Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
Family matters at established restaurant
GENERATIONS OF FAMILY HAVE BEEN SERVING LONDON DINERS FOR DECADES, THROUGH GOOD TIMES AND BAD
“I was about six when I started hanging out here with my dad on a Saturday afternoon,” James Chiavarini recalled.
“We used to go to Holland Park for an ice cream and then I would sit down and have a millionaires and chips for lunch. I grew up here... it’s like living on a farm.”
That was the in the 1980s, when Il Portico in Kensington High Street had already been around for nearly two decades, opened by James’ father in 1967.
James has seen it all – recessions, booms, a pandemic and recently even a break-in. But that does not really bother him too much, as London’s oldest familyrun restaurant, he knows they will stand the test of time.
The restaurant’s ransacking happened in June after a charity event at Il Portico’s sister restaurant teamed up with JK Rowling to raise £24,000 for those affected by the war in Ukraine.
James told the Gazette’s online sister publication MyLondon: “We decided to raise money for charity and someone decided to take issue with that. But if you zoom out over 55 years, that doesn’t matter.”
But what is Il Portico’s secret to standing the test of time? First and foremost, putting family first.
Four generations of the Chiavarini family have worked at the restaurant. Though it started with James’ father, his grandfather also got involved later on. James’ children, Anna, eight, and Matt, six, also come down on a Saturday to help with the lunchtime service.
James said: “The family has a responsibility. It’s not like I go off to the office and disappear – it’s important that they understand that. The restaurant pays for the mortgage, it pays for the house, it pays for all the things we can eat. They can be part of that. That’s the nice thing about family businesses – it makes it less anonymous... it’s like growing up on a farm.”
The Chiavarini family is originally from Emilia-Romagna in the north of Italy with the restaurant’s menu drawing from the region.
Their suppliers of Parmesan have been making it since the 18th century. While the restaurant’s balsamic vinegar is created in the UK by another Italian family that has been making it for 400 years.
Tradition is important, James says, but so is evolution. If you do not keep up with the times, you will be left in the past. That is not to say he has any plans to turn Il Portico into what he describes as an ‘Instagram restaurant’ – one that is made to look aesthetic on social media but lasts no longer than five years.
James added: “Social media has its place in the world but there’s something quite charming about being an analogue business in a digital world – it sets you apart from everybody else.
“If everybody is chasing something, let them chase it. What we do is something that’s a little bit more concrete.
“Once you’ve been in business for 55 years, you start to see everything over a period of decades and generations – when you zoom out, Instagram is nothing. Having a selfie toilet is the most stupid thing in the world. Restaurants these days are built to last three to five years.”
It is not social media or any economic recession that has changed Il Portico the most, however. It was not even the pandemic – it was the smoking ban, which came into effect in 2007. Just weeks after it came into force, the iPhone became popular. This, James says, changed the restaurant industry forever.
He said: “People stopped going out to have a fun time and they started going out specifically for the food.
“Back in the day, when everyone had a packet of Silk Cut on the table, it didn’t really matter what you were eating. It was like pubs ‘2.0’... but people take food really seriously in the UK. The quality of cooking and sophistication of flavours has to be much higher now.”
The pandemic was a difficult time for everyone, but for restaurants in particular. They closed in March 2020, opening up again in the summer. They were placed in tiered restrictions, meaning only some could open outside. In London, restaurants opened up after the November lockdown only to close down again 11 days later.
This was hard for the Il Portico owners. What has been even harder is the subsequent cost of living crisis. That is because restaurants are often at the bottom of the food chain and putting their prices up will simply drive customers away.
James said: “Restaurants are a ridiculously inefficient business model to begin with – 20% of your income goes to the tax man, then 30% goes to your staff and another 30% to your suppliers... that leaves you 20%, with energy costs and rates to pay for. It’s nothing... if that’s taken away even more, your margins drop through the floor.”
He added that the driving force of the economy is small business and that more needs to be done to support restaurants like Il Portico to survive.
Despite this, despite all the hardships, the recessions, and dramatic changes in the industry, James’ outlook remains optimistic. He added: “I don’t see any reason why we won’t be here in 50 years.”