Clapton via Cagliari: A Trip to Leo’s

Drake’s: Can you talk about how Leo’s came about? What made you want to open a restaurant?

Jules: I've wanted to open an Italian restaurant since I was 6 years old. I used to host my mum and her friends in a pop up restaurant in our living room where I'd print out menus and serve them whatever soup or pasta I read about in one of her Maggie Beer books or the like. Always three courses lol, always tiramisu to finish.  

Pep: I've always wanted to open a restaurant. After being part of wonderful teams in restaurants my whole life I wanted to be able to build one from scratch and be able to watch what we do grow and evolve. 

Drake’s: How do you settle on a menu? Is it a seasonal approach, or are there any constants on the menu? 

Jules: Mostly seasonal. I always want to cook what I feel like eating. When you're cooking something you don't really enjoy it never really translates.  

I always draw from a background of classic Italian food, but being in London naturally brings an influence that opens things up. We're not a specifically regional Italian restaurant but the approach is entirely Italian, a focus on simplicity and purity and a sense of time and place. 

Drake’s: If you were looking to cook something to impress someone, what would you make? 

Pep: Always grilled fish. Grilled turbot, chips, crisp salad, glass of wine, done.

Jules: Probably start with a really beautiful bird or rabbit, braise the legs and make a filled pasta in a brodo of its bones and then serve the crown roasted as a second course. 

Drake’s: How do you get the ambience right in Leo’s? And what’s the right approach to music in a restaurant?  

Jules: The distinctly separate identities of the two rooms, the dining room and the bar, really helped set the tone. You enter through the bar which is a bit darker, bit louder more crowded. Then the dining room kind of emerges with this huge double height ceiling, skylights and elegantly dressed tables with lots of space and symmetry. The dining room feels calmer, stiller, even if it's full,  it makes you feel a sense of occasion.  

Music is a sensitive one, for lunch I very much enjoy no music in restaurants but I love working a busy evening service to a soundtrack of dusty soul bass driving the pace in the background. I don't believe you should ever really notice music in a restaurant but you do notice its absence. The albums you play should add a subtle, driving energy behind the service but shouldn't take your attention or distract from conversation.  

Drake’s: What’s the biggest lesson that running a restaurant has taught you?  

Jules: It's hard! No, also that you have to approach every aspect of what you do with humility. Whether it's the cooking, difficult customers, staff dramas, what you choose to pour. If you don't approach every aspect with openness and steadfastness it will bulldoze you or won't work. - Jules

Pep: *laughs out loud* Take literally nothing for granted.