Untrendy but still so popular

I remember the day my father told me about the sociological phenomenon whereby trends that begin at the very top of our society gradually filter down until, eventually, they reach the very bottom. I was sceptical.

'D'you mean to tell me that something as idiotic as that,' I said, pointing to a pretty young debutante with a pair of sunglasses on her head, 'will eventually be adopted by every young woman in the country? I don't think so.'

Now I know better, of course. Another case in point is the continuing success of Quaglino's, the 338-seater gastrodome on Bury Street, which recently hit the headlines when five of its staff were arrested by immigration officers.

A famous society restaurant in the Thirties, Quaglino's was relaunched by Sir Terence Conran in 1993 and, for a few months, enjoyed the distinction of being the most fashionable restaurant in London. I remember Julie Burchill hosting a 30th birthday party for me shortly after it opened and being astonished that she'd managed to get a table.

Thirteen years later, and Quaglino's is about as untrendy as it's possible to be - it's one up from an Angus Steak House - and yet, incredibly, it's still popular. Only last Christmas, for instance, Quaglino's served 350 people in the course of a single lunchtime - a house record.

How is this possible? How can anyone, no matter how ill-informed, still think of Quaglino's as glamorous? The answer, according to the sociologists, is that people impersonate the behaviour of those people in the class immediately above them, not necessarily the movers and shakers at the top of the tree.

Consequently, the fact that Quaglino's hasn't been considered fashionable by society types for at least ten years is immaterial. The reason it's currently so popular with the bridge-and-tunnel crowd is because, in the nottoodistant past, it was popular with a group of people that they think of as cool, even if no one else does.

Quaglino's is particularly well-positioned to capitalise on this sociological phenomenon since it still looks glamorous. Keith Hobbs' interior has held up pretty well since it was first unveiled in 1993.

The centrepiece is a grand ballroom staircase that seems tailor-made to make middle-aged ladies from Birmingham feel like they're on the set of a Cecil B DeMille movie. Hard to believe, when making such an entrance, that no actual movie star has darkened the doors of Quaglino's since the Conservatives last won an election.

On the evening I went there with my wife last week, I was consigned to a nasty table-for-two by the kitchen entrance. I tried to sit with my back to the wall, thereby giving myself a view of the restaurant, but my wife was having none of that.