Howard Jacobson: Nothing is beyond a man who will take his wife on a date to a restaurant like Oslo Court

Maybe our old view of the PM as out of touch is no longer safe. I am seeing him in a new light

Share
+More
Related Topics

If I say the words Oslo Court, the chances are you'll conjure up an icy courtroom in the Norwegian capital where Anders Breivik, the ideologue who read too many conspiracy theories on the internet, is on trial for mass murder. But there's another Oslo Court, a restaurant of wonderfully indeterminate nationality – Ruritanian is how I'd describe it; "like stumbling into Narnia", is how Matthew Norman does – discreetly positioned on the ground floor of an apartment block in St John's Wood, a hop and a skip from Regents Park (not that you'll be hopping and skipping anywhere after their Wiener Holstein).

One of the many wonders of Oslo Court is that it's always full, and yet every diner believes the restaurant is his secret. This week, as reported widely in the press, the Prime Minister was seen eating there with his wife, which means our secret is no longer safe. But then maybe our old view of the Prime Minister as pampered, privileged and out of touch is no longer safe either.

After a bad few months, eating at Oslo Court could be the beginning of David Cameron's resurgence. Certainly, I am now beginning to regard him in a new light. Hitherto, all his attempts to pass himself off as l'homme moyen sensuel – pretending to like crap music, darts, Cornish pasties and pints of Guinness – have failed miserably. His mouth is the wrong size for pasties and you can tell he wouldn't know where to find a treble 20 on a dartboard, let alone hit it. And, anyway, you can't play darts or drink a pint of Guinness while riding a horse. I don't say that eating at Oslo Court proves his ordinariness, because there is nothing ordinary about the place, but it shows an unconventionality and daring, not to say exuberance, we don't normally associate with him. I bet Clegg, who looks suspiciously like a "fine diner" to me – the way the cream settles under the skin is the give away – doesn't have the balls for Oslo Court.

Cameron chose to go there for one of his "one-date-a-week nights" with his wife. There are people who find the idea of a man dating his wife nauseating. But we are nothing if not uxorious in this column, and we applaud him for it. Only fools and scoundrels think a date is something you do with a mistress.

I'd like to know what they ate but probably won't find out. This isn't idle curiosity. When lovers of Oslo Court encounter one another, usually by secret handshake, the first thing they do is enquire as to the other's favourite dish. The menu at Oslo Court is so long that if you go there every day for a year, you won't exhaust it. And that's before you start on the specials which are a second menu in themselves. I recall once noting that the only quadruped not on the menu was North American bison. A moment later, I was offered it as a special, char-broiled, roasted or in a Roma-tomato stew, with a side dish of paprika-baked potatoes au gratin and red cabbage in Shiraz. My wife tells me I made this up but I have witnesses.

Besides, who wants to divide reality from fantasy in such a place? I have said that Oslo Court is Ruritania, but Ruritania is no fictionalised country for me. As a boy, I read Rupert of Hentzau and The Prisoner of Zenda. If romance was ever going to find me, I'd be sporting a duelling scar, Princess Osra would be in a ballgown made of rose petals, and we would dance the hours away in a ballroom painted a palpitating pink, the very colour of Oslo Court. There are even alcoves here, just like those in which, in a broken accent, I would declare my love, the windows behind fantastically draped, more like boxes at the opera than dining tables, where you can watch the spectacle, the swirl of waiters, the birthday cakes coming out – I've counted as many as six on a single night – and the maestro of the dessert trolley, said to be Egyptian but straight out of Ruritanian operetta, whispering into the ears of elderly ladies, tempting them with "my strawberry flan, my crêpe suzette, or just for you, my darling, my double fruit salad with double cream".

When my wife complimented him on the attention he showered on every woman over 80, he expounded his philosophy. "I know how hard it is for them to come out, how much time they spend over their make-up, choosing a dress, putting on their shoes" – me, too, I thought – "so I want them to have a wonderful time."

Did he breathe the joys of a Pavlova into Sam's ear, chit though she is? Did he tell David he was a lucky fellow? Did our Prime Minister imagine he was the dashing Rupert Rassendyll, political decoy, lover of Princess Flavia of Ruritania, instead of a mere functionary of a failing power, caught texting LOL to Rebekah Brooks?

