The Xtra Diary: New deli! - Treasured Gaby’s has a fresh lease of life
A CULTURED sort of crowd that boasted a novelist, a well-known actor and director, a professor and numerous arts journalists convened in Gaby’s Deli for what might have looked to the uninformed diner like an erudite editorial conference, but was in fact simply an informal chow down and celebration of a West End treasure.
Since it opened in the 1960s Gaby’s, in Charing Cross Road, has been the favoured hangout of many a writer (both aspiring and successful ones), thespians and night owls, but it had been threatened with extinction after the council approved plans to convert its premises for use by a chain café.
The campaign to save the deli achieved a victory of sorts last month when the café’s proprietor, Gaby Elyahou, was granted an extension to his lease by his landlord, Gascoyne Holdings, and at Monday night’s party, actor and director Samuel West tucked into falafel and salt beef alongside other diners, novelist Roma Tearne and broadcaster Sara Nathan.
Fans say Gaby’s has the best salt beef in London, and Mr Elyahou claims to have introduced falafel to England.
Ms Tearne, whose book Mosquito was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards First Novel Prize, said: “My parents ate here, I have eaten here and my children eat here.” When asked if she thought her grandchildren would follow the tradition in the future, she said she hoped so.
West End Extra
No comments:
Post a Comment