Hyfler/Rosner
2007-08-22 03:54:55 UTC
From The Times
August 21, 2007
Andrew Leeman
Influential and gregarious restaurateur who introduced tacos
and margaritas to London
Andrew Leeman was an ebullient bon vivant who lived life to
the full but at the same time made sure that the guests at
his restaurants enjoyed themselves.
Leeman was the ideal front-of-house man, a talent he ably
demonstrated at Morton's in Berkeley Square and at Langan's
Brasserie in its glory days. He was famed as the man who
refused Mick Jagger entry to Langan's for being improperly
dressed. At Morton's he decided where the beautiful people
sat, including Diana, Princess of Wales, a frequent guest.
But he was generous too. One winter night he found a tramp
outside Morton's, brought him in, fed him, and then,
mischievously, put him in one of the chauffeured
Rolls-Royces always outside and sent him round Berkeley
Square to Annabel's.
His sparkle and love of life imbued all his restaurants and
hotels. The gossip columnist Nigel Dempster (obituary, July
13, 2007 ) called him "the most handsome man in London", and
his blonde hair, blue eyes and suntan enchanted many women
diners. The restaurant critic Fay Maschler said that he
strode through Langan's "like a Greek god".
Andrew Richard Alexander Leeman was born in 1946. After
schooling at Embley Park near Romsey in Hampshire - where he
inaugurated the custom of bringing in a busload of girls for
school dances - he decided that the family horticultural
business and country life were not for him and studied
catering at Westminster College.
On returning to London after graduating from the Lausanne
Hotel School he came to the notice of Sir Hugh Wontner,
chairman of the Savoy Group, who offered him a graduate
trainee post. Leeman worked his way round the Savoy,
Claridge's and the Berkeley's new Perroquet restaurant.
His Savoy days gave him an offbeat celebrity. His long-time
partner Maxine White introduced him to John Cleese, and they
became friends, drawn together, it was said, by a love of
backgammon, food and wine. In 1977, to avoid the Queen's
Silver Jubilee in London, they went for a holiday on Hydra
where Cleese picked Leeman's brains about his worst hotel
experience. Leeman told Cleese it was when he was a trainee
and had found a dead body in a Savoy bedroom and had to
remove it discreetly. This became the basis for the 1979
Kipper and the Corpse episode of Fawlty Towers in which
Basil serves out-of-date kippers to a guest who then dies.
In honour of the story's source, the dead guest was named
Andrew Leeman.
Leeman's first pre-Savoy catering effort was working with
his sister at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre for Sir
Clement Freud who became a friend and later chairman of his
London restaurant group. Other early entrepreneurial food
ventures were selling his grandmother's apples at the Isle
of Wight festival and, with Maxine White, selling soup at a
Yorkshire pop festival during one of the worst ever recorded
storms - she recalled that the soup just blew away.
His first managerial job was at Daisy in the Kings Road.
After a few years, with the support of friends, he opened
his first restaurant, the Sussex in Pimlico, to which
Princess Margaret came.
After working at Morton's in Berkeley Square, which opened
in 1976, he moved to Langan's Brasserie where he
occasionally had to rescue the owner Peter Langan from the
gutter and dust down his white suit. When Leeman left,
Langan offered him a choice of the paintings in the
restaurant or £1,000. Leeman opted for the cash -
unfortunately for him the paintings went on to become worth
much more.
Leeman adored the US and often visited Texas to pursue his
passion for shooting. He liked the food and decided that
Britain was ready for nachos, burritos, tacos and margaritas
and opened his Texas Lone Star Saloon on the corner of
Gloucester Road and Harrington Gardens on July 4, 1980. The
large Native American Indian figure that stood outside was
such a noted landmark it formed part of the London taxi
drivers' "knowledge".
Leeman employed a former Playboy bunny girl, Marilyn Coles,
as his greeter, and waitresses used rollerskates. Even
though the food was affordable, Leeman made the ambience
glamorous and fun. Other Texas Lone Star restaurants
followed, in Chiswick and Queensway, and in 1984, with his
partners Simon Lowe and Howard Malin, he opened the first
Palms restaurant in Kensington, serving Italian food. Other
restaurants included Tall Orders with starter-style English
food presented in oriental steamer baskets; Steamboat
Charlie's and Casper's Bar Grill and Telephone Exchange in
Hanover Square where every table had its own telephone.
The three partners moved on into hotels in 1989, buying the
Feathers in Woodstock. They created more of a
restaurant-with-rooms atmosphere though it initially
struggled at the start of the Gulf War when their American
clientele dropped away. In 1995 they bought Bishopstrow, a
country house hotel "in the wrong part of Wiltshire", and
sold it in 2001.
After this Leeman gradually divested himself of his
businesses, motivated partly by the increasing red tape in
the catering industry and partly by his failing health.
A great party man - he celebrated his 60th birthday on a
Pimlico rooftop with caviar and vodka - and latterly a
member of the Garrick, he was not one for a tidy,
bill-paying life or conventional hobbies. Shooting and
fishing were his great relaxations and to a lesser extent
skiing.
In May 1987 he married the Florida socialite and heiress
Shannon Porter in the Gal?pagos islands. She and their son
and daughter survive him.
