The Groucho opens its doors to non-members for Tom Oldroyd lunch

Private members’ club The Groucho is opening its doors to the public for a summer lunch with one of London’s favourite chefs.

To celebrate London Food Month, the Soho arts and media club — frequented by Lily Allen, Sienna Miller, Robert Pattinson, Anna Friel, Jude Law, Tracey Emin, Jools Holland, Stephen Fry and Kate Moss to name but a few — will be open to non-members.

The venue opened in 1985 and is named after Groucho Marx’s quip that he didn’t want to belong to any club that would have him as a member. It has hired Tom Oldroyd, the former chef director at Polpo, for one service only at which he will deliver a selection of his celebrated Venetian small plates.

The chef, who opened his restaurant, Oldroyd, in Angel two years ago, will serve dishes such as summer pea and Caerphilly croquettes; Cornish seaweed and cider saucisson, summer truffle taliarini; and peach, thyme and almond tart.

His signature dish, whole roast monkfish tail served with braised fennel and black olive tapenade, will also feature. London Food Month curator Tom Parker Bowles called it “as fine a dish as I have had all year” when he gave the restaurant a five-star rating.

Oldroyd told the Standard his lunch “will be a hit list of Oldroyd dishes. I just wanted it to be a celebration of summer.”

The chef, who opened his first Polpo in Beak Street in Soho in 2009 and now has restaurants in Chelsea, Notting Hill, Smithfield and Covent Garden, said: “When we opened it was just after the Lehman Brothers collapse and it was right in the heart of the recession. People still wanted to go out, so affordable, fun places that didn’t take themselves seriously thrived and are thriving today.”

The lunch will cost £35 excluding wine and drinks. The Groucho will be hosting lunch between 1pm to 4pm.