New featured article — Teapot, Forest Hill, SE23

[ewan]

Hello and welcome back as RGL takes you to...



Leafy Forest Hill, where our featured article, cafe Teapot, SE23 3HF, awaits you. It's not big, but it will do you a good panino, and child-friendly portion sizes if you have children with you, which you may not.

There's a new entry for Jackson and Rye, a chain bar/restaurant in Richmond. I know there's one in Soho, as I've walked past it many times, but that's not a review. You can follow the link for that but be warned, there is a distinct lack of blueberries.

Finally, the reported permanent closure of Matsuri, a teppanyaki restaurant in St James's, by Piccadilly. You might miss some of its excellent food, but you won't miss the prices.

Comments

[nou]

I have thoughts on your use of “panino”! I know this is the Italian singular for a sandwich, and “panini” is plural in Italian, but in English[0] “panini” is singular and plural, and means a specific type of sandwich.

I do have a theory of how this happened: I think it's because of the Délifrance bread product often used for this type of sandwich. Délifrance called it a “panini”, and British cafes followed suit. When I was first wondering about this about 15 years ago, I noticed that pretty much every London cafe offering panini also had Délifrance advertising. (This has changed now that panini are available in pretty much all cafes — they used to be a fairly specialist thing.)

[0] British English, at least. I have had disagreements about this with at least one American. As far as I know, Délifrance isn’t particularly active in America, which fits my theory above.

[ewan]

I think you are right, and the OED does confirm that use: "The Italian plural form panini began to be interpreted as singular in English use in the late 20th cent. (compare quot. 1985); this was soon followed by the appearance of the English plural form paninis." I wasn't being entirely serious with my use of it; it always seems pompously over-pedantic to use it.

[nou]

I didn’t even think to look at the OED! I have no objection to using “panino” facetiously :)