Sources used in this document:

Interestingly enough, the online London Restaurant guide specifically associates the few ostentatiously masculine restaurants it advertises with what is American, noting recently, for instance, when taking a man out, "according to historians," the origins of Father's Day "are firmly rooted in American soil. The first Father's Day was honored as early as 1908, in West Virginia," though "as with most popular ideas, from across the pond, we Brits were soon to cotton on," and that to please dad, or any man, take him to TGIF. The site says this, it should be noted, in a momentary turning away from its usual stress upon English establishments. (http://www.londonrestaurantsguide.com/popups/articles_fathers_day.asp)

The Paradox

Like a woman, a London restaurant must be all things to all people, yet offer something that is unique and exclusive that makes people feel as though they are being cared and catered for like special children, and that their special needs are being indulged for an evening. Yet the industry itself remains dominated in a masculine fashion, in terms of chefs and owners, and London itself contrasts and constructs itself as feminine against more masculine dinning areas and arenas from American, which offer less ambience, or from more haute cuisine concerned areas of the world, such as Italy and France, where menus, chefs, and owners are more likely to dictate the needs of the diner's palate and the customers, rather than respond to the customer's own perceived comfort and needs of the moment.