Well, for the grouse, we mean. We suspect La Poule au Pot and Maggie Jones’s will carry on beyond August 12…
It’s nearly August 12 and carnivores, and gun owners, the country over know what that means: it’s the start of Britain’s grouse shooting season.
And, as ever, that day – The Glorious Twelfth – will be celebrated by several of the country’s leading restaurants, including London’s Maggie Jones’s and La Poule Au Pot. Both will be adding grouse, covered in bacon, with vegetables and game sauce to the menu from 14th August 2023 because, well, the birds need a little time to get from The Yorkshire Dales National Park…
The sister restaurants provide a classic setting for this classic seasonal dish. Maggie Jones’s, for example, opened in 1964 as Nan’s Kitchen, and was Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon’s favourite restaurant. They would slip in at around 9.30pm, usually sitting in a discreet booth at the back on the ground floor and eat the Chicken Pie, and book under the alias ‘Maggie Jones’. When it came time to rename the place, they went for the royal connection…
La Poule au Pot has been a Belgravia institution for… well, much the same time although by now that just seems like forever. It’s like a proper little slice of France dropped into the capital, has changed very little since the 60s and is frequently voted “best for romance” by the likes of Hardens.
For bookings, call Maggie Jones’s on 020 7937 6462 and La Poule au Pot on 020 7730 7763. For further details, like opening times, the price of snails, that sort of thing, click the links above…
Neil Davey
Neil Davey is a freelance writer specialising in things you can do sitting down, but mostly eating, drinking, travelling and interviewing the odd famous person. The author of The Bluffer's Guide To Chocolate, Neil also writes for The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Metro, Delicious Magazine, Sainsbury's Magazine, Escapism, Foodism and Hello!. Thanks to a karaoke machine in Montana, he once told a billionaire that he loved his sweet little pussycat nose and sang I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For with a Hollywood star, in the space of 15 minutes. He now generally stays away from karaoke machines in Montana.