Another beautifully tailored lunch at Sartoria yesterday, including a lamb ragu to rival my dear Mother-in-Law’s secret recipe, and a chance to savour the attentiveness of front -of -house Michael, surely the most charming and adorable man ever to wear trousers, (nota bene, husband). Judging by the number of diners, Sartoria is still a fashionable outfit not needing to  brace itself against customers cutting their cloth to fit the crunch. In London alone, 100 or so restaurants have gone the way of deeley-boppers so far this year, and whilst it’s not easy for those who are left, there’s a clear case for remaining confident in what you do well, and not trimming off quality.

Quality, as a production target and marketing pick ‘n’ mix term, is about to become passe. Illy coffee no longer claim to make ‘quality’ coffee: now it’s ‘perfect’. That’s great, but they’re going to need a particularly deep thesaurus to dig into when Nescafe start with the same claim. We shall all be rushing out to buy Coffee Next to Godliness. Or maybe not, Godliness being so unfashionable in this country at the moment. Better make it a woolly-minded liberal pc coffee instead.