After the gastro pub revolution began in London with The Eagle and The Lansdowne, Tom jumped on the bandwagon with The Cow five years ago and still has a hardcore group of regulars from that time. I saw that it was a good idea, but I wanted to do it differently. I wanted to use more than the traditional pub feeling, but I thought there was a lot of things in traditional pubs that still worked that had been forgotten about. I just think at that time there were a lot of places that were down in the mouth. Breweries created stringent leases which left people responsible for the care and repair of these crumbling Victorian buildings.
People like to feel that it's an extension of their living room.
I admire him. He's done a lot for the restaurant scene in London. With Habitat he also helped bring inexpensive, stylish furniture into people's homes. So Tom's Deli and The Cow are a far cry from the vast Conran restaurants dotted around London, but Tom does like them. I like most of them, but my favourite is Bibendum and then my next favourite is Quaglinos.