More Food & Drink: Franco & Gino's - Marie's Cafe

Franco & Gino's Sandwich Bar

close to the Duchess Theater and Theatre Royal Drury Lane
5 Catherine St, London WC2B 5JZ

Covent Garden, Strand
Sadly they seem to have permanently closed... but if you find them in some other location please let me know!
Kitchen: simple sandwiches + hot food varying from Italian to Curry's
Price range: ££

an excellent tiny little sandwich shop, right around the corner from my favorite West End hotel... extremely convenient for a quick sandwich and a cup of tea, excellent chance of spotting an actor who is performing in one of the nearby theaters. there is practically no room inside, sandwiches are freshly made, simple but effective. I've never tried their hot food, but the regulars seem to enjoy it so I'm betting it's good, and cheap as chips!

excerpt from a fitting Yelp review:
"'Gino's', as it is affectionately known by its regulars, is a fantastic café. It may not win any culinary awards but you are always sure to be given enough food to feed an army for a very reasonable price.

The staff, lead by the charismatic Gino and the straight talking Leo, are always happy to accommodate any special menu requests and there is always an upbeat attitude regardless.

The fact that Gino's is such a great environment to have a cup of tea and a sandwich is highlighted by the fact that it has regulars that have been eating there for over a decade."

***

Marie's Cafe

close to The Old Vic Theater, reasonably close to the National Theater

90 Lower MarshWaterloo
London, SE1

OPENING HOURS:
Monday - Friday:7:00-22:30
Saturday:7:00-16:00, 17:00-22:30
Sunday:Closed

Kitchen: Brit greasy spoon by day - Thai by night
Price range: £

Found this on Yelp when visiting The Old Vic for the first time. Do not make the mistake I made in exiting Waterloo Station on the wrong side, it was a long walk before I discovered there was no way to get down to the street where I wanted to go and had to walk all the way back to get to the lower streets (you'll understand when you see it).

Marie's was an experience!... apparently it's an english caff by day, thai mom&pop place by night, I went there for dinner before my play at the Old Vic so got the thai menu... this is by no means a fancy place, a little dive of a place really, in all aspects, but packed with people, to me always a good sign. I managed to get a table, and gained a few table mates soon enough when the owner ran out of space and just plonked people at my table. I didn't mind, they obviously had been there before so I could learn from their choices.

the food was good, I've never been to Thailand, no idea if it was remotely authentic, but I liked it. the service was a little abrupt but it didn't bother me. Prices were excellent, will definitely come back when in the area.

***

from: wearewaterloo.co.uk

Marie’s is, quite simply, a Waterloo institution. But how best to describe it?

Is it a traditional English café with a Thai food sideline, or is it a Thai restaurant with a penchant for sausage sandwiches and fried eggs with brown sauce?

Whatever it is, we love it for its perfect hangover fry ups (probably among the cheapest in London), its sweet basil chilli chicken and for Sue – an ever-smiling host with an almost photographic memory for how her guests like their toast.

Other reasons to visit Marie’s include its money-saving bring-your-own-booze policy in the evenings, its bargain take away Spaghetti Bolognese (£3.10 – a steal!) and to catch up on the latest Lower Marsh gossip.

Theater and Food & Drink go hand in hand - Mishkin's and Gaby's Deli

When enjoying a Theater trip it's always an excellent opportunity to find interesting eating places.

Before the era of mobile internet and smartphones (how quickly I became dependent on mine!) I had fun researching food guides, then extensive internet research before I left for the trip... bringing along lots of lists and map directions. These days I rely on a Google search, Yelp or Tripadvisor during the trip, researching where to go the night before, breakfast places, lunch places, dinner, late night places for after theater... many places end up on my 'to try' lists, many remain on that list as one can only eat so many meals a day.

I love the top X lists in the Time Out guides... they are hit or miss with me but at the very least they give me inspiration on where to go and to avoid the big food chains.
Yelp and Tripadvisor are great as well, they allow for filtering on things like budget and type of food, and generally I'd take personal recommendations over professional ones... as tastes differ, these also are hit or miss, but it's mostly fun trying to find the little gems.

