Previous Issue
Issue 33
The five best pizza places in London
Five food insiders pick their favourite London pizzas, from Newington Green’s Bar Etna to a defiantly unfashionable Pizza Express order.
By Gentleman's Journal
Five Historic Restaurant Feuds
- La Famiglia vs The Neighbour — 2026
- The Atlantic vs The Titanic — 1999
- Da Silvano vs Bar Pitti — 1992
- Keith McNally vs James Corden — 2022
- Donald Trump vs Graydon Carter — 2013-present
Words By Joseph Bullmore
Warring restaurants don’t have beef. They have grass fed, slow-reared, Wagyu-grade Côte de Boeuf, thanks very much — delicious, extremely tender, and sometimes a bit bloody. With the news this week that Chelsea’s beloved La Famiglia restaurant is now under threat from complaining neighbours, we re-visit some of the most colourful restaurant feuds in recent memory.
1. La Famiglia vs The Neighbour — 2026
Chelsea’s excellent La Famiglia is known for a few things: its platoon of mustachioed waiters, some of whom have been there since it opened 50 years ago, with their hierarchy of gold brocaded blazers and waistcoats; its ridiculously good gorgonzola rigatoni, which they recently removed from the menu but which the chefs will still prepare for old regulars; and its frankly miraculous garden terrace (a serious rarity in London) which spills over with chequered table clothes and the pleasant hubbub of long lunches most Saturdays. That final tradition, however, is now under siege, thanks to repeated complaints to the council about noise levels from a new tenant nearby — an existential threat that has prompted letters of support from Bryan Ferry, Sir David Davies, Eric Clapton, and even Jose Mourinho’s daughter. The case continues.
2. The Atlantic vs The Titanic — 1999
In 1999, Oliver Peyton, owner of London’s hugely fashionable Atlantic Bar & Grill (a stalwart of the nineties expense account set), took one Marco Pierre White to the High Court. Peyton claimed that White’s vast new Titanic restaurant was essentially a clone: the same Art Deco appeal, cokey clientele and even address (it too sat inside the Regent Palace Hotel near Piccadilly.) The case collapsed spectacularly on its second day, however, after Peyton reached a confidential deal with his landlords. White pocketed £200,000 in immediate costs, called the whole suit a “tremendous sign of weakness” and moaned that he’d been denied his two-week “vacation” in court. “The Titanic has sailed over the Atlantic,” White said in victory. “And they have failed to sink us.”
3. Da Silvano vs Bar Pitti — 1992
In 1992, Silvano Marchetto, the Ferrari-driving, celebrity-magnet owner of Da Silvano in New York’s West Village, opened Bar Pitti next door with fellow Tuscan Giovanni Tognozzi. The partnership soon turned toxic, however, when the pair began to sue each other in a series of suits over stolen profits, hidden cash, and, most important of all, the secret family recipes for veal meatballs and eggplant parmigiana. Soon, Marchetto sold his stake in Pitti and returned next door. But the neighbours kept fighting, with celebrity fans — including Madonna, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Robert De Niro and Anna Wintour — apparently forced to decide which side to pick. At one point, Tognozzi reportedly chased a Da Silvano employee down Sixth Avenue in a rage. Marchetto, meanwhile, was known to constantly mutter “bastardo!” under his breath while gazing at the rival spot next door.
4. Keith McNally vs James Corden — 2022
In 2022, James Corden fell foul of Keith McNally, the wonderfully forthright British restaurateur behind New York institutions Balthazar and Pastis. After Corden complained about a hair in his food, then allegedly erupted at staff when his wife’s “egg-yolk omelette” (hmm) arrived with fries instead of salad, McNally branded him a “tiny cretin” and Balthazar’s “most abusive customer” in 25 years — then promptly banned him. Corden soon called to apologise, and McNally later admitted that he had become “intoxicated with self-righteousness”, and that he “really regretted how much hot water he got into.”
5. Donald Trump vs Graydon Carter — 2013-present
At the top of the menu at the Waverly Inn, Graydon Carter’s endlessly clubbable restaurant in the West Village, there’s a singular quote: ‘“Worst food in the city” — Donald Trump.’ The accidental endorsement comes from a string of tweets by Trump towards Carter in 2013, when he described the then-Vanity Fair editor's spots as “bad food restaurants”. Three years later, the magazine returned fire slightly more eloquently, with an article asking whether Trump Grill was “the worst restaurant in America.” Written by Tina Nguyen under Carter’s editorship, the piece was a tour-de-force in critical savagery. The cocktails were apparently “concocted by a college freshman experimenting in their dorm room”; the filet mignon was “slumped to the side over the potatoes like a dead body inside a T-boned minivan”; and the entire thing was “a cheap version of rich”.
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