Le Caprice

On Friday I met friends at Le Caprice in Arlington Street. You would think that with the recession / depression no-one would be able to afford to eat at Le Caprice, but the place was packed. To add to the sense of recherche indulgence, our party included an unrepentent City person - and he paid the bill for all of us, which was generous.



Le Caprice is more of an institution than a restaurant. It is a favoured dining place of the media world. The glossy interior consists of an L-shaped room decorated with black and white photographs by David Bailey.

The restaurant is currently owned by Richard Caring who is a major donor to the Labour Party. A recent magazine caricature portrayed Richard Caring as the Bond villain Blofeld. Having bought Le Caprice he intends to "extend" the brand (in other words, dilute and corrupt it).



Above: I started with eggs Benedict, which is one of the Le Caprice specialties.



Above: for the main course I had a salmon fishcake, which again is a renowned Le Caprice dish.



Above: orange pudding with custard for dessert, followed by coffee.

We talked about media issues, politics, economics. Sancerre to drink. At one stage the City person became very agitated and talked about what the government should be doing - I made notes as he talked:

"It is okay to bash the bankers but do not confuse their actions on CDOs and other derivatives in the wholesale market as being about market failure. In fact most of the toxic waste that these banks have on their books is a result of bi-, tri- or quad-lateral agreements that they had with mortgage brokers or others. There was no market for these instruments when they were bought. Some smart ass simply gave a projection of revenues which the rating agencies signed off on. The key point is that the market was never in operation - there was no exchange for these things. Some are only now beginning to emerge. The government can help by supporting a market where this paper can trade. The solution to the current crisis is more markets not less! The Government needs to encourage the exchanges in the City - the LSE, or maybe better would be LIFFE - to set up a market where toxic waste can be traded publicly during normal trading hours. The Government should help finance independent rating analysts who can work towards getting information about all of these products into the public domain - this is a big job and needs government backing. That way not only can the government be seen to be doing something, but they can also begin to see the value of the assets in the banks that it has invested in. Plus the government gets to poke a snoot at the rating agencies. London needs to take a lead in creating a market for these instruments."

Well there you are. I didn’t understand a word of it. But I reproduce it here as the semi-drunk slurred ramblings of a fallen master of the universe down on his luck.