Earlier this week, the shelter had a very special volunteer come talk with the guests and spread her famous charm and limitless warmth: the Queen of Soho, Elena Salvoni.At 92, she only just finished working full time at the restaurant that still bears her name, Elena’s L’Etoile, last year.
Now, she visits the shelter regularly, sharing the abundant hospitality she’s renowned for and swapping stories with guests. And what stories she has.
She began her career as a seamstress but had to stop when the work dried up after the second world war and material stocks were low. Following advice from her friends, but without any experience, she went for a job at Café Bleu at a time when only men waited in restaurants. In her first week, when her manager saw she had a gift for making customers feel at home, she became a waitress and stayed on for five years, moving over to legendary Soho restaurant Bianchi’s after a kitchen fire put Café Bleu out of action. At Bianchi’s – on the site of where Little Italy is now – she worked for another 30 years, rising to become London’s first female Maitre’d and only leaving briefly during that time to have her daughter and son Louie (our co-founder) 10 years later.
While she never wanted to own her own restaurant, she loved her job, making lifelong friends which included some of London’s most famous residents, such as John Hurt, Paul Schofield and Melvyn Bragg who, many years later, presented her with one of her seven national industry awards. The life achievement award from Caterer and Hotelkeeper for services to the industry was presented to her by James Nesbitt. She again became the first woman to achieve this honour.
Another of her old customers, Nick Lander, who, in 1985, had just invested in L’Escargot took Elena for dinner to ask her to work for him there. She’d just retired at 65 but she still agreed, saying she’d give it a year – she stayed 10, moving then to the eponymous Elena’s L’Etoile.
Even though she has now officially retired at 92, she remains unstoppable, hosting a lunch every second Wednesday of the month at Little Italy where all her old customers come back to visit. For the past year, she also visits the shelter on many a Sunday evening, where she seems just as comfortable as she did running those legendary Soho restaurants. Her gift for making people feel at home goes a long way at the shelter: the queen reigns on.