Jason Atherton: “I’ve opened 37 restaurants, but this is the scariest one”

Jason Atherton is not a man that does things by halves. With his restaurant group The Social Company spanning London to Shanghai, Cebu to Dubai, and having overseen the opening of nearly 40 restaurants over the past two decades, it would be easy to think of him as having a ‘been there, done that’ attitude.

By contrast, the recently turned 53-year-old chef and restaurateur is entering yet another new phase of his business, one that began last year in Dubai with the triple openings of City Social, the star chasing Row on 45, and Japanese speakeasy 7 Tales at Grosvenor House Dubai. Though not his first experience in the country, which can be traced back to his time running Gordon Ramsay’s Verre restaurant at Hilton Dubai Creek between 2002 and 2005 and later in 2015 when he opened Marina Social at the InterContinental Dubai Marina under his own steam, his latest involvement in Dubai has been the most significant.

Less than 10 months after its launch, Row on 45, the 22-cover restaurant that serves a 17-course tasting menu divided into three acts, was awarded two Michelin stars. Led by executive chef Daniel Birk, the restaurant has benefitted from the expertise of former The Ritz head chef Spencer Metzger, who joined the group from the famed London hotel last August.

This seems a seminal moment for Atherton, who hasn’t hidden his desire to win multiple Michelin stars since leaving the Ramsay stable almost a decade and a half ago. Who would have thought it would be in Dubai, and not at his flagship Mayfair restaurant Pollen Street Social, that his dreams would finally be realised? Not Atherton, for one.

“If you’d have told me 24 years ago when I ran Gordon’s restaurant there that there would be two and three star restaurants in Dubai one day given the state of the produce I’d have said you were mental,” he laughs. “Back then we were vac packing tomatoes in canned tomato juice to make them taste of something. But Dubai being Dubai, it’s got a go-get attitude that if it’s not there build it, bring it, or grow it. I love that, it’s a bit of me. If you want it, let’s try and go and get it.”

I meet with Atherton at Pollen Street Social just days before the restaurant’s closure​ and its planned reincarnation as the more casual Mary’s ​​(more on that later). It’s a restaurant that has evolved and matured since its launch in April 2011, from the early days of its dessert bar to its more recent attempt at even higher end dining, with reduced covers and a more ambitious menu. If there was a restaurant that you would have bet on Atherton achieving two stars at it would have been this one. How does he feel about actually achieving the feat 4,500 miles away?

“If I could choose any city [to get two stars in] outside of London it would be Dubai,” he says. “I’ve always travelled the globe and Dubai is very special to me. I totally get that some people think it’s just full of Instagram models and flash cars but that’s just a small part of Dubai. I’m a resident, I met my wife (Irha) and got married there.”

“When I opened Marina Social it was no way a fine dining restaurant, people in Dubai weren’t ready for it. But now they absolutely lap it up. It has a much more sophisticated food scene; the produce you get there is insane, and that’s the difference. Row on 45 serves produce-driven, simple, elegant food, that we couldn’t have done 10 years ago.

"The day you think you know it all you’re fucked.
There will always be someone out there
better than you, making more money than you"

It’s not just the quality of the produce that helped Row on 45 bag two stars from the off; the small number of covers and single tasting menu format – unusual for an Atherton restaurant – have also played a part.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this but Row on 45 was the first time I’ve opened a restaurant with just one menu,” says Atherton. “Everyone just assumes I’ve done it before but even back in the day running Gordon’s restaurant degustation menus were only just becoming popular. At Maze (which Atherton headed up between 2005 and 2010) we had 36 dishes on the menu, and you could build your own tasting menu. Talk about making your life fucking complicated.”

This hitherto approach is the reason Pollen Street Social never got beyond one star, he insists. “We had five menus – lunch, tasting, vegan, vegetarian and an a la carte with six starters, five mains and five desserts. That all adds up to a lot of dishes and a lot of mise en place. It’s great for the guest but not for consistency.

“On a Saturday night we were doing 70 covers, which doesn’t sound a lot but it’s refined food. If one thing goes wrong it goes down like a pack of cards, and then frustration and stress sets in. You can see why we stayed at one star here. Inconsistency creeps in, and Michelin doesn’t like that.” 

