Bob Bob Ricard boss: ‘Champagne is in our DNA’
Bob Bob Ricard has become that incredibly rare thing: a London restaurant that hasn’t been forced to close. It has outlasted a financial crash, a pandemic and a cost of living crisis, all because it is very, very good.
The dining room is designed to make you feel like you’re careering through Europe on an Orient Express-style train and the food, a mixture of classic and British and French cuisine, is superb, too. In CityAM’s review we said “like a hallucinogenic trip, or a warm hug, this restaurant just needs to be experienced.”
Ahead of our Toast the City awards this October, we speak to COO Tomas Minkley.
‘Champagne is part of who we are’: 18 years of Bob Bob Ricard
How did the famous ‘press for Champagne’ button come about?
The “Press for Champagne” concept was created by our owner Leonid, AKA Bob Bob, over 18 years ago. As a child he once stayed in a hotel in France which had a button for summoning service. That inspired the creation of the button. It has since been adopted by various brands globally, including Eurostar. A lot of people think the button came from a Wes Anderson movie. At one point we were thinking about removing it in the City restaurant. But it’s part of who we are.
It’s all over Instagram, but how many people actually press it?
Two thirds of the guests have a glass of champagne. Of that percentage, around 30 to 40 per cent take a photo of their finger pressing for champagne. It’s around 30 to 40 per cent higher in the Soho restaurant than it is in the City.
Which other brands have, ahem, ‘been inspired’ by it?
It’s become a Christmas decoration. It made me laugh to walk into Selfridges and see a ‘press for Champagne’ knick-knack on their Christmas tree. Imitation is the best form of, you know… We find it humorous. They said it was one of their most popular decorations.
All that pressing for champagne must leave people with huge bills …
We have to be very analytical on our approach to food, to make sure it doesn’t feel like customers are landing a big bill. Even though they’re having a glass of champagne, no one’s looking at the individual priced items, so we have to find value in the rest of it, which is why things like our pies are significantly cheaper than our competitors.
How have things changed since you opened Bob Bob Cité in 2019?
At our City restaurant, now called Bob Bob Ricard City, the average spend pre Covid was way over £100 per person. Now it’s sub 100. There are a lot more individuals coming in for early dinner from four, five or six o’clock.
We now have more set menus and an all day offering, and people want lighter, fresher food. It was quite heavy British cuisine, but we’ve adaptated the menu so there’s more things like fish pies, fruits de mer. Bob Bob Cité also didn’t open Mondays a year ago. We were very cautious about whether there would be enough trading to make opening on a Monday financially profitable, but it’s now become one of our key performing days of the week.
Are diners drinking less?
People are more astute about what they’re eating and drinking. There’s a trend for mini cocktails so now a lot of cocktails are served in smaller portions.
We have all the variations of our Bob Bob Ricard cocktails in small versions. They sell the same amount of volume as our normal martini but it’s a smaller portion of alcohol: 75ml compared to 110ml. It’s a different price and it gives people the opportunity to have a little pre-drink, not too much alcohol, and then move on to maybe have a glass of wine.
You used to be operations director at The Ivy collection. Do you think their expansion has damaged the reputation of the flagship restaurant?
I think you’d be foolish to think it hasn’t. The reality is everybody knows it has made a bit of an impact on the business. It’ll be interesting to see when the business is sold [owner Richard Caring has put the group up for sale] whether The Ivy, the original flagship in Covent Garden, is part of that sale. For me, they’re two completely different businesses, and they should be treated as two different businesses.
The Ivy Collection provides an everyday occasion restaurant for the general public. The regional sites, at least in the time I was working for them, are performing extremely well. London sites are different, because it’s a very saturated market. The Ivy Collection re-developed when everybody wanted to be involved in a branded concept for restaurants. And in the last three or four years, the trend is back to restaurants being unique and not part of chains or groups. Large restaurant groups now are closing some of their restaurants, like Bill’s and Gaucho. It’s a different time for branded concepts, and it’ll be interesting to see where The Ivy Collection goes, because they are one of the biggest branded concepts within the UK hospitality scene.
Moreover, the West End has completely changed. With the restaurant that we operate in Soho, you do see a decline in pre-theatre and post-theatre dining. Even [famous restaurateur behind The Ivy] Jeremy King wrote an article yesterday about how to get diners back into the market after 9pm.
And a parting note?
There’s opportunities for us in New York and Tokyo. That’s where we would like to see the business grow!
Go to Bob Bob Ricard City’s website to book a table. To vote for your favourite London restaurant in our Toast the City awards, go to cityamevents.co.uk/toast-awards