What happens when the merry go round stops?

Talk of how best to run a restaurant haunts hospitality like a spectre.

- DAVID ELLIS RESTAURANT CRITIC

HEROES IN A HALF SHELL Mexican seafood at Caneta

Glum tête-à-têtes between operators about suppliers, costs, about private equity ghouls, go on, unresolved, forever. Always the same problem: there's no bloody money. You can't just serve decent food and drink and expect to make a living. Although someone should tell the Devonshire that.Carousel is the restaurant that 12 years ago decided the usual way of things wasn't much cop. Brothers Ed and Ollie Templeton founded the place in Marylebone with an idea to continually do chef-led popups. Their knack was knowing just who to pick: names who made it here first include Ikoyi’s Jeremy Chan; Tom Brown before Cornerstone; Ravinder Bhogal of Jikoni; Santiago Lastra from Kol and BiBi’s Chet Sharma. The kitchens have hosted sushi masters and fried chicken joints. Clever boys, Ed and Ollie: they witnessed what worked, cribbed tips from the world's best, and never let customers be bored. Regulars came dozens of times, and so in 2021, Carousel moved to Fitzrovia with a permanent wine bar alongside the chef incubations.