Chef Stevie Parle on good design and great London restaurants

Through the 2010s, Stevie Parle opened a string of London restaurants – Rotorino, Palatino, Craft London, Sardine – that established him as one of the capital's most exciting young chefs. But the pandemic hit hard. By 2020, most of his portfolio had closed, leaving just Pastaio, his lively Soho pasta joint. That summer, in defiant response to the lockdowns, he launched an outdoor restaurant called Joy. It was loved but short-lived, forced to close after landlord disputes. For the next few years, Parle kept his head down, running Pastaio and waiting for the right moment to return.

In May, Parle rediscovered his joy. Town is a huge, glossy site on a statement corner of Covent Garden. Launched with Jonathan Downey – the restaurateur with the likes of Milk & Honey and Street Feast on his CV – the striking restaurant was an immediate success, with five-star reviews from all the major critics and reservations becoming gold dust.

The reviews are nice – “I've always done all right with reviews generally,” Parle tells us – but they aren’t a guarantee of wider success. “Town began with way more of a bang than I expected,” he admits.

So what’s the secret?

“I think I make restaurants that feel like London, restaurants people want to be at, that make sense to people,” says Parle. But Town is also a much more glamourous proposition than his previous openings, where foraging and sustainability were front and centre. This time, “I wanted great vibes. When people come in, I can see them walk through the front door with a look that says, ‘I can have some fun here.’ It’s almost more important than the regenerative agriculture projects and the deep partnerships with farmers. A fantastic vibe, a happy kitchen, a space that feels like it has some escapism – those were the primary goals.”

That vibe comes from the people, but it also comes from Town’s atmospheric design, which blends high-gloss colour with moody dark woods and retro-future furnishings. Parle and Downey created the space along with new design studio North End, who had previously worked with JKS Restaurants (Gymkhana, BiBi). “We had a clear vision for what we wanted – it was almost an ingredients-first approach to design,” says Parle. “We decided on high-gloss lacquer because it’s impactful but affordable. Then we went for some robust, expensive elements like the lava stone that clads the columns and makes the amazing green kitchen pass pop. We made some bold decisions and stuck to them.”

The menu is crowd-pleasing in new ways, and one of its surprise hits has been a starter of potato sourdough served with dipping gravy. “That dish is quite eccentric,” Parle says. “But the whole menu is my vision of what people want to eat now – what I want to eat now.” Beyond its earthy appeal, Parle links the dish’s success to the quality of the ingredients – the gravy is made using beef from his own herd of cows.

“Ingredients first, always” is the philosophy behind the drinks list too. It’s been put together by Kevin Armstrong of Satan’s Whiskers, the Bethnal Green bar that’s become a perennial on world’s best bar lists. “Kevin’s an absolute genius and has a very similar approach to me,” says Parle. “It's about the best ingredients, simplicity, nothing being over the top.” Armstrong’s Dill Boy, a micro martini crowned with a shimmering dot of dill oil, is undoubtedly a fine way to kick-start a meal. “I always say tiny martinis don't count – but they do work.”

Late in October, just five months after Town arrived, Parle opened the doors to Motorino in Fitzrovia. It wasn’t the plan to launch two restaurants so close together – “one ran late, one didn’t” – and there are some differences between them.

Downey and Armstrong are involved again, but so too is Luke Ahearne. As head chef of Marylebone’s Lita, Ahearne won a Michelin star within a year. “It was important to me that there was someone else's voice in the picture,” explains Parle. “I made Town as my ideal, what's perfect for me, and I didn't want to just do the same thing again.” Parle and Ahearne both came up cooking Italian (like many of London’s greatest chefs, Parle started out at The River Café), and have now come up with both a spaghetti-free carbonara and a gin-spiked sausage ragu for Motorino. “Sometimes restaurants with a strong design aesthetic don't want the food to be too good. They want the food to be good enough. I'm not interested in that.”

The Motorino aesthetic has a similar feel to Town “but a completely different palette,” reckons Parle. “I like curves, getting the lighting right, making sure the whole place glows. That's important, whatever design aesthetic you're working with.” The new place also has three private dining rooms that mirror 70s recording studios, and will surely come into their own during party season.

With the two openings behind him, I ask Parle about the biggest difference he’s seen in the five years since his previous restaurant launch. “Times are tough from a business perspective,” he says. “No one's making the money they used to make. The risk is higher and the reward is lower, but it's also a time of great creativity and immensely high standards.”

Around London, Parle still loves Mangal II on Stoke Newington Road (“the Malaysian flatbread and roti are fantastic”), he’s eagerly awaiting the next restaurant from ex-Pahli Hill chef Avinash Shashidhara (“probably one of the best British Indian chefs cooking today”) and he recently enjoyed 64 Goodge Street, just next to Motorino. “I think you can eat any food on the planet at world-class quality in London these days,” he says. “There's no restaurant scene like London right now.” He puts that down to “incredible British produce” and an ingredients-first approach that seems to work –whether you’re sourcing dill or lava stone.

Visit Town.Restaurant and Motorino.London