Tequila cocktails, spicy shrimps and the nostalgia of old-school dining with Missy Flynn and Gabriel Pryce at Rita’s in Soho, London
Words Billie Brand
Photography Elliot Sheppard
Production Harry Cave
Business aside, restaurateur Missy and chef Gabriel also have personal roots in the neighbourhood. Missy, for instance, grew up in a pub nearby in Covent Garden and has fond memories of eating vegetarian food at Mildred’s – incidentally on this very strip – during her teenage punk phase; Gabriel recalls sipping Shirley Temples as a kid at Joe Allen, where he would dine after his actor parents finished on the West End’s stages. The life-and-work partners are products of their past and revel in the sweetness of nostalgia, which is exactly what’s shaped the heart of Rita’s. Here, the duo reflects on their journey of 10 years, while Gabriel demonstrates a recipe for shrimp and grits with sauce Creole.
Missy: “Ten years is a milestone – has Rita’s changed? Of course, because it’s a restaurant now run by adults as opposed to kids! But what I find refreshing and exciting about it is that the core of it hasn’t changed much at all. A lot of our guests say that, which is reassuring as it means we’re doing something that is natural to us and not flighty. We’re not about ticking a box or chasing a trend.
“We always joke that Gabe invented millennial pink because our colour was a dusty rose when we first started out. Now, we’ve gone for a brighter hue. We’ve amped it up.”
Gabriel: “Back then, everything was called Bob’s or Joe’s. It was all leather, dark oak and whiskey. We wanted to be the antithesis of that.”
Missy: “The reason we chose a female name was to differentiate ourselves from the dude-heavy food scene. We chose Rita, first of all, because our house drink is a margarita – my background is working with tequila and agave spirit in Mexico. But it’s also fun, approachable and quite sensual – think about the Ritas throughout history. It’s funny, a lot of people think I’m Rita…”
Gabriel: “But I think it’s important that she doesn’t exist. We’ve tried to create an environment that is not gendered, one note or for one type of person. We’ve always wanted our doors to be open to everyone – we’re grateful that anyone comes at all, to be perfectly honest. Rita isn’t a particular person – it’s about letting anyone be who they want to when they come here.”
Missy: “We’re very nostalgic. I think that comes from our references – old bistros and restaurants; things that have been somewhere for a long time, such as the restaurant that was here before us. There were so many stories about the place itself, not necessarily about the concept or brand, which is so common now.
“Now, we’re in Theatreland, old-school Soho and I feel really attuned to the style of service you get in restaurants here. There’s not just one way to do it – it doesn’t have to be ballsy and flamboyant. It can be brisk-mannered like they do it at the French House, but it still feels really intimate. I can’t stand it when there’s just nothing about the service.
“The design of a restaurant is a little disconnected and completely unconventional. We did everything ourselves, taking inspiration from American diners and Mexican cantina bars. It already feels like it’s really lived in, which is nice. But the main thing about Rita’s is the people. We might host teenagers on their first big night out at a restaurant, or Frank Ocean, and the only thing they have in common might be that they love food and they love experiences. And that’s enough for us. We don’t need the whole clientele to look or feel the same.
“I grew up in pubs in places like Covent Garden and Richmond and I’ve worked in restaurants since I was 17 or 18. But my experience of bars at their best was visiting dive bars in North America. Dive bars are not shit bars. You get a very good drink and very good service. I always value both of those things and often find them in lo-fi spaces. Gabe and I grew up on the punk scene, so we appreciate a DIY approach and unpretentiousness.
“When we first started, our early conversations would play out as if we were planning a party. Gabe had been hosting club nights in east London for many years and, like me, lived in the States for a period, so we wanted to create a restaurant that would contribute to nightlife. We wanted to make the dining experience fun.”
Gabriel: “Missy had a real understanding of how to recreate the environment of a dive bar – messy but with really good service. We started Rita’s with fried-chicken sandwiches, wings and burgers, because we had little money and just a tiny space in a converted toilet at the back of a nightclub.
“I’d been staying in North America where it was cool to work in restaurants. Tell someone you’re a waiter or a server and the response would be, “That’s sick. I want to come. Can you get me a table?” It wasn’t like that here; we didn’t have that much respect for it. It’s changing now, thankfully. But for me, working in a restaurant was always a no-brainer.
