Changing restaurants
I don't do low-calorie design," says Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, emphatically waving his hand around at his eponymous bar, Larry's, part of his latest design project, Inc Bar and Restaurant. "This is full-fat design, which is something I think people want. If you can't eat full-fat food, you might as well fill up with your eyes."
If there's one thing that can be relied on from the man who came to fame in TV programmes Changing Rooms, Fantasy Rooms and Home Front, it's his controversial but unabashed interiors, chiefly created in the homes of ordinary, if brave, members of the public.
Now, though, he has turned his attention to the world of hospitality, and the Inc Bar and Restaurant in Greenwich - undoubtedly, the trendiest thing to hit the London borough in some timae - is true to form.
Certainly Larry's Bar, one of two bars in the restaurant, is bright, brash and slightly surreal. Walls and curtains are adorned with "Dowling tartan" (custom-made for Inc Bar owner Frank Dowling), a kind of trompe-l'oeil pattern in shades of green. The impact is echoed by the loud and proud green swirl carpet, and a back-lit alabaster bar shielding an enormous bronze 1830s ormolu clock. To top it off, a David Downton portrait of Llewelyn-Bowen overlooks the room, one eyebrow raised in characteristic indifference to what anyone might think.
It's an appropriate location in which to meet Llewelyn-Bowen and find out what this move into restaurants is all about.
When he arrives, he's much the same as he is on television, albeit toned-down, in a snappy, full-length, black leather coat over the uniform de rigeur of interior designers - black trousers and a black polo-neck shirt. And, of course, there are the signature shoulder-skimming locks. He's as charming as you might expect, surprisingly accommodating and wittily self-effacing.
"I like doing things that lots and lots of people see," he replies, when asked why he decided to design a restaurant. "I love the psychology of what you can do in a bar, restaurant or hotel. I love to conjure up an atmosphere that's recognisable and tangible, and that people can buy into. In a restaurant or bar you can make the kind of statement that you would have to stop short of in a private home. Not even I would have wallpaper like this in my house - and I've got some scary wallpapers."
Despite his television fame, Llewelyn-Bowen is no stranger to London restaurant interiors. Before he became a household name, he graced the cover of Caterer in 1994 after creating the interior for the Opera Terrace at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, now a Chez G‚rard outlet. He also designed Sous-Sol, the basement bar at Sloane Square's the Oriel, the Loose Box bar in Knightsbridge, and Khuna Korn, on the Brompton Road.
But he's been absent from the catering world for some years - time enough to give him plenty of ideas, it would seem. Then, a bit of free time (LLB's diary is usually impossibly busy) and a chance meeting with restaurateur and Inc owner Dowling at a Greenwich dinner party paved his way back to restaurants.
When Dowling asked him if he would design his latest acquisition, Llewelyn-Bowen was persuaded after visiting one of Dowling's other restaurants in Greenwich, the Bar du Mus‚e, and seeing how much money had been spent on the loos.
"It was an epiphany," Llewelyn-Bowen says. "I'd always found, in my previous incarnation as a restaurant designer, that if you said to a client you wanted to spend £170 on a loo, and they went white, you knew you'd be cutting corners throughout the scheme. Then I saw the space at Inc and I just thought it was quite horny."
Philosophy
As a local resident, Llewelyn-Bowen was also keen to get involved in a home-grown project. "I just loved the whole philosophy about doing something in Greenwich, in a community which is so pottily Jane-Austen-on-acid, with architectural stock that verges from slum to splendour," he says. "There's something so gritty and real about the community, and that's something I really wanted to reflect in the way Inc feels."
One thing's certain, and that is that Llewelyn-Bowen knows exactly what he wants - even when pretty well everyone else disagrees. He also admits quite casually that a capricious ("me and my ebony cane…") nature means that his team occasionally try to ban him from sites to minimise his last-minute whims.
"Even my office was concerned when they saw my designs for Inc," he says. "They said I was mad, crazy, but there was always a tickly feeling at the bottom of my testicles that made me absolutely convinced that the whole thing would be spectacular. Now it's, without question, one of the most successful retail spaces in Greenwich. This is how our customers want a night out to look and feel. It's sophisticated, it's grown-up, it's fun and it's high stakes."
