A visit to Bill's

A restaurant called Bill's has popped up in Epsom, across the road from Wetherspoons (formerly the heritage Assembly Rooms, patronised by the likes of Pepys) and across the lane from the newly reopened Albion (formerly the haunt of assorted racing & betting types. Magistrates' Court once held upstairs).

Maybe the fourth or fifth restaurant on this particular site in the 25 years or so that we have been in Epsom, so we shall see how they get on, whether they beat the average.

We had a good meal. The place seemed quite busy for a Monday lunchtime and the staff were very pleasant & friendly, always a plus in such a place.

Only marred in my case by the texture of the hamburger of the house. It was cooked as I asked, moist but not oozing red; they seemed genuinely concerned to get that bit right. But the burger was rather firmer than I like. As with salt beef, I like it loose rather than firm, although in the case of salt beef, loose seems to be unobtainable in these days of television chefs. We are awash with culinary professionals, not to mention executive chefs, but one cannot get a simple bit of loose salt beef. On this occasion I did not get a loose hamburger and I wondered whether it was due to the burgers being cooked from frozen, or perhaps reheated from frozen. My evidence being that BH does a meat loaf which, on a good day, is loose when fresh, but is invariably firm when one eats the occasional left overs cold.

Décor enhanced by strings of dried red peppers of various sorts hanging from the roof. Large red peppers drying to a dark brown while small red peppers, aka chillies, drying to a dark red.

The web site (http://bills-website.co.uk/) says that the chain kicked off in Lewes in about 2000 and that they have now got as far as branches in Epsom, Exeter and Cambridge, to name but three. One of our waiters said something about each branch doing a variation on the theme, rather than just slavish copying of the central template. Is the place a franchise operation rather than a restaurant operation?

Google turns up a franchise called 'Tiger Bills' which is clearly wrong and a rather unkind review from Tripadvisor (not a site I use so no idea how reliable or helpful it is) which thought that the right Bill's did involve franchise and that expansion did involve dilution of quality, always a problem when a good idea wants to move from small & local to large & national. I associate to a gang called Pierre Victoire which used to operate from a small site near where the Epsom Bill's is now, a gang which started well in Edinburgh, grew too fast and collapsed. Although I see from the 'Scotsman' that as of 2010 'it was one of the UK's most famous restaurant chains before its spectacular collapse 12 years ago. But now the flamboyant French chef who left a trail of debts when his Pierre Victoire restaurant chain went under has relaunched the brand'. Did the relaunch fly? Will 'Patisserie Valerie' go the same way?

Maybe it is like 'Autonomy' (see http://psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Autonomy for a not very helpful mention). You have a good idea, build it up a bit and then flog it to some big outfit with lots of cash while the going is good. Put your share of the loot into some nice safe investment and sit back for a well earned rest. Let the big outfit take the strain.