For me, on any trip, be it my theater trips, business trips or other, I'm always on the lookout for hidden gems, local recommendations, small mom&pop places, little dives of places that you'd think twice of going into if you had not read or heard about them, or would walk straight passed, never even noticing they were there. I visit the big chains every now and then, go for the big names or fancy places if the mood swings that way, but the occasional find of a hidden gem is what sticks with me, they will make me go back and discovering one of them gone on a return trip makes me a little sad.

A few places worth visiting when in London (UK):

Mishkin's

close to the Duchess Theater and Theatre Royal Drury Lane
25 Catherine St, London WC2B 5JS
Monday to Saturday: Noon – 11.30pm
Sunday & Bank Holidays: Noon – 10.30pm

Kitchen: Jewish deli type

Price range: ££

I'm not Jewish, but I like to try out different cultural kitchens. I loved Mishkin's for it's Chopped Chicken Liver and Pickled Herring and Beets Tartar. I loved the ambiance, and, big plus, has decent kitchen hours.

***

excerpt restaurant website: 

The boundaries in Mishkin's origins are as ambiguous as the menu's influences. Mishkin's is not Kosher (and neither, incidentally, is Katz's Deli in New York - perhaps the most famous Jewish restaurant in the world) and the dishes are based very loosely on the sort of Jewish comfort food we all love eating. Where possible we have used amazing local producers and where appropriate we have lightened recipes, refined traditional stodginess and, most of all, been playful.

*** 

excerpt from Jay Rayner's Observer restaurant review: 

"You don't have to be Jewish to like Mishkin's, but it probably helps. It gives you the right to kvetch about all the things that aren't as you think they should be. Though, of course, you need to be the right kind of Jew, which is to say only Jew-ish. Mishkin's, the latest venture from the sassy team behind Polpo and Spuntino among others, bills itself as a "kind of Jewish deli with cocktails". Given that my brethren are famous non-drinkers – I am such a bad Jew – this is a little like setting up a lingerie concession in a nunnery. Actually, it's nothing like that, but you get my point. If you're searching for something echt, to satisfy the frummers, you've come to the wrong place. This is a Jewish deli by way of New York, as imagined by a bunch of non-Jews. Kosher it ain't."

***

Gaby's Deli

Next door to Wyndham's Theater
30 Charing Cross Road
London WC2H 0DB Covent Garden, StrandMonday-Saturday 9.00-midnight
Sunday 11.00 am-10.00pm
Kitchen: MiddleEastern
Price range: ££

One of my favorite post play places... Gaby's is in the heart of West End, right next door to the Wyndhams, few doors from the Garrick and down the alley from the Noel Coward, their Falafal is famous, plenty of other good stuff on the menu. 

Good food for very reasonable prices. This place is visited by actors as well so you might get lucky.

Its storefront is tiny, don't blink or you'll have passed it. It's not fancy, but it's a gem!




Gaby's has had to struggle to survive, their landlord wanted to sell the place, no doubt so some chain store or restaurant could move in, there was a big media offensive so far it worked, Gaby's is still there, hopefully for many years to come!

***

Vanessa Thorpe, The Observer, sunday 11 December 2011

Stars unite to save the falafels that fueled theatreland

A Small independent cafe in London's West End, frequented by actors since 1965, is facing closure. Now it has become the subject of an A-list campaign to save it - and a focus for growing discontent over the homogenisation of the high street.

Gaby Elyahou outside Gaby's Deli in the West End. 

Photograph: Alex Lentati/Evening Standard

From first-night parties to snacks grabbed on the way to rehearsal, one small cafe has served the actors, dancers and musicians of London's theatreland for nearly five decades with reliable congeniality. Hit shows have come and gone, stars risen and fallen, but the falafels at Gaby's Deli have remained a crowd-pleaser. Until this Christmas, however, when the future suddenly looked bleak for the West End institution, as a planning application was passed for its redevelopment as a chain restaurant.