Having fulfilled a Michelin dream, the time might seem right to take the foot off the pedal and take stock​, but nothing could be further from Atherton’s mind. Indeed, he is in the midst of his busiest period of his career ever with the opening of five separate London projects in as many months. The first, Hotdogs by Three Darlings opened in Harrods last month, followed quickly by the reimagining of Pollen Street Social as the more casual Mary’s. Then comes the opening of modern British restaurant Sael in St James’ later this month in partnership with long-term Atherton lieutenant Dale Bainbridge and Three Darlings, an all-day restaurant in Chelsea due to open next month.

It is the fifth and last restaurant, however, and the reason behind Metzger’s appointment, that is the most significant. Row on 5 sees Atherton replicate the offer of Row on 45 in Dubai on London’s Savile Row with a two-storey 28-cover restaurant that will be his most ambitious in the UK yet.

As the name suggests, the concept was created in London - even though Dubai opened first – soon after the Coronavirus pandemic. Taking advantage of a government initiative that allowed businesses to apply for liquor licences for retail premises that had ceased trading, after a two-year battle Atherton finally took on 5 Savile Row for the project.

Due to open on 6 November, the restaurant will follow closely that of Row on 45, with Atherton and Meztger serving a 15-course menu to diners as they move through the space. “It has two floors and three very different spaces,” says Atherton. “Diners go on a journey throughout the building – it’s our secret weapon. People in Dubai love it. If you sit at one table and have 17 courses, after around course 12 you’ve often had enough.”

Row on 5 won’t be a carbon copy of Dubai, however, with fewer dishes and a lower price point to make it more suitable for the London market. The exact menu price has yet to be determined but Atherton expects it to be around £195 for 15 courses, with two additional courses – one featuring caviar, the other a second meat dish – available as supplements.

“It will be a really luxurious restaurant, but we want to make it affordable,” he adds. “It’s not for everyone, but there is plenty of choice in the group to eat elsewhere.”

Row on 5 also moves Atherton into unknown territory. Never has he launched a restaurant, a version of which already holds two stars. The expectations are probably as high – if not higher – than when he left Ramsay’s side and struck out on his own with Pollen Street Social.

"A normal CEO would not open a restaurant
like this because the finances don’t stack up"

“We have a lot of proving to do,” he acknowledges. “We’ve set a precedent in Dubai and people will be saying ‘let’s see what they’ve got in London’. I’ve opened 37 restaurants, but this is the scariest one. If you’ve got a pair of balls to open a restaurant like this, you need a pair to deliver it. I hope London accepts us.”

This sentiment is telling. From afar, a restaurateur with five projects on the go at one time would appear to have supreme confidence – if not arrogance - about the future, but Atherton is under no illusions with regards to the challenges he faces.

“The day you think you know it all you’re fucked,” he responds. “There will always be someone out there better than you, making more money than you - never every believe for a second you’re better than anyone else.

“I know what a lot of people think about me in the industry, that there’s an arrogance there. I’m the least egotistical or arrogant person you’ll ever meet. I don’t suffer fools, but there’s no ego.”

Instead, he says his current flurry of projects are driven by a passion for cooking that remains as strong today as when he first picked up a knife in his first chef job working at a country hotel in Skegness. “I’m not doing it because I want more rewards, I do it because I love it. I’m like a kid again and I don’t want that to go – the minute it does I’m out of here, selling everything.

“I hope one thing people say about me is that my passion for cooking has never gone away.”

There is another – more business orientated - reason behind the current slew of restaurant projects.​ Atherton says that he was close to selling half of the Social Company, and that as part of the deal agreed to expand the business. He got close to signing on the deal, which “put a lot of money on the table”, but eventually couldn’t go through with it. “I was so excited about the prospect of expanding the group I didn’t want to stop,” he says.  “But now we’ve got to do it ourselves, so we just carried on.”

Atherton does not like to talk financials but says the growth is being funded organically. With his CEO hat on, I wonder how financially viable a restaurant such as Row on 5 is given the current climate, where chefs charging almost double the £195 price tag are still struggling to make decent GP because of the soaring costs of the premium ingredients required.

