Gordon Ramsay placed another order of attention this morning by claiming that a key impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was its getting rid of “crap” restaurants. As reported by the Guardian, speaking to Ed Balls (for unknown reasons) in the Radio Times, the chef said that while lockdowns had been “devastating the last two years … I think what has been evident for all of us is the crap’s gone.”
A typically sweary provocation from the master of the art and little more. Well, not quite, because Ramsay’s definition of “crap” went on not just to bolster his argument, but to consign irony to its grave forevermore:
“Well, just shitholes in a prime position and taking advantage because they’re in a great location, and they’ve got the footfall. But now we’ve wiped the slate clean, which is good,” he said.
It is true that in London, large, already fragile chains with lots of locations in high footfall areas struggled. Unable to support the cost of their premium real estate with no business, having purchased it in flights of too aggressive expansion, the likes of Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Pizza Express, Prezzo, Byron, and more have shed sites in order not to collapse entirely.
The chain taking over many of those sits, those “shitholes in a prime position?” None other than Gordon Ramsay himself, in his Street Burger and Street Pizza branding guises.
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