Unprecedented scenes in Piccadilly today, as bailiffs – with police in attendance – apparently seized the long-established Lebanese restaurant Fakhreldine, and its newer offshoot 1001 Nights. Bizarrely, though, both establishments continue to trade.
A notice on the door of each of the restaurants asserts that the respective establishments have been repossessed owing to a “breach of contract”.
An exchange with one of the heavies in attendance went something like this:
Harden’s: So, the premises have been re-possessed?
Heavy: Yes
Harden’s But they still seem to be trading.
Heavy: Yes. [Smiles] Let’s just say there’s been a change of ownership.
At this point, your reporter made his excuses and left.
Make of this what you will. It’s not – in nearly 20 years of following the London restaurant scene – a set of circumstances we’ve ever observed before.
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