“I’m the CEO of the company but I still behave like a chef,” he says. “A normal CEO would not open a restaurant like this because the finances don’t stack up. But you must remember that it’s a lifelong passion and a dream for me.” The value that Row on 5 will bring to brand Atherton will help, as will his plans to use the space for more lucrative corporate events. “The less it is open the more consistent it will be and the more time we have to do one or two corporate events per months, which is viable.”

Atherton and Irha​’s business brains means that their relationship with Harrods is also continuing.​ The chef first became involved with the luxury department store during the pandemic when he opened Harrods Social under contract on the former Harrods Brasserie site. The restaurant was a success, but became a distraction, so when Harrods wanted the space back to open a second café, he was happy to oblige​​.

Instead, the store gave him the opportunity to go into the dining hall to occupy some of the counter space previously taken by Sushi by Masa, a prospect he instantly warmed to. “I’ve always been good in opening restaurants in tight spaces,” he says, citing previous projects that have include tapas bar Esquina in Singapore and the 19-cover 22 Ships in Hong Kong that opened in a former pancake shop.

Thus, Hot Dogs by Three Darlings ​​was born - a 25-seat hotdog concession created by Atherton and Meztger. “The world had gone mad about Ralph Lauren’s hotdogs, so I thought let’s give it a go. I’m a big admirer of Bubbledogs and wanted to do our own version.”

Whereas Atherton says most hotdog places have the same dog and just change the toppings, his aim is to create unique dog flavours. As such, all five dogs on the menu are made from a different recipe and are inspired by his global travels. 

"I’m the least egotistical or arrogant person you’ll
ever meet. I don’t suffer fools, but there’s no ego"

Given the space restrictions it seems a sensible decision. But what of the name? Why did he choose to name it after a brand that was yet to launch rather than use his own, more recognisable, moniker, a la Kerridge’s Fish and Chips (Tom Kerridge’s Harrods restaurant) and Sushi by Masa, named after three-star Japanese chef Masayoshi ‘Masa’ Takayama.

“Harrods Social did well but if you don’t know who Jason Atherton is or what Social Company is and you’re walking around and fancy lunch and see the sign you might have no idea what it is. When you see Kerridge’s Fish and Chips or Kinoya Ramen Bar you know exactly what they serve. In Harrods people make a decision on signage in a second.

Also, he says he’s sick of seeing his name everywhere. “One of my greatest achievements is making Berners Taven (launched in 2013 within the Edition hotel) an iconic restaurant. Even today people have no idea I’m the chef owner. I’ve also done myself out of a job. At any time, they can pull away and work without me. If I can make Three Darlings successful without my name, why wouldn’t I?”

 ​

So, to Three Darlings in Chelsea.​ Located on Pavilion Road, the project sees Atherton move west in the capital for the first time and into his own stomping ground (the Athertons live in nearby Wandsworth and their children go to school in Chelsea). Named after the couple’s three daughters, it will be an all-day neighbourhood restaurant that takes inspiration from Andreas Bagh's French brasserie Esmée in Copenhagen.

“He used to be a regular at Berners and says he took some inspiration from it, so it’s almost gone full circle,” says Atherton.“I love the design and how casual it is but that you can still taste the seriousness in the food. You can eat there a million times and never get bored. We are not copying it, but it is our north star. If it can have a bit of the Esmée magic, I’ll be thrilled.”

Menu details are still being kept under wraps, but the restaurant itself is described as being very feminine thanks to the input of Irha and female members of the Social Company. “We are looking at the restaurant through a very feminine lens. As a male chef and of my era it’s very easy for everything to be very masculine and macho because you fall back on what you know. All the females in the business have been involved in the conversation on menu layout, design, artwork, brand identity.”

This approach has partly been inspired by its location but also by Ihra’s previous experience of feeling uncomfortable in certain dining rooms. “As a restaurateur it’s important to consider who your customer is. Richard Caring is a good example; most of his restaurants are through a female lens. Chelsea is a very female-driven environment. At no point should Three Darlings feel masculine and scary.”

Before Three Darlings will be the opening of Sael, a modern British restaurant located in St James’ Market on the former Aquavit site. Launching in partnership with Dale Bainbridge, former head chef at Pollen Street Social, Sael takes inspiration from The Wolseley and is a modern British brasserie with an upstairs speakeasy called Apples & Pears.

