At the table: Who needs a revolution when there's rotisserie?

Success does not always travel on straight tracks. The late restaurant critic Richard Vines, who died on Monday, lived as a reminder of this.

- DAVID ELLIS RESTAURANT CRITIC

It took a quarter of a century before he ended up professionally appraising the iciness of martinis; his left turns beforehand included time as a railway announcer and 13 years padding around Beijing and Hong Kong. He took the route as it came.

Restaurateurs Kieran Monteiro and Sam Mousawi may recognise the style. He seems too nice for it to be true, but Mousawi spent more than a decade in property before he turned to bars and bistros. Monteiro's first chain, Boma, closed when he went into beer, his head turned by promises of a CEO role. But last year, both found their plans had unravelled. They decided to tie up their loose ends together, and now co-own Chuck's.