Pat and I are a pretty scruffy pair, and that’s on a good day. Business lunches in Michelin starred West End restaurants are therefore not really our style – our favourite place to dine is just a short bicycle ride from our showroom on Lots Road. Aglio e Olio is a small Italian on the strip of shops and restaurants along the Fulham Road known as ‘the beach’, which is wishful thinking on everyone’s part.

Aglio e Olio is always packed, buzzing with the hungry lunchtime trade. We make all our best business decisions over a plate of their carpaccio, followed by linguine with fresh clams, mussels and tomatoes. Afterwards, we try and avoid their panacotta (waistlines to think of, vaguely), but always indulge in their excellent double espressos – just to get us through the afternoon.

Heading back to the office, our cycle through the backstreets of Chelsea takes us past dozens of Blue Plaque houses. Cheyne Walk alone proudly boasts the homes of Sylvia Pankhurst, Hilaire Belloc, as well as the mighty Isambard Kingdom Brunel. If lunch has been full of exciting talk about growth plans for our business and any recent successes, our ride past the homes of these truly great people brings us – quite rightly – back down to earth and reminds us how far we’ve got to go…

Image of Cheyne Walk courtesy of Herry Lawford on Flickr