A small industrial tribunal award prompted my friend Joyce to take me out to dinner at Chez Nico in Lordship Lane, the first London restaurant opened by Nico Ladenis. The notice about prawn salad and overcooked steak duly heeded, we were served divine food. I think this was in 1974 and what remains memorable is that two women were shown to the best table in the house, the front window, by Nico’s delightful wife. We were amazed. Our experience was that women were invariably allocated restaurant seats at the back, typically near the kitchen door or lavatory.
Later meals, saved up for to celebrate our birthdays, and wedding anniversaries with my husband, Alex, demonstrated that not just women but the full variety of south London customers were welcomed with warmth – no snobbery from the Ladenis family at a time when restaurant snootiness seemed all in vogue.
