BUTLER MAKES RICHES

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 June 1930, Page 11

BUTLER MAKES RICHES

ROMANCE OF CLl'B CHIEF. Luigi Naintre, whom all fashionable London kne asw “Luigi,” managing director of tho Embassy Club in Old Bond Street, collapsed in a taxicab recently and died a few minutes later at his flat. He.hhd been in poor health for some time. His heart had been giving him trouble. A friend was with him when ho collapsed in the taxicab. Luigi went to London from his homo ! n Italy 35 years ago to seek his fortune, writes an Evening News correspondent. Ho Had a letter of introduction to Mr. Ritz, then general manager of tho Savoy, who advised him to start humbly. ' He knew no English, but ho learned the language while employed as an assistant butler in Hampstead at six shillings a week. Then he went to Romano’s as a waiter at £2 a week. In a short time Luigi became more than an ordinary waiter. Millionaires and princes knew him as “Luigi of Romano’s.” And he .soon rose to be managed. Thirty years later he was a. director of the company owning the restaurant. In 1920 Lugi bought from Mr. James White and Mr. Albert, de Courville tho Embassy Club, Old Bond Street. Ho saw his big chance'in that club, borrowed the £6OOO, which was the pur-

chase price, from a Greek friend who knew something of his organising ability, and was able to pay it back in six months. Luigi was so successful as the managing director that when the club was sold eight years later for £127,000 it was computed that he had made £125,000 out of it. And he was retained at a salary of £6OOO, a. year. In tho old days at Romano’s Luigi bad a scheme to escape from too talkative diners. At a signal a mysterious telephone message .called him away. Ono day ho found, when he answered a “call.” that he still had on his finger a pearl ring a customer had offered him for £9O He slipped round to a jeweller’s, got an offer of £l4O for the ring, returned to the diner and agreed to buy it all within a few minutes. Luigi was a connoisseur "of wines and an expert buyer. His stock of wines and cigars was priceless. Shortly after the war Luigi started Giro’s, and he was also associated with tho Criterion, where he had a salary of £3OOO a year. That was before his Embassy Club deal.