Getting Dressed: Catherine Butler
Restaurateur Catherine Butler on her West Country renaissance
It is 20 years since Catherine Butler and her partner Ahmed Sidki set off on a light-hearted jaunt to Somerset to visit a friend, never suspecting that the outing would change their lives.
At the time, Butler was a highly successful restaurateur in London, with ten branches of Café Med, the chain she co-owned, across the city, and Sidki had his own gallery selling art and furniture in Holland Park.
‘We knew absolutely nothing about the country – we knew only that it was green and had cows in it!’ she says.
It was a fine day. When the couple heard there was an old chapel for sale in nearby Bruton, they decided to take a look. They both love old buildings – Ahmed is an architect and designer. Within half an hour, they had bought it.
They had no particular plan but, in the way that these things happen, an offer appeared out of the blue for the restaurant chain in London. So Butler sold up and the couple moved to Somerset, with no thought of opening a restaurant there.
Then Butler chickened out: ‘I panicked. I am a totally urban person, I fled back to London and commuted. It was only four years later that I felt able to commit to the country – and a restaurant of my own. And then there were two years of building before we opened At the Chapel in 2008.’
It was an immediate success. Bruton is an ancient and historic town with an extraordinary mix of people in the area – from teachers at the three big schools in the town to farmers and agricultural workers, craftsmen, artists and writers. At the Chapel and its popular bakery – inspired by Butler’s memory of buying bread with her father on Sunday mornings after Mass – became a hub for locals from Carlos Acosta to George Osborne. In the years since, other exciting ventures have joined them: first the Hauser & Wirth contemporary art gallery and, recently, The Newt hotel and gardens. Oldies will understand when I say that the Butler/bruton story reminds me of another one: Nevil Shute’s A Town Like Alice (1950). In the book, an enterprising woman opens an ice-cream parlour in her local town in the Australian outback and transforms it into a bustling, busy hotspot. Butler was born into an Irish Catholic family in Liverpool 62 years ago. Her politically minded father, the first in the family to go to university, worked in the docks. Those were turbulent days: the dockers were frequently on strike; there was very little money. Butler’s first hero and inspiration was the formidable left-wing campaigner Bessie Braddock, who was their MP. Butler was at college studying public administration when a French-dutch schoolmate invited her to spend the summer helping at her father’s restaurant in Corsica. ‘I loved everything about it: cleaning, helping, preparing, cooking, serving – everything. It was all amazing for a girl like me from Liverpool.’ The summer over, she took off for London and became a trainer at the Chicago Rib Shack in Knightsbridge. ‘There could be 200 people queuing on some nights.’ She then worked for Robert Earl, founder of Planet Hollywood. He owned more than 50 restaurants and employed 1,000 staff. She moved to Café Rouge before her boss suggested they pool their resources and open their own business. Café Med was born.
Butler has spent most of her life in black, the traditional colour for restaurant staff – though she plans a switch to navy. She obeys the rules she sets for her own staff: ‘Tops and trousers or skirts must be black (not faded), clean and pressed. No logos. No armpits! Shoes must be black, too, and comfortable. You can be on your feet for up to 12 hours a day in this job.’
Butler has found her favourite medium-heeled boots at Chloé and Yves Saint Laurent. She insists on good fabrics for her black outfits. Donna Karan and Joseph are favourite labels, along with Theory for knitwear.
In normal times, she shops once or twice a year at Selfridges, buying everything she needs in one go, including the skincare products by Sisley she likes. She has her hair cut and coloured at Josh Wood in London, keeping it long enough to put up.
‘That’s another strict rule in restaurants: all hair is tied back.’
At the Chapel restaurant and hotel will reopen outside on 12th April and fully on 17th May