TO BE SOLD

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 155, 16 June 1932, Page 9

TO BE SOLD

A LONDON LANDMARK. FAMOUS ROMANO’S. Romano’s restaurant in the Strand, one of the most famous in London, and for the past six years a rendezvous for the literary, journalistic, theatrical, and sporting worlds, is to be sold, says the London “Daily Telegraph.’’ The proprietors of Romano’s, London Restaurants, Ltd., are seeking to sell it, as they wish to obtain additional capital for the complete rebuilding of the Florence Restaurant in Rupert street, Piccadilly Circus, which they also own. King Edward when Prince of Wales, had a private room and cutlery in the restaurant.

Romano's has a romantic history. Its founder, Alfonso Romano—“ The Roman,’ ’as he was called by his clients was head waiter at the Cafe Royal in the eighteen seventies. He started the restaurant in the Strand with his savings, buying a narrow-fronted little fried fish shop and shooting gallery. This building was enlarged, but was burnt down. In 1894 the present premises with the yellow-tiled front, that has become a Strand landmark, and striking Moorish interior, were built.

“The Roman” had a genius for welding his .many hundreds of clients into one family of good fellowship. He fostered the pet tastes of all. Phil May, a constant visitor, always found the fruit salad in which he revelled “made after his own heart” at Romano’s. George Edwardes, too, was sure of his favourite dishes when he canie along from the Gaiety, usually with a following of beauty from among the principals or chorus. To the “young bloods” of his day ‘‘the Roman” was ever indulgent, ft is said that at time of the Boer War those who went out to fight owed him £30,000. When ho died, in 1901, his body lay in state in a flower-decked room on an upper floor, and habitues of the restaurant filed past to pay their last respects. The wonderful staff he had collected stayed on at Romano's after his death. One of those trained at the restaurant was Luigi, afterwards to win fame at the Embassy.

I wonder how many people are alive to-day who happened to be standing at Romano’s old bar in tho Strand on a November evening over forty years ago, when Phil May and “Shifter” (E. C. Goldberg, a good classical scholar of St. John’s, who allowed only a few to address him as such) arranged a surprise for the public on the ensuing Lord Mayor’s Show Day? says a correspondent of tho “Daily Telegraph.” Mark the issue. Some time before the procession reached Wellington street two busy persons, one on each side of the road, began to rattle a measuring chain used by road surveyors. The police, being bamboozled, allowed them to proceed with their supposedly public duties. These public duties continued for some time, and seemed to he imperilling the advance of the approaching procession. Then suddenly someone, i;i the crowd shouted,”Hello, Shifter!”

That was enough. Tho pair dropped their chain and disappeared into tho crowd, joining up at Romano’s later for refreshment after their unaccmdem ed toil.