I have, incidentally, a theory about that. What if – humour me: just what if – he knew all along that LOL stood for "laugh out loud", not "lots of love", and didn't want to embarrass Rebekah Brooks when she corrected him first privately at a pyjama party in a stables owned by Jeremy Clarkson in Chipping Sodbury (we don't have to be precise) and then again for the whole world to hear at the Leveson Inquiry? What if LOL – "laugh out loud, ah, if only I could, Rebekah!" – was an explosion of self-derision, the Prime Minister of a once great nation, having to go cap in hand – CIH – to emissaries of an Evil Empire who don't even get his jokes?

Far fetched? I don't think so. Nothing is too much to expect of a man who will date his wife at Oslo Court.

React Now

Day In a Page

Read Next
Sibling rivalry: The public enemy (left) confronts his brother  

The new version of Ibsen's Public Enemy is a drama where democracy doesn't win any votes

Tom Sutcliffe
 

As Hay-on-Wye opens this week, it's time for book festivals to open a new and exciting chapter

David Lister

Johnny Marr talks relationships and reunions

He's worked with Modest Mouse, the Pet Shop Boys and Beck, to name a few, and recently released his first solo album. So why, wonders Johnny Marr, do people still hark on about The Smiths?
After the flood: From Haiti to Britain, one man has captured the devastation of our increasingly deluged lands

In pictures: After the flood

From Haiti to Britain, one man has captured the devastation of our increasingly deluged lands
Death becomes her: Meet the very modern mortician who champions 'cool' funerals

Death becomes her: A very modern mortician

Ever considered baking a loved one's remains into a cake or putting their ashes in fireworks? If so, talk to Caitlin Doughty, champion of the alternative death industry.
How long can the 'Keep Calm' trend carry on?

How long can the 'Keep Calm' trend carry on?

At first it seemed clever and cute. Then the 'Keep Calm' motif went mad, spawning endless offshoots.
The man who built Brum: A lament for the demise of John Madin's Brutalist Birmingham

John Madin: The man who built Brum

The architect's buildings were supposed to leave an indelible, futuristic mark on his beloved hometown but they are now being inexorably torn down.
School of chop: Learning the art of butchery at the Ginger Pig

School of chop: Learning the art of butchery

How do you butcher a lamb? Or make Mexican street food in a British kitchen? Christopher Hirst finds out.
James Pembroke: The man who's eaten everywhere

The man who's eaten everywhere

Few people know more about restaurants than James Pembroke, who only spent five mealtimes at home during his entire childhood.
A Berliner in 1963 – but did John F Kennedy once admire Adolf Hitler?

A Berliner in 1963 – but did John F Kennedy once admire Adolf Hitler?

The young JFK praised 'superior' Nordic races during visits to Germany
Banned Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof to attend Cannes Film Festival 2013, his first public appearance since prison

Banned Iranian director to attend Cannes Film Festival

Mohammad Rasoulof to make his first public appearance since being imprisoned three years ago
Seeing the larger picture: Inspiring images of space

Seeing the larger picture: Inspiring images of space

An exhibition explores images how photography has shaped astronomy
Eat Spam and carry on: Wartime pamphlets could teach us a thing or two about healthy, thrifty eating

Eat Spam and carry on

Wartime pamphlets could teach us a thing or two about healthy, thrifty eating
Facial hair: Cat beards and the purrrsuit of excellence

Facial hair

Cat beards and the purrrsuit of excellence
The 10 Best salt and pepper sets

The 10 Best salt and pepper sets

Whether they're for everyday use or to make your dining table look just right, it's worth getting a stylish shaker...
Ferran Soriano: Predicting success if Manchester City 'vision' is followed

Ferran Soriano: Predicting success if Manchester City 'vision' is followed

Chief executive says trophies will come if a 'core' of suitable players is in place
Thomas Müller: We couldn't handle losing a Champions League Final again

Thomas Müller: We couldn't handle losing a Champions League Final again

The Bayern Munich forward tells Tim Rich his side have to shed chokers' tag after two recent final defeats