The latest of Sir Terence Conran's restaurants is the Bluebird, in the King's Road, Chelsea. Just to remind you, his other places include the likes of Quaglino's, Mezzo and Le Pont de la Tour. In case you don't know, Sir Terence is an architect and interior designer by profession, but in his youth he did work his way through the restaurant trade from kitchen porter upwards. He's been getting his own back ever since.
One thing you can be quite sure of with a Conran restaurant is style. And quality. Sir Terence maintains exacting standards. He also knows how to recruit (and retain) staff. The Bluebird used to be a garage; it was built in great style in 1923. There are tenuous links with Sir Malcolm Campbell, whose world record breaking land and water craft were all named Bluebirds.
Design features include a continuous rooflight providing controlled daylight whatever the ambient weather conditions - and a streamlined stainless steel island bar with hints of exhaust manifolds, a cornucopian crustacea bar, a suspended private dining room and a kite motif mobile which dangles dynamically in the roofspace.
The Bluebird Gastrodome combines a modern brasserie style restaurant, café bar, a foodmarket that includes a traiteur, boulangerie and patisserie, a flower shop and a proper outdoor-style fruit and veg market. There's even a wine shop and a private dining club.
The restaurant is situated on the first floor, suspended from the steel roof structure with space for 240 diners. Wendy Henricks is the front of house manager and she has been honing her team for weeks before the opening so that they can now provide friendly but professional service. In common with most of Conran's restaurants, there's a direct view into the kitchens where Michael Moore, the executive head chef and his brigade look after all the dining rooms including the traiteur, where home made rillettes, patés and charcuterie can be found. There's a wood fired brick oven and the chefs can sear meat at temperatures approaching 500C, so look out for whole rabbits cooked over olive wood, or wood roasted crustacea with wild herbs. At night when the oven cools, long slow cooking of braised meats and casseroles makes full use of this terrific facility. It reminds me of Elizabeth David's evocative descriptions of how the villagers in Provence would take their joints and stews down to the bakery to make use of the residual heat of the bread oven.
We hope to bring you a full review of the restaurant and gastrodome as soon as we can.
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