ASK

The end of last month saw a Saturday evening visit to ASK, a place we used to use quite often, but last visited just about two years ago, as noticed at reference 1.

A company founded in the mid 1990s by a couple of brothers, but according to Wikipedia now with Towerbrook. A restaurant chain owned by an investment platform owned by a value investor. Let's hope the founding brothers are enjoying a no doubt well earned retirement. We must have first used the Epsom branch not long after the chain was founded and we certainly used the building, once a branch of NatWest, when it was a public house, catering mainly to people younger than ourselves. I remember that I once nearly lifted an old copy of Morley on Gladstone from one of their piles of decoratively dusty old books, but actually ended up reading the copy held by the Treasury Library, before, that is, most of the older stock was sold off to a dealer.

I think Towerbrook live in the building right in the snap above, while I once used to visit the Swedish restaurant left, closed for some years now. It did good food, but was expensive (for me) and never seemed to be very busy, at least not at lunchtime. It says 2022 on the snap, so a while since the Street View camera van passed by. See reference 6 for an earlier notice.

On this occasion, we parked at the Eclipse and had thought to join the Saturday evening throng at Wetherspoon's, but we failed to spot a suitable seat outside and so migrated over the road to the Marquis, where I took Hogsback bitter and BH took one of their non-alcoholic but decorative drinks for ladies. The bitter was new to me, but rather good. We took half our drinks inside and half outside, our seats inside catching a draught from somewhere: pleasanter outside, although the musak was a little loud.

BH pretended she was not with me while I captured a moment with a slightly bent trolley from M&S. Made in March 2025, about average for M&S. No.1188, new style.

ASK was pleasantly busy, although not full, and we probably would have got in without booking. A booking made because we had been turned away on a Saturday in the past.

We were taken in hand by a pleasant young waitress from somewhere in the further reaches of Europe.

Bread not bad, although a little undercooked, as is often the case both in restaurants and supermarkets. In too much of a hurry.

I took linguine, something of a favourite at the moment, while BH took a chicken salad. As it turned out, she did better than I did, as my linguine was too wet and contained too much tomato. And the pasta was rather soft, in the way of spaghetti from a tin. Been standing too long. Washed down, I think, with a half litre of red.

An efficient young man who seemed to be the duty manager. He spent a lot of his time keeping an eye on the central computer, but darting out to do stuff as need arose. This including dealing with the take-outs, which were rather nicely packaged.

A relic of the building's days as a bank. In the days when small town banks still carried a serious amount of cash. I remember that last time I wanted a few thousand from HSBC - something to do with the deposit for a flat as I recall - I thought it best to make inquiries in advance.

Unusually these days, service was not included in the bill and the waitress suggested that cash would be better, presumably because she did not then have to share - or to pay tax. I went along with this, although I rather like the post-COVID arrangement whereby service is just included in the bill. All much simpler for both parties. I associate this (Saturday) morning to the old story from some hospitality staff that the whole business of soliciting cash tips is a bit demeaning for them. And once or twice, my cash tips were refused, presumably on grounds of this sort.

An entirely satisfactory occasion, linguine notwithstanding.

On exit, we passed on Wetherspoon's again, opting instead to return to the Eclipse car park.

Where we came across a new-to-us brand of hire bicycle. Or rather pedal assisted motor bike. About time they changed the rules for these things. This one stayed there for a few days.

According to reference 8, a speciality operation for delivery boys.

'At PORT, we believe urban logistics must be rethought for modern cities. We orchestrate a complete last‑mile delivery ecosystem, enabling couriers and logistics firms to maximize performance'.

And lots of arty snaps of bicycles.

When we will be back again? Will it be another two years?

PS: I see from reference 9 that the Trump family business is looking to capitalise on their military investment in Venezuela.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/04/indecision.html.

Reference 2: https://www.askitalian.co.uk/. It seems that 'askitalian' is a more reliable search key than 'ask'.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASK_Italian.

Reference 4: https://www.azzurrigroup.co.uk/. '... one of the UK’s largest and most successful hospitality investment platforms. We operate two leading national Italian full service brands, Zizzi and ASK Italian...'.

Reference 5: https://www.towerbrook.com/. '... We are modern value investors focused primarily on transforming services businesses...'.

Reference 6: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/09/aquavit.html.

Reference 7: https://hogsback.co.uk/.

Reference 8: https://port.app/.

Reference 9: Small financial group close to Trump family plots $200mn Venezuela Spac deal: Yorkville seeks investment to capitalise on improving ‘commercial conditions’ in Latin America - George Steer, Financial Times - 2026.