The Charing Cross Road deli appeared to be facing the prospect of "going dark" for good, until its theatrical neighbours stepped in to attempt a rescue, transforming it overnight – panto-style – into the hottest fringe venue in town.

This weekend many of the country's best-known performers and writers, including Simon Callow, Vanessa Redgrave, Miriam Margolyes, musician Alex James from Blur and director Mike Leigh, are queuing up for the chance to support the deli by appearing in a series of impromptu cabaret nights.

This campaign to save a popular, independent business comes as retail adviser and TV presenter Mary Portas prepares to release her report on the decline of high streets this week. The report is expected to criticise the impact of chain stores and franchise food outlets in creating "clone towns" in the UK, and while Gaby's has an unusually high amount of celebrity support, its backers believe that the battle to restrain the influence of franchises has a nationwide relevance.

On Thursday evening, Henry Goodman, the West End and Broadway star of shows such as Duet for One, Fiddler on the Roof and The Producers, entertained a packed house of diners with a satirical song written especially for the occasion by Alistair Beaton, author of political dramasFeelgood and A Very Social Secretary. "At Gaby's we love life and food and we love the theatre," Goodman told the crowd, emphasising the appeal of the cuisine in a lyric adapted from All Things Bright and Beautiful ("each tasty chickpea salad, the chilli sauce that kills") and decrying the advance of franchise food in the West End.

"I didn't expect anything," said the owner, 71-year-old Gaby Elyahou, this weekend. "I don't know what these actors are going to do each night. They just decided, and it breaks my heart to see all these people who say they will have nowhere to go if we close." 

Callow, who has eaten at the deli since it opened, said it is "everything a West End snackeria should be – tasty, individual, fast, fun". For Leigh, too, Gaby's is "one of the great institutions of the West End". "To allow it to be destroyed would be deeply irresponsible," he added.

Gascoyne Holdings, landlord of the building where Elyahou has sold salad, salt beef, soup and falafels since 1965, is still hoping to sell to a corporate buyer, but the growing, starry campaign to save Gaby's isspreading fast across Facebook, with around 3,000 supporters, and has become a broader protest against the demise of independent restaurants and shops. "They have offered me three months to go, and that is not much after nearly 50 years. I have been a good tenant, too," said Elyahou, who makes the bold claim that it was he who introduced falafels to London.

"What has upset me is that small businesses have no power to keep going. These big landlords know they could get you out tomorrow, yet if you go to Paris you see small shops and cafes of different kinds. As a result, these bistro chains have no chance there. But if I walk from Oxford Circus to my deli what do I see? Only big shops and chains all selling the same thing."

Elyahou was born near Baghdad, but moved to Israel as a teenager. "I have only bad memories of Iraq. Every Jewish child of my age has bad memories of that time. I didn't go to school, as they did not want Jews. As a young child I didn't understand, but I could see the fear in my brothers' and sisters' faces."

After living on a kibbutz and serving in the Israeli army, Elyahou arrived in England and set up his business. He married his wife, Levana, two years later and they had three children. "It has been fantastic working in London," he said. "I have never missed one day of work because I enjoy it. I enjoy the people. We had some hard times at the beginning, but slowly, slowly, people came around if you were friendly. I don't really know all the celebrities who come here. I don't recognise them because they want to be normal and sit in a corner. Vanessa Redgrave, Peter O'Toole and Ursula Andress used to like it here a lot, though. When Charlie Chaplin used to come in, I didn't realise at first because he was so old."

Elyahou hopes that the fashion for chain restaurants will fade. He has seen it happen before with Wimpy burger bars and Golden Egg cafe chains. "What I sell will always stay in fashion," he said. "If I could carry on the tradition around here, that would be good." 

This week Gaby's will host a performance by the master juggler and comedian Mat Ricardo, and the new year will see a reading from Callow and a specially commissioned short play by novelist Roma Tearne.