Andrew Leeman, restaurateur and hotelier, was born on July
27, 1946. He died of cancer on August 12, 2007, aged 61
August 21, 2007
Andrew Leeman
Influential and gregarious restaurateur who introduced tacos
and margaritas to London
Andrew Leeman was an ebullient bon vivant who lived life to
the full but at the same time made sure that the guests at
his restaurants enjoyed themselves.
Leeman was the ideal front-of-house man, a talent he ably
demonstrated at Morton's in Berkeley Square and at Langan's
Brasserie in its glory days. He was famed as the man who
refused Mick Jagger entry to Langan's for being improperly
dressed. At Morton's he decided where the beautiful people
sat, including Diana, Princess of Wales, a frequent guest.
But he was generous too. One winter night he found a tramp
outside Morton's, brought him in, fed him, and then,
mischievously, put him in one of the chauffeured
Rolls-Royces always outside and sent him round Berkeley
Square to Annabel's.
His sparkle and love of life imbued all his restaurants and
hotels. The gossip columnist Nigel Dempster (obituary, July
13, 2007 ) called him "the most handsome man in London", and
his blonde hair, blue eyes and suntan enchanted many women
diners. The restaurant critic Fay Maschler said that he
strode through Langan's "like a Greek god".
Andrew Richard Alexander Leeman was born in 1946. After
schooling at Embley Park near Romsey in Hampshire - where he
inaugurated the custom of bringing in a busload of girls for
school dances - he decided that the family horticultural
business and country life were not for him and studied
catering at Westminster College.
On returning to London after graduating from the Lausanne
Hotel School he came to the notice of Sir Hugh Wontner,
chairman of the Savoy Group, who offered him a graduate
trainee post. Leeman worked his way round the Savoy,
Claridge's and the Berkeley's new Perroquet restaurant.
His Savoy days gave him an offbeat celebrity. His long-time
partner Maxine White introduced him to John Cleese, and they
became friends, drawn together, it was said, by a love of
backgammon, food and wine. In 1977, to avoid the Queen's
Silver Jubilee in London, they went for a holiday on Hydra
where Cleese picked Leeman's brains about his worst hotel
experience. Leeman told Cleese it was when he was a trainee
and had found a dead body in a Savoy bedroom and had to
remove it discreetly. This became the basis for the 1979
Kipper and the Corpse episode of Fawlty Towers in which
Basil serves out-of-date kippers to a guest who then dies.
In honour of the story's source, the dead guest was named
Andrew Leeman.
Leeman's first pre-Savoy catering effort was working with
his sister at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre for Sir
Clement Freud who became a friend and later chairman of his
London restaurant group. Other early entrepreneurial food
ventures were selling his grandmother's apples at the Isle
of Wight festival and, with Maxine White, selling soup at a
Yorkshire pop festival during one of the worst ever recorded
storms - she recalled that the soup just blew away.
His first managerial job was at Daisy in the Kings Road.
After a few years, with the support of friends, he opened
his first restaurant, the Sussex in Pimlico, to which
Princess Margaret came.
After working at Morton's in Berkeley Square, which opened
in 1976, he moved to Langan's Brasserie where he
occasionally had to rescue the owner Peter Langan from the
gutter and dust down his white suit. When Leeman left,
Langan offered him a choice of the paintings in the
restaurant or £1,000. Leeman opted for the cash -
unfortunately for him the paintings went on to become worth
much more.
Leeman adored the US and often visited Texas to pursue his
passion for shooting. He liked the food and decided that
Britain was ready for nachos, burritos, tacos and margaritas
and opened his Texas Lone Star Saloon on the corner of
Gloucester Road and Harrington Gardens on July 4, 1980. The
large Native American Indian figure that stood outside was
such a noted landmark it formed part of the London taxi
drivers' "knowledge".
Leeman employed a former Playboy bunny girl, Marilyn Coles,
as his greeter, and waitresses used rollerskates. Even
though the food was affordable, Leeman made the ambience
glamorous and fun. Other Texas Lone Star restaurants
followed, in Chiswick and Queensway, and in 1984, with his
partners Simon Lowe and Howard Malin, he opened the first
Palms restaurant in Kensington, serving Italian food. Other
restaurants included Tall Orders with starter-style English
food presented in oriental steamer baskets; Steamboat
Charlie's and Casper's Bar Grill and Telephone Exchange in
Hanover Square where every table had its own telephone.
The three partners moved on into hotels in 1989, buying the
Feathers in Woodstock. They created more of a
restaurant-with-rooms atmosphere though it initially
struggled at the start of the Gulf War when their American
clientele dropped away. In 1995 they bought Bishopstrow, a
country house hotel "in the wrong part of Wiltshire", and
sold it in 2001.
After this Leeman gradually divested himself of his
businesses, motivated partly by the increasing red tape in
the catering industry and partly by his failing health.
A great party man - he celebrated his 60th birthday on a
Pimlico rooftop with caviar and vodka - and latterly a
member of the Garrick, he was not one for a tidy,
bill-paying life or conventional hobbies. Shooting and
fishing were his great relaxations and to a lesser extent
skiing.
In May 1987 he married the Florida socialite and heiress
Shannon Porter in the Gal?pagos islands. She and their son
and daughter survive him.
Andrew Leeman, restaurateur and hotelier, was born on July
27, 1946. He died of cancer on August 12, 2007, aged 61