As the British public, following global trends, are eating out more and more, the types and styles of restaurants have diversified to meet demand. As mentioned in the Preface one in three of us are eating out at least once a week.

DECIDING WHAT KIND OF RESTAURANT

You might want to run a fast food restaurant; a mid-range restaurant; a family-run one. Or perhaps a pasta/pizza eatery; a small restaurant in the town or country; an upmarket one with all the fripperies. Or will you be joining those who take on a pub and create one with good, medium-priced food without all the extras?

Maybe you lean towards a restaurant serving ethnic food; a daytime opening cafe or tea room serving freshly made lunches and teas; a mainly fish restaurant or an informal one offering all manner of inexpensive food for the passing tourist trade.

As the restaurant trade is so diverse, you will have to do a lot of research before settling on an area. Is there a glut of pizza/pasta restaurants already in the neighbourhood? As this is chain territory, there is already a plethora of these types. Or do you think you can offer even better pizza and pasta than those already on offer and price them competitively? Think of their buying power, advertising, big business backing and think again.

As I’ve mentioned, independent gastro pubs are taking on the restaurant trade both in town and country, customers flocking to them in their droves. It started in 1990, when London’s The Eagle in Clerkenwell reinvented the traditional pub by offering mainly modern, British, gutsy, unfussy food. Top ingredients are used with a minimum of chefs in an unforced, unpretentious atmosphere. It is unfancy, simple, yet effective, and memorable if in the right hands.

Repeat business is guaranteed if you’ve got the right feel and the right food, a good selection of wines by the glass and bottle and decent on-tap local beers. And, it goes without saying, good, knowledgeable, friendly staff.

Will you welcome children into your restaurant? In Britain children are largely seen as a bit of a nuisance, unlike our European cousins who tend to welcome children into their restautants with open arms. In France and other countries, a family with children isn’t shunted into a special area as is the norm in Britain, especially in chain restaurants. Instead, they are genuinely welcomed and given an ordinary table anywhere in the restaurant, not just in the back recesses.

Children are treated like customers (as they should be!) and eat the food their parents eat. They are not fobbed off with chicken nuggets and chips. As a result, these children grow up with a more rounded understanding of food and how to behave in a social setting, as their parents actually talk to them rather than just reprimand them. It is surely time to create the same principles for our children and not ban them from restaurants.

As Matthew Fort, food journalist for the Guardian Weekend and past restaurant reviewer noted on a visit to a hotel restaurant: ‘It’s hotel policy to ban children under the age of 12, a policy that I overhead being enthusiastically endorsed by a party at a nearby table. It sent me into a towering rage. How typically middle-aged, middle-class, blinkered, selfish and British. I can think of no justification for marginalising children in this way, particularly as, in my experience, they can often give their elders a lesson in manners.’

I totally agree. To paraphase John Lennon, give children a chance.

NEW TRENDS IN RESTAURANTS

New, good restaurants are cropping up in surprising parts of the UK. What is lacking are good neighbourhood restaurants for everyday eating as found in many other countries.

Delicatessens with restaurants

Delicatessens with attached restaurants are also on the increase and can either open all day and evening or, depending on their location, only during the day to catch the city’s business trade. They have cropped up in London, Bristol, Brighton, Chichester, Manchester and Totnes and in other towns in Devon to great acclaim.

All-day cafés

Other trends include all-day cafes serving excellent breakfasts, elevenses (where else in the world except Britain?), brunches, light lunches and teas. They may also open in the evening as a more upmarket restaurant and maximise the potential of the space to cover the high costs of maintaining the site.

Following the trends

These new trends may be a good route to take. Take into consideration where you are based. Is there a passing trade? You could offer good loose-leaf tea, the best coffee and a good range of simple, easily-prepared dishes for those in a hurry. Consider whether you appeal to the shopper, or those on business in the area.

The New Zealand chef, Peter Gordon, well known for his fusion food, is a prime example of how to do this with style, wit, verve and simplicity. The Providores, the award-winning London restaurant he jointly owns with three partners, is a union of restaurant, all-day cafe, meeting place and wine bar.

The casual, professionally run place offers the lot – laksas, tortillas, soups, freshly baked breads, bowls of nuts and olives, sardines, soy braised duck, New Zealand venison, smoothies, teas, coffees, freshly squeezed juices et al – in the downstairs Tapa Room from 9 am to 10.30 pm. The Providores upstairs offers an equally eclectic fusion mix of dishes on its constantly changing menu.

Beyond the cities

Can this mix be achieved outside large cities?

West Sussex’s Chichester has a similar (bar the breakfasts) restaurant. The Dining Room is a wine bar cum restaurant offering not only tapas but also Danish open sandwiches. Included on the menu are charcuterie and specially selected cheese plates, salads, starters, game, beef, lamb and fish main courses and omelettes. In short, the owners made a decision to appeal to a broad market including pre-theatre diners. And it works because it has researched its market and has responded to it.

Small, family-run restaurants with minimal seating and offering terrific, authentic Middle-Eastern food are proving to be immensely popular too. Prices are low, and the atmosphere, created by hookahs, low sofas and Arab music, make these restaurants popular places to eat. So far, these are springing up in east London to great acclaim, and the trend will no doubt follow to cities with an urban mix of nationalities.