January and the sun has finally returned – well, in London at least. Leaving Yorkshire this morning the air was as cold and damp as it has been all winter. Gloomy. Not at all a proper winter. So London was bright, crisp and very sunny – dazzling [is that the opposite of gloomy….ed?].

Lunch today – a very rare business lunch – at Green’s in St James’. Cosy, proper, luxurious, attentive, formal but relaxed, good food and [probably] wine – though being January and lunch it was water only.

This long-standing restaurant where Mayfair’s wheelers and dealers come to feed.

The place is on Duke Street St James, just across the road from Quaglino’s, and right in the middle of probably the largest congregation of art dealers certainly in this country, but maybe Europe as well. Almost every shop a gallery, and those that aren’t are picture framers, or hedge funds – which is where the money comes from. It’s also just a short brolly twirl away from Jermyn Street, just in case you wanted to stock up with shirts and the like whilst you’re there.

Comforting winter menu – crab bisque or the winter salad for the post-Christmas sanity, followed by Crab Cakes, or Halibut, Smoked Haddock Parker-Bowles [signature dish so we tried it – lovely] or Partridge. There can’t be many of those left as the shooting finishes at the end of January and those that are left will be hiding for all they’re worth. You can tell the company you’re in when Green’s have bespoke menus for the “Gunmakers’ Dinner” or the “Property and Hedge Funds Dinner”. You can probably imagine the menu – rich, comforting, tasty [enough of that…ed] – and no vegetarians were harmed in the creation of the menu. Just old-fashioned comfort food.

The restaurant is owned by Simon Parker-Bowles, brother to the former husband of Camilla P-B [wife of the Prince of Wales and heir to the Throne]. Apparently he started it at the suggestion of John Aspinall, as they needed somewhere to eat after gaming late into the night. John Aspinall may have held the secret of the “death” of Lord Lucan, who disappeared after their nanny was found murdered.

So, in a time where minimalist, carefully structured food is the fashion, this is just proper grub. Eton Mess anyone?

Restaurant Green’s St James

Simon Parker-Bowles