Your Table Is Ready, Monsieur et Madam

Event information

“In Greek Street you can scarcely put a foot wrong, gastronomically speaking. It is the Street of a Thousand Omelettes. At Number 48 you have the famous L’Escargot Bienvenu, one of the few Soho restaurants that is truly and typically French… The atmosphere is civilised, Parisian, intimate, with plush-covered seats and pale green walls. Your meal is a work of art and you ask for an apéritif, not a cocktail. Gourmets have always met there to discuss food, chefs and the niceties of sauces. Your meal costs the inevitable five shillings, the house charge is a shilling and coffee ditto.” (Stanley Jackson, “An Indiscreet Guide To Soho”, 1947)

Historian Debra Kelly will be chatting with the Sohemian Society’s half-French co-founder, Marc Glendening, about the centuries-long history of French restaurants in London. Trigger warning: maybe you’d better eat before listening to their conversation…

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Besides being the author of “Fishes with Funny French Names”, Debra Kelly is a Professor Emerita in French and Francophone Studies at the University of Westminster and is currently Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Language Acts and Worldmaking at King's College London.

Marc Glendening is the co-founder of the Sohemian Society. His connection to Soho dates back to when, as a baby, he visited the Colony Room where his father, the painter Ronald Glendening, and his stepmother, Sohemian Society stalwart Yvonne Glendening, were regulars. Marc works as a free speech campaigner. He also writes occasional journalism.