Cooking and craftsmanship are two of Jason Atherton’s great passions.As he prepares to open the first restaurant on Savile Row in 350 years, he tells us why it’s a match made in heaven
Words: Reyhaan Day
For years, Jason Atherton has been a central figure. From his days at Maze to opening Pollen Street Social [replaced in July by the more laid-back Mary’s], the unerringly popular Little Social and the St James’s Market site, Sael, the two districts have gradually become his stomping ground.And it’s not just about restaurants. As Atherton has achieved increasing success, his world has increasingly centred on Mayfair and St James’s.“If all goes to plan, my wife and I are looking to buy a two-bed in Mayfair,” he says.“That’s how much I love the area. It’s like a little village – we shop here, my gym’s here, we have restaurants here. Hopefully we’ll retire here.
“It’s changed a lot over the years, since I first moved to London as a 16-year-old with zero education. Mayfair was proper old school then. People used to go to work in bowler hats, suits and walking canes. That was London – it was famous for it.” Atherton is a vocal admirer of great tailoring, British craftsmanship and men’s style, evident in the impeccably made car coat he arrives in for our interview, which is taking place at Cad & The Dandy on Savile Row. It seems natural, then, that his latest culinary venture will open on the Row – at number five to be exact. “This is the first restaurant on Savile Row for 350 years,” he says.“It’s insane. But everyone knows I’ve been a fan of tailoring for a very long time. British heritage means a lot to me personally.I’m a fiercely proud Brit. Savile Row is so unique, and the minute I could afford to start buying nice stuff from theRow, I became an absolute superfan.”
Atherton now considers many of the cutters and staff on the street friends.“They’re small shops – you become known on the street,” he says. “The relationship becomes even deeper.” So what led to him opening a restaurant here? “At Pollen Street Social, which is a two-minute walk from here, there were 70 covers, with a lunch menu, tasting menu, vegan menu, vegetarian menu,” he says. “I was getting fed-up with cooking for so many people at that level, trying to maintain standards day in and day out. I started to look for something smaller, so we could try to push the restaurant harder, but with a singular menu.”
But soon after being approached by The Pollen Estate to open a restaurant in the building that formerly housed tailor Kilgour, Covid landed in the UK. “It was heartbreaking,” Atherton says.“But I had bigger fish to fry: we had 300 staff on the books,debts mounting up into millions overnight. We didn’t know if we were going to survive it, whether we’d have to sell our home. Having a restaurant on Savile Row was far from my mind at that point.”In time, Atherton found the opportunity too good to pass up – especially after the government introduced incentives for operators to continue with their business plans. “Fortune favours the brave,” he says. “We took the lease on the understanding that if we didn’t get the liquor licence, we could pull out at no cost, just losing money on lawyers. So we took it.”
Aside from the council and the landlord, it was the business owners and workers who operated on Savile Row whose support Atherton sought to gain for what came to be known as Row on 5. “We said: ‘Without your say so, this restaurant can’t exist. You guys have got to want it to be here.’ If they didn’t want it, it would be like being the black sheep in the family. We had to have the Row’s support.
“Luckily for me, Richard Anderson is a friend, the Sweeney boys are friends, the guys at Cad & The Dandy, Gaziano & Girling. It passed with flying colours. Everyone is taking part in it because it’s going to be in keeping with the rest of the street. “I often notice how men who like really nice food tend to like dressing well too,” he adds. “They seem to go hand in hand. There’s a similarity between cooking and tailoring. With my trained eye, I can look at two bits of turbot and tell you within a nanosecond which one is better. Not saying I’m a tailor, but I can also look at someone and tell if their outfit has come from a proper tailor, or if it’s a copycat. It can still look elegant, but it’s not as sharp.
“Savile Row is an Aston Martin – it’s not a Ferrari.We are about a bespoke, tailor-made, elegant experience. I think this restaurant will be so beautiful that it’s going to bring people to tears – that’s what I genuinely believe.”Row on 5 will feature lots of touches that embody the idea of British craftsmanship, from the wood to the flooring to the fireplaces. Even the handles of the steak knives have been crafted in Sheffield from a single tree that had fallen in Soho Square.
However, to execute the concept for Row on 5, Atherton decided he needed to partner with the right chef. Enter Spencer Metzger. “I made a list of five chefs, and Spencer was at the very top,” Atherton says. “I was starting to go to The Ritz quite regularly because all of a sudden, the food became really sharp, really good. I knew that Spencer was playing a massive role in that.”With the blessing of The Ritz chef John Williams, Metzger –a former winner of the Bright Young Thing award at the Mayfair Times Community Awards – joined Atherton. “Although Spencer is 31 and I’m 53, our dreams are very much the same,” Atherton says. “We both work like dogs, we love what we do, the energy levels are the same and we both get excited about the same style of food. It was the perfect fit, like a bespoke suit.”
It has taken two years for the planning to be completed for Row on 5 – and in that time, Atherton and Metzger launched Row on 45 in Dubai – despite that site originally being conceived as a follow-up to the Savile Row restaurant. “The Dubai restaurant has done 50 Best, got two Michelin stars and Spencer has won awards – all that builds expectation for here.”
He is clearly thrilled at the idea of creating a smaller, more adaptable menu hyper-focused on seasonality and the very best British produce – and that Metzger is going to be the chef to make it a success. Offering a 15-course tasting menu with supplementary options – Row on 5 sees Atherton and Metzger go to “extreme lengths to source some of the smallest producers, artisans, foragers and honey-makers,” says Metzger. “Everything has a story and a reason why it’s on the menu. Sometimes, sourcing great produce is the important part; and then it’s about allowing it to shine on the plate.”
There is life in Atherton yet, but he sees what the future might look like with this restaurant. “I reckon I’ve probably got five to seven years’ cooking left in me. It would be very easy for me now to be a consultant, living in the Middle East, collecting the cash, playing golf every day… but that’s not me. No chance. There’s stuff to be done, man! Like creating this – what a legacy. “The brand is being built for both of us. At a moment in time that we both choose is right, he [Metzger] will be able to grow the brand. Maybe a Row brasserie in Hong Kong. I have all the knowledge of how to do that – and I want to train the next generation like Spencer to be a restaurateur.”
If all goes to plan, Atherton will be rounding out a day shopping on Savile Row as a customer in his own restaurant. “Hopefully by then, Spencer will be fully in charge and I’ll be a guest, doing his head in.Poking him with my walking cane.”
Row on 5 opens this month at 5 Savile Row
