway service, but food you can finish at home. It means we haven’t had to furlough any of our chefs and it has been a real link with people who love the River Café—we can send them food and I do the newsletter twice a week. It’s been a really creative and exciting process; one of the most exciting things is that we can deliver outside London and reach customers who can’t come to us—lockdown or no lockdown.
Will you keep the shop going once restaurants re-open?
It’s grown into a really serious business for us. We’re about to launch our ice creams and sorbets online and we’re getting orders from all over. We’ve even been sending olive oil and bags of pasta to people in New York. I’m not quite sure why they need it, but hey! The homeware section is a very personal edit. We did a Bella Freud sweater with the word ‘Nemesis’ on it [the name of the River Café’s famous chocolate pudding], there are beautiful Murano glasses from Venice, steak knives from France and a lot of the grill pans and frying pans we use ourselves.
What are your favourite city haunts?
My favourite places in London are my friends’ houses and going to see friends is what I’ve missed most. We have Ranelagh Gardens just behind our house, so we walk there. I do like urban routes; there’s a great walk through Chelsea, over the Albert Bridge then east and back over Chelsea Bridge. We’re near the Royal Court Theatre and the Chelsea Curzon cinema and there’s a great Lebanese restaurant nearby [Al Dar on the King’s Road].
You’re re-opening for outdoor dining on April 12. How are you feeling?
I can’t wait. When Rose [Gray, co-founder of the River Café, who died in 2010] and I started it, we were seen as two crazy women opening a restaurant that nobody could find. But, more than 33 years later, we are still there. I didn’t realise how important restaurants are, not only to me as a chef, but to the culture of the city. When we opened the restaurant after the first lockdown, people were quite emotional about coming back.
To book, visit www.rivercafe.co.uk
‘I didn’t realise how important restaurants are, not only to me, but the culture of the city’