At the table: The perfect antidote to imperfect times

Perfection is blander than personality.

- DAVID ELLIS

A mantra for the aesthetically insecure? You've caught me. But it's still true. Not very fair to say that restaurants have become too good-looking, but lately there's been a glut of places that appear uncannily like CGI renders. Always unsettling to walk in somewhere and wonder if an actual person had any input, or if it came from the AI overlords.

It's not that Bistro Sablé is unique: inside the shell of a redbrick pub, it's pinched from the well-thumbed playbook of precarious candles and mismatched chairs. There are the expected blackboards and booze posters, the empty bottles, the blue-and-white tiles that fill Parisian bathrooms. You'll have seen it before especially if you're a regular at 63-69 Canonbury Road. The room is mostly identical to its time before as Smokehouse, though thankfully now there are fewer antlers. And so we have a room that feels thoroughly fashionable but in reality has recycled what's been there for more than a decade. But it has charm, helped by an open fire and the cheering welcome dogs are given.

Lately there has been a lot about how hospitality is getting stiffed by the financial illiterates in government. Sablé is a reminder that not every opening needs to start from scratch. Paint and smarts go a long way.