One of the pleasures of representing businesses across the Yorkshire region is that it makes you feel warm inside if you are able to give them a leg up from time to time.
Restauranteur Paolo Silesu runs an extremely popular Italian/Sardinian restaurant in York called Il Paradiso del Cibo. It’s hard to get a table unless you book well in advance. At the end of 2018, Paolo told me he was going to open a new establishment in Leeds, and asked me if I would invite guests along to some complimentary lunches. Well, I didn’t need to be asked twice!
I have been delighted to have hosted some really entertaining Wednesday lunchtime gatherings of the great, the good and the well-connected from the Yorkshire business community, where Paolo has served up some fantastic food. And, judging from the follow-up thank you notes, they have been a roaring success and many guests have already returned.
You don’t get much more well-connected in Leeds than David Parkin, former Yorkshire Post Business Editor, founder of The Business Desk, owner of Copa, the events and communications company, man-about-town and bon viveur. David currently writes a must-read, lively blog, which he publishes every Friday morning. So, naturally, I invited him along.
Below is an extract from Parky’s blog from 1 March 2019 in which he complimented Paolo and the new Il Paradiso in Leeds. Not surprisingly, my Sardinian friend was delighted by what David had to say.
As I was too…..
David Parkin on a heavyweight meeting, Italian restaurants and a dog day afternoon
ONE of the great satisfactions in life is finding a good local Italian restaurant where the food is traditional and tasty, the wine is interesting and reasonably priced and the service warm and welcoming.
Some chains have attempted to produce this combination and failed miserably - notably Jamie's Italian.
At least Gino D'Acampo is an Italian but the restaurants that carry his name are not so much an homage to his home country as a chance to worship at the altar of the celebrity chef.
So I was intrigued to be invited to a newly opened Sardinian restaurant in Leeds called Il Paradiso.
Chef and owner Paolo Silesu has been running Il Paradiso del Cibo in York for several years which has something of a cult following.
Paolo has been a client of lawyer Andrew Lindsay for some time and Andrew has been hosting lunches to introduce members of the Leeds business community to the new restaurant.
It has kept corporate lawyer Andrew out of mischief while he sees out gardening leave from law firm Lupton Fawcett before moving on to a new venture.
There were a few familiar faces around the table when Andrew hosted the latest lunch on Wednesday.
He kindly gave a glowing mention to this blog when he introduced me to fellow guests: "I always look forward to a Friday morning - and not because its the last day of the working week."
Mind you, he then followed it up with the comment: "And Parky, I don't need to go on holiday nowadays...I just read your blogs!"
Paolo is a real character, with his slick greying quiff, tattooed arms and Italian patter he looks like a cross between a creative agency hipster and Joe Pesci.
"I'm going to call you Arsene Wenger," he said to Tim Simpson of Park Place Corporate Finance, who has a resemblance to the former Arsenal manager.
"He lost the plot years ago too," I said to Paolo, drawing the kind of look from Tim that you used to see from Arsene when his team had been turned over by another Premier League minnow.
Conversation around the table was wide ranging - from Brexit to lap dancing.
You won't need to guess which subject I brought up.
Well I love a political debate.
I pointed out that the restaurant is only a couple of doors away from Leeds' oldest lap dancing bar, Purple Door.
I helpfully told guests that the city used to have about 10 such venues and then tried to name them all - but no one else around the table wanted to join in the game.
Just to reassure these serious business types of my credentials, I added the caveat: "There might have been 10 lap dancing bars in Leeds, but I didn't go in one of them."
"Which one was that?" said a voice at the far end of the table.
Cheeky devil.
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