Brasserie Olivia. Photo: Safia Shakarchi
Booking apps and the hunt for the latest opening have made us good at discovering restaurants and poor at returning to them. Becoming a regular at a restaurant you love is becoming a lost art. Chelsea is a village, albeit one with very good shoes, and villages run on recognition. There is something rather cheering about being greeted by name, having your favourite wine remembered, and feeling genuinely welcome.
A real regular is the person whose absence becomes conspicuous. “You notice when they’re not there,” says Jérémy Degot, general manager of Brasserie Olivia, which opened on Sloane Square in July. He means guests who become part of a restaurant’s rhythm: familiar faces, familiar orders, and a relationship that works both ways. Here’s how to become one, starting with your next booking.
Book like a person
Degot insists a first-time guest deserves the same welcome as someone on visit number 50. But booking directly through the restaurant’s website, under the same name and contact details each time, helps the team build a picture of you: the wine you liked, the table you favour, how you take your coffee. Better still, pop in during a quiet moment to book in person. “It’s always a nice opportunity to meet the team and have a conversation,” he says.
Choose somewhere worth returning to: dinner on Tuesday, a drink on Thursday, or a long lunch on Sunday. A neighbourhood restaurant should become a habit, not another address ticked off the restaurant bucket list.
The third visit
Recognition need not take years. “Sometimes after two or three visits,” says Degot, “the team will already remember your name,” provided there has been a genuine exchange. Perhaps they recall your wine, or ask whether you want the same table.
Recognition should extend beyond one attentive waiter. “We talk about our guests, we share information,” he says. You walk in and the person at the door knows you; someone else remembers the coffee. That is when a restaurant starts to feel like familiar territory, rather than a room where you have to introduce yourself every time.
"Pick one, make a booking, and go back next week."
Brasserie Olivia. Photo: Safia Shakarchi
Never say the word regular out loud
“Just be natural. There really isn’t a trick to it,” says Degot, whose advice is admirably free of strategy. Learn a name. Ask what the team likes on the menu. Tell them when you loved something. If there’s time, have a quick conversation at the bar, or say hello when passing.
The distinction is between taking an interest and making an impression. His favourite gestures are never material: a genuine thank you, a kind word to the kitchen, asking about their week. The staff are people, not gatekeepers to your favourite table. Nobody needs to be informed of your campaign for regular status.
“Put us wherever works tonight”
The real test comes when the restaurant is full. If you can say, “Don’t worry, put us wherever works tonight,” Degot says they remember it.
That generosity may come back around. On another evening, the team might be able to keep your preferred table, find a last-minute opening, or do something thoughtful. There’s no guarantee of special treatment next time, of course. Nor should there be. The point is to make their difficult night a fraction easier, rather than add your own crisis to it.
The pleasure of having your place
Your favourite table might not always be available, but by now that’s hardly the point. The welcome is familiar, you know the people looking after you, and you’ve acquired something rather nicer than a standing reservation: somewhere you genuinely look forward to returning to.
“The greatest compliment,” Degot says, “is when someone stops thinking of Olivia as a restaurant they go to and starts thinking of it as their place.”
Try Willett’s at The Cadogan, a Belmond Hotel, for a proper British lunch; Colbert, across the road from Brasserie Olivia, has been training regulars for years; Martino’s if you savour a buzzy yet refined dining experience; Cantinetta Antinori for a glass of Tuscan wine and a standing engagement with your favourite pasta; Azzurra for fish that has scarcely had time to miss the sea; or one or another of Chelsea’s many world-class restaurants. Pick one, make a booking, and go back next week.