The restaurant takes its name from the old English word for ‘seasons’, although it almost didn’t when Atherton realised late on in the project that the name was also being used by chef Jonny Mills for his series of pop-ups. After reaching out to Mills, the chef agreed to relinquish the name.

“I hope one thing people say about me
is that my passion for cooking has never gone away"

Bainbridge’s menu is broadly British but there are hints of Asian influence sprinkled across the menu. Dishes on the launch menu include snacks of brioche with Welsh garlic labneh; oysters baked with XO sauce; and IPA battered rock oysters with Sarson’s scraps; and starters such as Orkney scallops, razor clams and smoked leeks; Cornish tuna with jalapeno and lime; and South Coast clam chowder. Mains, meanwhile, comprise dishes such as a 100-layer ox cheek and snail lasagne (coming to your Instagram feed soon); and lamb shank hot pot, alongside a range of skewers, and steaks, pork chops and fish cooked on a grill.

Also available is the Sael mixed grill, a hefty combination of char siu pork belly, Herdwick lamb chops, koji-cured chicken thighs, 95-day aged sirloin, Kai Dao duck egg, and chorizo.

Then there’s Mary’s which recently took the space of Pollen Street Social. Led by Alex Parker, former executive chef at the recently closed Social Eating House​​, Mary’s has a version of Atherton’s The Blind Pig bar at the front of the restaurant, with Pollen Street Social’s chef’s counter transformed into a burger bar and the remainder of the space becoming a grill-focused restaurant. The restaurant will operate in this way until 31 December when it will close for four months for a full refit, after which time the downstairs area of the restaurant will then become a smashed burger bar and speakeasy called Meat and Two Veg, which will serve a plant-based burger alongside the smashed burger.

At one point there was even a sixth project on the cards, with Atherton securing the former Les Platanes site​​ on Mayfair’s Bruton Place. He later sold on the lease, admitting the episode cost “a lot of money”. “It had a great fit out and I thought we could put a bistro in there. But I rushed in. It felt like it would be a distraction rather than an addition. You can’t get everything right.”

Atherton has certainly not got everything right, but that is also what makes him so interesting. ​As a chef and restaurateur, he has never been afraid to put himself out there, try new things, form partnerships, and support his team in their endeavours. This is even more apparent when you compare his output in the past decade to that of the other Ramsay proteges around at the same time – Clare Smyth, Angela Hartnett, Mark Sargeant, and Marcus Wareing.

Restaurants have come and gone – including The Clocktower restaurant in New York that he and Ihra opened in 2015 in partnership with Starr Restaurants, and his group of Singapore restaurants launched with Unlisted Collection. Closer to home have been pizza restaurant Hai Cenato​​ in Victoria’s Nova development, and Japanese restaurant Sosharu in Farringdon. Yet rather than regard them as defeats, they are learnings; the indefatigable Atherton pushes on undaunted and with a quiver full of new experiences in his armoury.

“Hai Cenato and Sosharu were massive lessons learnt,” he says. “If we’d opened Hai Cenato in Soho, it would still be here today, we just picked the wrong location and didn’t do the maths properly. A Sosharu​​ in Mayfair would work but the area was way too expensive. Pre Covid, sites in Mayfair were like Monopoly money and we couldn’t afford to get it wrong again. But we lick our wounds and move on.”

"If I can make Three Darlings successful
without my name, why wouldn’t I?"

This attitude extends to his wider plans. Atherton has long been a supporter of his team, many of whom have rewarded him with long service and who have been rewarded in return. Birk in Dubai, Paul Walsh, executive chef at Atherton’s City Social, and Bainbridge have all been with the group 10 years or more. Social Eating House was launched in partnership with Atherton’s then head chef Paul Hood in 2013 and his Social Wine and Tapas​​ was a collaboration between Atherton and Laure Patry, the then executive group head sommelier.

If Row on 5 is a success – and you wouldn’t bet against it – Metzger will also profit, and will, over time, become a 50% shareholder in the business if certain milestones are met.

“I’ve got seven to 10 years of cooking left and then all of my guys are taking over their businesses,” Atherton says. “Every single business will have to run without me.

“I want our restaurants to be good and the business to work so that all the people who make it successful can reap the rewards. I really want to leave the industry with all of my teams in place, doing a fantastic job, enjoying themselves, and making money. That’s really important.”