So does Britain's most visible designer, the advocate of design democracy, plan to remain in our world, or does Changing Rooms beckon him back to TV? "I'm trying to find ways of rationalising what I do on TV so the design practice isn't marginalised," he muses. He also admits that he's currently working on some designs for a new upper mid-market restaurant project which the owners have barred him from discussing at present. "I'd forgotten the restaurant and bar world was so secretive," he says, languidly rolling his eyes.
But yes, it seems that Llewelyn-Bowen is here to stay this time. Not all the time, but he has some tricks up his sleeve that he'd like the world to see. "I think we fit so well with restaurants because they're thought of as places to go and indulge and be indulged," he says, just before his phone rings, calling him to his next appointment. "Time to vogue."
Inc Design The Inc Bar and Restaurant is the trendiest thing to have hit Greenwich for a long time. It certainly makes a change from the traditional pub set-up that dominates the rest of the town.
The building was constructed in the 1930s as Britain's first purpose-built music hall, but over the past year has undergone serious reconstruction to transform it into a restaurant and a series of bars.
The Pit Bar was the former auditorium of the music hall, evident from the double-height ceilings and balcony. It's the largest room in the venue and is used as a dual-purpose dining room and drinking space. The focus of the room is a startling backlit "tutti-frutti" bar made from natural and dyed pieces of agate stone set on a white background. Walls are painted navy blue, and 15 digital screens framed in laser-cut steel flick between a vast selection of photographs.
The Divan is a tiny room with an ever-burning fire, generous use of black lacquer, and black wallpaper covered in frolicking 18th century couples. Llewelyn-Bowen affectionately terms it the "porn room".
Llewelyn-Bowen on…
Eating: "I'm quite illiterate with food. I just like to eat anything, really."
His favourite restaurant: "If I've got an important client, I'll always go to the Ritz. The acoustics are absolutely fantastic, everything is enormously discreet, and the food is incredibly reliable. You know you're opting out of that ridiculous issue of where's trendy, where you can get into and where won't be deluged with paparazzi. At the Ritz, you can just get on with it.
"I also like eating at Inc and the Spread Eagle in Greenwich, and in Cornwall I like the Wheel House and the Slipway in Port Isaac."
Future design trends: "My major prediction would be brass. After years of everything being steel, brass can make such a difference to an interior. It makes everything feel so much softer, and it's easier to look after.
"We'll also see more colour and more pattern in interiors, which will be a relief to anyone running a bar or restaurant, because it's so much easier to maintain.
"I think the design at Inc is the future - the offer of great, lavish comfort, as also seen at the Wolseley Caf‚. We're moving away from the John Porson, minimalist school of design. The problem with those kind of interiors, especially those created in the 1980s and early 1990s, was everything was sharp, everything was shiny and everything was hard. It wasn't intimate, it wasn't a sexy experience, it's not comfortable and you can't bloody hear anything because the acoustics are so bad."
Greenwich Inc
What to eat at Inc Bar and Restaurant
Starters include
Quail stuffed with white raisins, apple juice, spinach and chicken livers served with a spinach sauce and cauliflower pur‚e, £7 H Venison carpaccio with whole baby beetroot and Dijon dressed salad, £8
Mains include
Steak, £13-£16 H Whole sea bass, £14 HSorrel risotto with crisp fried hen egg and tomato salsa, £10
Desserts include
Ginger waffle with hokey-pokey ice-cream, £5 HSoft-centre chocolate pudding with a beetroot ice-cream, £5
Inc - facts and figures 7 College Approach, Greenwich, London SE10 9HY
Tel: 020 8858 6721
www.incbar.com
Proprietor: Greenwich Inc Head chef: Wayne Gray
Average covers: 50-70 Seats: 120 Average spend per head: £40
Design: Llewelyn-Bowen Design Associates
The mystery man behind Inc, and indeed the revival in the culinary fortunes of London's most nautical suburb, is Frank Dowling, owner of holding company Greenwich Inc.
Dowling also owns the Admiral Hardy pub next door to Inc; the Bar Du Mus‚e, which he took over in 2002 and has since extended to 4,000sq ft; the vast Trafalgar Tavern, positioned directly on the waterfront opposite Canary Wharf; and French fine-dining restaurant the Spread Eagle. On top of that, there's a deli (George of Greenwich), an antique shop, and a catering and events business called Instinct Events.
