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Owner Biagio vows to restore gutted Chez Vic
Renowned restaurant Chez Victor was destroyed in a fire last week. Owner Biagio Caroleo tells Simon Wroe of his restoration plans
CLUTCHING a battered leather book in his hands, Biagio Caroleo smiles weakly. “This is all that’s left of the old place,” he says. “This is what I saved.”
The Soho restaurant and nightclub owner sits in the spacious upper room of his Biagio Café Ristorante in Piccadilly, talking about last week’s fire at the Chez Victor restaurant in Wardour Street.
The building was badly damaged in a blaze on Monday night which firefighters believe started in a basement room used to store old cans of frying oil.
“I lived above Chez Victor for 15 years and spent every day in there,” Biagio says, “Now my son lives above it. It’s been a home to my whole family.”
A Chinatown institution, Chez Victor has been a home to many since it opened its doors in 1901.
It was a favoured haunt in the 60s for a glittering group of actors and artists, including Alec Guiness, Vivien Leigh, Yves St Laurent and David Bailey.
The red visitors’ book from the tenure of previous owner Victor Gilbert, now proudly displayed by Mr Caroleo, is brimming with celebrity signatures and their fond comments.
The jewel in the crown is a full-page sketch of a café table by David Hockney, valued recently in excess of £3,000.
Born in Genoa, Italy, the son of a construction worker, Biagio left home at 14 years old and travelled around the world, working on cruise ships as a waiter.
He arrived in England in 1969 but was called back to Italy to finish his military service.
Not to be deterred, he returned four years later and bought his first restaurant, San Remo on Charing Cross Road.
Today he owns the Biagio chain of Italian restaurants, with five in the heart of London’s West End. In all his years of business, he says he has never had anything like this happen.
The fire gutted the kitchen and the ground floor restaurant, and caused extensive smoke damage to the rest of the building.
The physical cause of the fire is still being investigated. By a stroke of great luck, Mr Caroleo’s son, who lives in the building, was on holiday at the time.
Mr Caroleo describes the narrow ground floor restaurant once frequented by the stars as “completely destroyed”, but vows that he will refurbish it with the original décor in mind.
He said: “I want to retain the ‘Chez Victor’ that people know and love, but I have to bring the restaurant forward into the 21st Century as well.
“Some of the fixtures and fittings needed modernising, but I’ll keep a feeling of the old world. You have to – it’s a special place.”
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