West Street: the poor man's Ivy?

Bodker, 38, is the prototype of the City Boy restaurateur: a new type of operator who emerged on to the London restaurant scene during the 1990s. He opened The Avenue - if one were being unkind, a poor man's Caprice - at the bottom of St James's Street in 1995 and then Circus in Soho, after which his Square Mile training came in handy when he bought Kensington Place, Launceston Place and The Brackenbury.

The purchase of these three restaurants had a personal significance for Bodker. He has long told anyone who wanted to listen that, when he left to go to work in New York in 1988, the only restaurant worth visiting in London was Kensington Place and that when he returned in 1992, the same was still true. One could argue that Bodker's view was a monstrous over-simplification. After all, his new neighbour The Ivy - it just won't go away - was the most difficult restaurant in London to get a table at in the early 1990s, and still is today. Nevertheless, with his Kensington Place acquisition, he also got himself a star chef. Cambridge-educated, amply proportioned Rowley Leigh, executive chef of Bodker's restaurant group, is undeniably the company's greatest human asset.

Bodker's methodical approach to catering has won him respect in London's restaurant business. "Very, very sensible good man who does things very efficiently and thought-fully," says Sir Terence Conran. "Perhaps not the great inspirational restaurateur or gourmet but, if you have to bring a businessman into this world, he has tackled it with great diligence and common sense, qualities remarkably lacking in the restaurant business."

Bodker seems unfazed by the looming spectre of recession and economic meltdown: while gossip is that the cost of West Street has escalated to around £5 million, he insists that this figure is inflated and that the venture has cost nearer £3 million.

Right now he is just concerned about making sure the whole thing works. For the next few days he will be living in the rooms to check that mini bars do not hum and pipes do not rattle. Bodker already has his first client for the suites above his restaurant: fashion designer Nino Cerruti has already booked the "stone room" (with a large, canopied roof terrace). At £350 a night, Cerruti is getting a bargain. If you are reading this, Nino, I have just one piece of advice: don't mention The Ivy.

West Street Hotel/Restaurant Bar opens 19 September, 020 7010 8600. Half-price previews on 14, 15 and 17 September.

West Street
13-15 West Street, WC2H 9NE