Chat Over Lunch: Charlotte Ivers
Sunday Times restaurant critic tucks into her first Texas barbecue and shares her perspective after just a few months in post.
Back in June, I launched my first “Chat Over Lunch” — a write-up of a lovely meal with Nick Lander, the longtime restaurant critic for the FT and now jancisrobinson.com. I hoped it would become a recurring feature.
Recently, I had the distinct pleasure of dining with Charlotte Ivers, the restaurant critic for the Sunday Times. The venue was Texas Joe’s, the best barbecue joint in London. You can find all of the usual restaurant details at the bottom of the article.
One of the things I love about London is that it manages to be simultaneously both big city and small town. If you had told me when I started Professional Lunch that, a few months later, I would be sitting down to brisket and chicken fried streak with the restaurant critic of the Sunday Times, I would simply not have believed that was possible.
And yet.
Bethany, a good friend and fellow long-time American ex-pat, had worked with Charlotte earlier in their respective careers. They were still in touch. Bethany offered to extend an invitation. Accepted. We’re on.
Now for the tricky second step. I had extended the invitation. I had to choose a restaurant.
Where the hell do you take the Sunday Times restaurant critic?
Luckily for me, Bethany is a regular at Texas Joe’s. Barbecue. Tacos. Pickle backs. Margaritas. A slanted floor and slightly wobbly tables. American comfort food with zero Michelin pretensions. Perfect.
One last confession: I have huge professional admiration for Charlotte. She’s a fantastic writer. She’s worked in politics and government at the highest levels. And she’s got the best foodie job around.
Charlotte arrives, and we start with cocktails. The gang at Joe’s mix well, and my margarita is excellent. Charlotte is on Lynchburg Lemonade. Bethany has gone for a spicy pink grapefruit margarita. (Resist the temptation to judge: It was yummy.) It’s a warm evening, I’m just off an overnight flight from the U.S., and the drinks are welcome.
Before Charlotte took over the post in October 2023, she was a political commentator, writing for the paper and hosting various shows for Times Radio.
Then last summer, the Times editor spotted in the newsroom. “I need to see you. Can you come by my office for a meeting?”
Charlotte recounts a frantic re-reading of recent columns to work out why she was being fired, before turning up for her afternoon meeting in the big office. “We’re looking for someone to take over as the restaurant critic for the magazine. Are you interested?”
Relieved as she was not to be packing her desk, she only remembered to say yes a little while later. After a process that considered several candidates, Charlotte emerged with the job.
The context is important: the Sunday Times had been without a restaurant critic for a year, following a 5-year stint by the brilliant Marina O’Loughlin. From the outside, I was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to fill the role.
“It had withered a bit because of COVID. The whole industry was hit so hard. Readers weren’t that interested [during the pandemic],” Charlotte told me. And then they were.
From the beginning, she wanted to do something entirely different with the role. Instead of looking for restaurants making headlines — posh places with famous chefs — she looks for places making or playing in great stories.
She and her editors have continued to move away from the cliché establishing photo of restaurant interior in favour of rich illustrations, often from Alex Green, that had begun during O’Loughlin’s tenure.
It’s an entirely different vibe, and a welcome one.
But there are still expectations. Even pressure. If one of your predecessors was AA Gill, there must be, right?
“When someone offers you AA Gill’s job, you say yes,” Charlotte told me. “I’ve always said the dream was to be as good as AA Gill, and here was his old job. You have to say yes.” But Charlotte doesn’t feel any pressure to be AA Gill. “I have always had tremendous admiration for him and his writing, but I’m trying to do something slightly different. Still, I’m sad that I enjoy his work less now because the experience is riddled with mild irritation that he found the perfect line before I did.”
Then there are the other critics. Whereas once she consumed them with pleasure, now it feels like work, having to consider where they have been, where they might lead her, and where she might lead them.
Charlotte is looking for moments. In her recent review of Ibai, she explains her maths.
By the time the grim reaper comes knocking, I will have eaten something in the range of 93,075 meals. Maybe take a couple off for the inevitable horror I’m causing to my body by eating at places like this. But that’s roughly what it comes down to. Of those, how many will be truly, life-changingly memorable? Perhaps ten? Maybe thirty if we’re lucky? A majestic prawn dumpling at A Wong. The fried chicken at Lake Road Kitchen. One day, as I lie eating meal number 93,074, I will bore my inheritance-hopeful offspring with stories of these golden meals. And among those reminiscences will be the ‘croque Ibai’.
Finding those moments requires trial and error. A lot of it. And she takes real pleasure from the journey.
Wherever that journey goes from here, she wants to be done with politics. She would rather spend time on Taylor Swift and great meals that produce great moments.
At Texas Joe’s, our journey turned from cocktails to food, delivered in large quantaties. Charlotte had tacos; Bethany went for brisket; and I chose Chicken Fried Steak. We over-ordered sides. Mac & cheese. Frito pie. Jalapeño cornbread. Pit beans. My steak and gravy were so good, I was momentarily homesick.
We dutifully introduced Charlotte to the concept of a “pickle back.” That’s a shot of (excellent) bourbon followed by a shot of pickle juice. Texas Joe’s makes their own pickles, and their juice is delicious. But I’m not sure Charlotte was sold.
As we tucked in, we got talking about lunch, and the value of the boozy variety. “I think we should bring it back,” Charlotte told me, “but we need to let everyone have more practice.”
I stopped taking notes shortly after this exchange, as I turned my attention to my one-margarita-too-many. But we carried on for a good while. Reflecting later, I was pleased that I managed to resist the temptation of giving Charlotte a lengthy, boring lecture about the origins and varieties of American barbecue. Thank goodness.
At some point in the evening, I asked whether Masterchef had called. They hadn’t. They should.
Charlotte is exactly the shake-up that the UK food scene needs. A fresh perspective. A new take on storytelling. The pursuit of an experience rather than technical culinary perfection. Someone to lead us on our own food journeys, with a cocktail at the ready.
Restaurant Details: Texas Joe’s
Quick hit: The best Texas-style barbecue joint in London. Great cocktails. If you can’t have fun here, there’s something wrong with you.
Details: Booking advised. London Bridge / Bermondsey. £.
Restaurant website. More on Instagram.
Find it on Google Maps. 8-9 Snowsfields, London SE1 3SU.