Ten Years Later

This week I went on a trip down memory lane to 2015.

‘Ten years of Sexy Fish,’ said the invite. ‘Come along and bring a plus one’. One of my besties pinged me a WhatsApp. ‘Fancy a trip down memory lane?’ Me plus her, add two plus ones makes four, which in my little tribe is the magic number. We’ve got a Charlotte, a former Samantha, a corporate high-flying Miranda of sorts, plus a writer with a predilection for Manolos. All signs point to girlfriend heaven.

For anyone unaware of the Sexy Fish dynamic, it is best described as a restaurant cum performance art spectacle in the heart of Mayfair. It’s not cool, it’s not subtle. It boasts some very big fish tanks. Owned by restaurant impresario Richard Caring’s Caprice holdings, it’s cornered the market in over the top, red velvet ropey gaudiness; people love to poke at its vulgarity, hype and price list. However, a decade later, it’s become an institution, a nightly paean to excess and razzmatazz. I haven’t eaten there in years, because life, plus there are plenty more on-brand watering holes for me to frequent. But I’ve always maintained a soft spot for its onyx marbled audacity and unbridled sense of fun.

Three of the four of my party had been in attendance at Sexy Fish’s opening in 2015, though I came with a different crowd. If I remember correctly, it was one of three events I went to that night, which was just a typical midweek iCal situ for me back in the day. Sometimes it would be three dinners, one for the starter, one for the main and a quick hop into a black taxi for pud. Aged 31, I was, much like my three friends, flush with the flash of childfree big-city career success. Well, as long as the cocktails were comped - I’m a writer, not a banker after all.

Standing on the corner of Berkeley Square this week, it was impossible not to reflect on how things have changed, both in terms of my life circumstances and the world. Ten years ago, Barack Obama was in the White House, the Paris Climate Accord had just been signed by 195 countries and Queen Elizabeth II had just celebrated becoming the longest reigning monarch in British history. It was a different planet. Of course, we had our problems, and the European refugee crisis was a harbinger of the political whiplash to come. But we were still very much a part of the EU, inflation was close to zero and you could get a 2% mortgage on a 10% deposit. I remember feeling so tanked up with the possibility of the future - a future which predated Covid, kids and TikTok.