A Capital
Hip, fun, live and funky. Have you ever heard these words used to describe a restaurant? In the Capital Radio Cafe you are in a restaurant-cum-broadcast studio. At 24 years old, and with a breakfast show audience of up to two million, Capital claims to be London's most popular station.
It is this celebrity status which joint owners Capital Radio and My Kinda Town aim to exploit through a raucous series of high-profile broadcasts from a studio booth in the restaurant. The plan is for live radio to act as a honey pot for hordes of Capital fans.
This rich cocktail of fun, food and on-air buzz is the venture's trump card, with the emphasis on bringing in a younger clientele.
Decor and ambience reflect the pitch. Twenty-two flat screens, 12 video monitors and four score speakers line the walls and churn out London scenes and unforgettable moments, pop clips and excerpts from the café's celebrity-laden opening night last November.
Then, stars such as Lionel Richie, Chris Rea, East 17 and a phalanx of actors came to sip and be seen at London's latest restaurant.
Divided into a dozen seating zones, it is a heady mixture of bold-coloured tiles, sparkling lights, and blaring hip hop music. But the trendiness is accessible with a strong emphasis on smiling staff and have-a-go waiters and waitresses.
It is their job to explain that the menu contains some very large portions and that appetisers, unless you are famished, are best shared.
Giant portions are clearly part of Capital's OTT style, a leitmotif that runs through the sunny, multi-coloured menu. Put together by a Chicago consultant, a wide variety of tastes from several cultures including Oriental, Californian and Tex-Mex are on offer.
Charismatic texan chef
Heading up the food and beverage operation is charismatic Texan chef Harry Azami, who came to the UK 11 years ago to study medicine but ended up with My Kinda Town. London is his preferred city, and the Capital Radio Cafe is an ideal podium on which to display his passion.
He hopes the food will reinforce the venue's vitality and party feel. Being a Texan he believes big is best. "Our customers want to eat and drink a lot. Many of them go to clubs afterwards and work it off. The London social scene has become so vibrant in the past few years. The key to our success is going to be great value for money and the message that diners should eat as much as they want. The percentage of people who will hate this café will be much smaller than those who will love us."
Keen to avoid accusations of bulk at the expense of flavour, Azami's confidence in the food's taste is borne out by the numbers crowding into the café.
Within a fortnight of opening, some weekend days were seeing covers of up to 1,300. Given the radio link and its Leicester Square location, that's not much of a surprise. But Azami has no doubt that the food will support the café's appeal.
He says: "People are often so disappointed with the meal when they go out to really big restaurants. Often the food is nothing to write home about. Here it's about mixing and matching different cuisines so people can take what they want. If you've ever been to California, there will be a sense of déjà vu."
Prefixed by a warning to consider them a main course, the appetisers run from coconut-coated shrimp and garlic fried calamari, through Tex-Mex egg rolls and buffalo wings, to big sellers such as barbecued bacon potato skins.
There is also a welcome variation on the onion ring theme. Here they are known as onion strings. And that's what they are. The onion strips are covered with parmesan flour and salt (to soak up the water) and then immediately fried. According to Azami this maintains their flavour and shape. They come with a thick home-made sour cream dip with onion powder. The effect is light and tasty.
Azami's big Texan influence asserts itself in a special steakhouse section. For daring eaters there is a 20oz T-bone. This is Azami's favourite part of the menu. "I am biased because I'm from Texas. But we use really good quality cuts. Our steaks are way above anywhere else."
A diverse salad list illustrates the imaginative US influence, ranging from classic Caesar, Chinese, Greek, Thai and south-west American. Azami says: "Our salads are going great. They have about 10 items in them as opposed to the usual two or three."
This is burger territory and burgers are among the best sellers. Names such as "Roadside" and "Black and blue" entice the customers. In this section, masquerading as a burger, is the grilled mushroom sandwich. "In the USA, you rate a restaurant according to how good the vegetarian options are," Azami assures me.
When he looks at the puddings his eyes light up. They have such beguiling names as "Warm fallen chocolate cake" and "Apple burrito with sugar daddy sauce". This is proving to be the most popular and has surprised even Azami who thought the name burrito might put people off. Bramley apples are cooked in butter, sugar and cinnamon and then wrapped in a sweet flour tortilla and served with ice-cream and caramel sauce (£3.95).
"Orgasmic" is how he describes his favourite: the banana split cake is an ice-cream cake topped with chocolate and whipped cream.
Obviously the station's DJs will be regular customers in the months ahead, so perhaps Azami will find himself swapping the kitchen for the studio? "No. I'm not looking to get any glory. But if the DJs annoy me, they won't get any of my food."
