La Bella Vista: lunch with a sea view
IT’S A BRIGHT day in February, and the sun is streaming through the windows of La Bella Vista, a restaurant I chanced across on the seafront at St Leonards-on-Sea. From my table, I can see the English Channel sparkling on the other side of the Grand Parade, but mostly I’m watching the waiting staff.
There are three of them, two women and a man, all quite young and slim. They’re dressed in black trousers and white shirts with black braces and bow ties, and they’re very good.
When Fred Sirieix - he of TV’s First Dates and Gordon, Gino and Fred - was general manager of a Michelin starred restaurant in Mayfair, he invented a board game called The Art of Service, to help train front-of-house staff.
The manual for the game was exhaustive and my daughter and I were asked to edit it (while Fred was still writing and revising it, which was fun). The result was that we both received a sort of vicarious training in front-of-house service in a top London restaurant.
So, I’m looking at the young staff in this seafront restaurant and watching to see how often they smile, how they engage with some customers and remain courteously and attentively distant from others, how they deliver food and clear tables efficiently and without fuss, how they constantly scan the tables and the faces of their guests looking for things to do, and how they open the door for departing diners with a kind word or two to send them on their way.
It’s all pretty smooth and when I get a chance, I tell them. The owner is very particular about what he wants from his waiting staff, I’m told, right down to the smiles and the way they talk to the customers. It’s done by repetition, and eventually it just becomes who they are. It’s impressive, I tell them.
I’m in St Leonard’s on a whim. Like many Georgian and Victorian British seaside resorts, it’s a little faded and actually quite shabby in parts. But it was developed by James and Decimus Burton and it includes many fine houses dating from the late 1820s. James Burton was a developer who worked in Bloomsbury and built houses around Regent’s Park. His son Decimus was a prolific architect who designed Clarence Terrace in Regent’s Park and the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner, as well as many buildings in the Royal Parks and much of Royal Tunbridge Wells.
As a result, parts of St Leonard’s are quite beautiful, with buildings that look as if they belong in Belgravia - and re-gentrification (since the resort was originally created for the gentry) is underway in several streets and mews, although I’m told that this renaissance has been talked about for years.
But back to the restaurant. The set lunch menu (two courses, £16.95) looks fine to me, and I ask for Tortino di Melanzana, an aubergine and basil tart with tomato sauce and parmesan crisps, and Baccala in Nata - Hastings cod au gratin with parmesan, pioppini mushrooms and roast potatoes.
I’m eating quite late in the day, and the winter sun casts shadows across the table and makes the glasses sparkle. The tart is tasty, I’m a huge fan of aubergine and tomato, although the splashy presentation is a little odd. But the Baccala is excellent with succulent fresh, local fish and a really creamy sauce.
Having praised the service, I have to leave quite a big tip. And as I’m ushered through the door by a smiling waitress, I say: “I’ll be back”, realising with a touch of embarrassment that it’s an Arnie Schwarzenegger quote.
Later, I check out the website and discover that La Bella Vista is owned by Aldo Esposito and won the Muddy Stiletos local food award in 2019 along with a Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence. I will definitely be back.
La Bella Vista, 8 Grand Parade, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, TN38 0DD. 01424 423608 info@labellavista.co.uk
