Fine dining: The tightening of purse strings means that firms are swapping posh nosh for pizza as they entertain clients. Stacey Meadwell reports
Long boozy lunches over a bottle or three of claret may be a thing of the past for London’s property professionals during the recession, but clients still need to be entertained and contacts worked.
So, with talk of expense receipts being scrutinised for wine consumption, and àla carte lunches more than likely to give the finance director palpitations, how is the crunch-conscious property bod entertaining?
“There is a perception that the property industry is full of men and all they eat is red meat and drink wine,and I suspect 25% of the industry is like that and they’ll carry on because it’s their lifestyle,” says Tony Parrack of Edward Charles & Partners.
However, he adds: “I did see a partner from one of the big West End agencies sat outside Pizza Express in Mayfair, and it would always have been Black &Blue or the Union Café before.”
So does that mean a £10 pizza is an acceptable alternative to haute cuisine? Ted Schama of leisure specialist Shelley Sandzer thinks so. “It is more acceptable than ever to say ‘I’ll meet you at Pizza Express or Carluccio’s’, no matter how high up the people are. Clients’ expectations have dropped.”
It also seems thatLondon’s agents have discovered the economic benefitsof the set menu. David Fox, partnerat retail specialist Briant Champion Long, highlights the set menu at celebrity chef Gary Rhodes’s restaurant, Rhodes W1 at The Cumberland hotel. “As long as you don’t go mad on wine, it’s great value,” he says.
Schama says the fine-dining operators havenot changed their pricing becausethey loathbeing seen to be making offers. He claims thattake-up of set menus is more a case of agents’mindsetschanging.
However, if casual dining or set menus do not supportthe image you want to present to your most valuable client, what are the alternatives?
Breakfast, say agents. You can still go to a top restaurant, but there is only one course, and no one tends to linger over a final cup of coffee. Fox explains: “You meet at 8-8.30am, it doesn’t involve booze, and people are therefore thinking better.”
No doubt, the breakfast option worksif you are a morning person. Andat least it keeps the accountants happy. The Wolsey and Cecconi’s, both on Piccadilly, W1, are the favoured haunts.Indeed, a table at the former is not always guaranteed if you leave it late to book.
Eggs Benedict is therefore replacing steak tartare, and coffee the claret, as the acceptable offer forbusiness entertaining.
Shelley Sandzer’s Ted Schama gives his top three choices for “It needn’t be expensive to be good” restaurants in London on the Focus blog; www.estatesgazette.com/blogs/focus
Alternatives to wining and dining
A corporate box at a sporting event may sound pricey, but the word is that it can be good value for money and, most important, more productive in these cash- and business-strapped times.
Niche retail agent Briant Champion Long has opted for a day at the cricket rather than a long lunch in a swanky restaurant for its business entertaining. Partner David Fox says: “We buy a season ticket for Lord’s, get clients along for the day and it is good value.”
He says the only thing that has changed is that, before the recession, the company ordered food in, but now it uses the in-house catering.
“I heard that one company looked at the cost of having a party for 200 people and decided to take its top 12 clients to Newbury Racecorse instead. They had a box and got some new business out of it,” he adds.
Slightly more unusual, and not necessarily to everyone’s liking, is a trip that Tony Parrack of West End agency Edward Charles & Partners went on last year, and which is being repeated this year: mountain biking. Organised by Terrace Hill last year, it comprised an overnight stay and biking in Wales. This year the event is being held in Berkshire, and for only one day. “It’ll be 10 guys getting spattered in mud on the cheap rather than going for an expensive meal,” says Parrack.