“My parents were West End actors and we’d always end up eating at Joe Allen, which was an American restaurant in Covent Garden. It had a branch in New York too, which I’d visit, and it made the one here even more exciting. I’d have potato skins, fries and drink Shirley Temples at the long wooden bar, surrounded by jazz posters. It was magical.
“We always brand Rita’s as an American restaurant, but we’re not talking hot dogs and milkshakes. North America is a new country made up of all the others around the world. There is an incredibly deep culinary history there that has been bubbling away in various different pockets. Go to Louisiana, for example, and you’ll see the most important influence is African food. It’s like nowhere else on earth. There’s so much stuff there that is so delicious and fun. I can’t deny how exciting the Middle East, east Asia, South America and Africa are in their own right, but seeing it all happen in one place is very interesting to me.”
“Being asked about 10 years of Rita’s hits a soft spot. Our first restaurant means a lot of us, but the things we’re attached to are beyond the restaurant itself. It was a period of our lives that we’ll never shed. There are things we’ll never let go of. Yes, there’s stuff that I miss and I have a huge nostalgic kind of love for first our restaurant. But my heart skips a beat every time I come into this one. I think it’s beautiful.”
“I hope my recipe, working with what’s available in London, pays homage to the uniquely complex culinary background of the USA, a new country with thousands of years of cultural influences piled on top of each other. This dish started in Africa with enslaved people, who were brought to work on plantations in the southern Lowcountry. They adapted a dish of maize and shellfish to use the grits of the American South and the available seafood. I serve my shrimp and grits with sauce Creole to further highlight the origins of the foods, with the influence of the French, Spanish, Hatian, Cajun and the Acadian. These people created what became Louisiana cuisine, which, to me, is the truest original food in the states – despite not being original at all!”
Serves 4
Grits
200g grits (you can order exceptional heritage corn grits from Anson Mills)
500ml whole milk
400ml water
125g unsalted butter, plus more to taste
Sauce Creole
180g butter
½ head celery, diced
½ white onion, diced
100g green bell pepper, deseeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 jalapenõ, deseeded and diced
300g tomatoes, roughly chopped
1tbsp smoked paprika
1tsp chilli flakes
1tbsp chopped oregano
1tbsp chopped basil
300ml chicken stock
300ml tomato passata or marinara sauce (pureé not paste)
50ml hot sauce
Shrimps
2-5 per person, depending on size
First, get your grits on. Add the grits, milk, water and butter to a large saucepan and put it on the lowest possible heat. Cook for at least 2 hours, stirring at least every two minutes and don’t let them stick to the pan. (Our rule in the kitchen is if you pass the pan, you give it a stir.) When the grits have reached the consistency of loose mashed potatoes, they are ready. Season to taste – and if they aren’t buttery enough, add more.
In a separate pan, melt the butter for the sauce Creole on a medium heat and add all your diced garlic and vegetables, except the tomatoes. Cook until everything starts to soften but doesn’t colour. Next add the chopped tomatoes and cook until they start to break down and soften, but aren’t quite falling apart, at which point add the paprika, chilli flakes and herbs. After two minutes, turn up the heat and add the chicken stock and tomato passata. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer to tighten the sauce and allow everything to meld together, for 30 mins. Season with the hot sauce and salt and pepper to taste.
Now, it’s over to you to prepare your shrimp: shell them, de-vein them, or leave them whole and pick them apart as you eat. We peel and de-vein ours and then sauté them quickly in a tablespoon of butter on a medium-high heat.
To serve, place the prawns on top of a warm bed of plated grits and spoon the sauce over the top.
RELATED ON THE MODERN HOUSE
For itinerant chef and musical therapist Marie Cassis, home is where the feast is
From Bath bakery and restaurant to Bruton mill: the evolution of Landrace in Somerset
Crocadon in Cornwall is a farm and restaurant with organic agriculture, good cooking and great people at its heart
It’s all love at Matthew Scott and Charlie Carr’s new restaurant, Papi
Edit is the hyper-seasonal Hackney restaurant making the case for low waste
Why deli and wine bar Lulu’s is winning the hearts of locals in Herne Hill
How Alex Reynolds and Maria Viviani are paying homage to their heritages at Eline in Hoxton
Akwasi Brenya-Mensa on the future of Pan-African cuisine at Tatale in Southwark
Suea is the cook and creative playing with her food in Brooklyn, New York
Sustainability is a way of life for Pamela Brunton at Inver on the west coast of Scotland