The Wolseley Grand Café - London

The Wolseley Grand Café
160 Piccadilly (Green Park, Mayfair); 020 7499 6996
www.thewolseley.com (Tube: Green Park)
Open M-F 7.00a to midnight, Sat 8.00a to midnight and Sun 8.00a-11.00p.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner; morning pastries, afternoon tea and all-day menu of sandwiches, salads, crustacea and plats du jour. Coffee and tea served throughout the day.

Scones served at high tea.

The main dining room exudes an über-masculine atmosphere, tempered by good linen, silverware and impeccable service. Off to the side is a café with a more casual decór. Afternoon tea, served from 3:30-6:30, offers generous stacks of finger sandwiches, scones and pastries accompanied by properly brewed pots of tea.

In 1921, Wolseley Motors Limited commissioned architect William Curtis Green to design a prestigious car showroom in London’s West End. He drew on Venetian and Florentine influences and fashioned an interior of grand pillars, arches and stairways. The Wolseley cars were displayed on the marble floor and cost between £225-£1300.

A Wolseley motorcar radiator badge.

Unfortunately, the cars did not sell well, and by 1926 the company was bankrupt and shortly thereafter absorbed into the automotive group headed by William Morris. The last Wolseley automobile rolled off the assembly line in 1975.


Barclays Bank acquired the building, and the branch opened in 1927. William Curtis Green was once more retained to install offices and a banking counter. He also designed specialized furniture, including a post box and stamp machine, which are on display today. Barclays remained until 1999.

Chris Corbin and Jeremy King secured the site in July 2003 and its restoration and renovation was overseen by David Collins Architects. The Wolseley Grand Café opened in late 2003, and became the most popular restaurant in London, descended upon by celebrities. Its location, next to the Ritz Hotel, doesn't hurt business.

Falstaff Art Nouveau Café - Brussels

Opposite the stock exchange (La Bourse) on Rue Henri Maus is Falstaff, an original Art Nouveau café dating from 1903. It is located not far from the northwest corner of the Grand Place. Like Prague, Brussels is a European capital city that boasts many extant buildings designed in Art Nouveau style. The most famous Belgian Art Nouveau architect and artist was Victor Horta, whose disciple Gustave Strauven continued the tradition.

In 't Spinnekopke - Brussels Restaurant

Place du Jardin-aux-Fleurs 1 (near the fish market)
Closed Sundays; no lunch on Saturdays

"In the Spider's Web" occupies a stagecoach inn from 1762, just far enough off the beaten track downtown to be frequented mainly by "those in the know." You dine in a tilting, tiled-floor building, at plain tables, squeezed into a tight space. This is one of Brussels's most traditional café/restaurants – so much so, in fact, that the menu lists its hardy standbys of regional Belgian cuisine in the old Bruxellois dialect. The bar stocks a vast selection of traditional beers.

Wittamer Patissier

Wittamer Patissier & Tea Room
Place du Grand Sablon 6
Closed Mondays

Wittamer is the stuff of legends. The founder, Henri Wittamer, established his shop at the Grand Sablon in 1910. Until his death in 1945, the bakery in the Sablon square went from strength to strength, building a solid reputation and fame. It would bake bread on weekdays, and then on Sundays fruit loaves and bread rolls, as well as some traditional fruit tarts, the memory of which will never fade.

After the war, still in the frustrating period of ration tickets, Henri Wittamer junior, the founder’s only son, and his wife Yvonne, took over the reins of the family business. In 1955, they enlarged and modernized the selling areas.


Later, in 1965, Henri-Paul Wittamer, the third by that name, having been awarded a diploma in the art of chocolate making from the prestigious COBA school in Switzerland, gave free rein to creativity in the workshop, by creating his first mousses and Bavarois, and by setting up the chocolate shop and the patisserie. Then in 1980, his sister Myriam joined him in running the company.

In 1994, Leslie Wittamer, the founder's great-granddaughter, joined the 60 skilled workforce. In 2000, The Maison Wittamer officially became the Supplier by Appointment to the Court of Belgium. The company is currently managed by Paul and Myriam Wittamer.