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One of Surrey’s newest restaurants is also now one of the country’s most unusual post offices – with stamps, caviar and cocktails sold under the same roof.
By day, 1-3 High Street in Leatherhead is a post office, but by night it becomes glitzy sushi bar and restaurant, Beluga.
It is an unusual symbiosis – but one that has the survival of the post office at its heart, said postmaster Omid Nowkandi, who is also leaseholder and licence-holder for the restaurant.
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Beluga hit the headlines in its opening week after a “sexist” dress code for the restaurant was published on its website.
Mr Nowkandi and Beluga’s owners have since said the terms and conditions suggesting women should wear sexy heels and tight clothes were published mistakenly, and this week the restaurant bosses again apologised “unreservedly”.
Plans to mark the opening of Beluga on February 11 as the nation’s ‘most romantic’ post office – with Post Office bigwigs and the local MP in attendance – were shelved after the dress code backlash, said Mr Nowkandi.
The postmaster has appealed for forgiveness for the error, and has also confirmed that the post office is going nowhere.
“I can assure people the post office is there until the end of my lease. Nothing is going to happen to that post office,” he said.
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Floor-length black curtains separate the very ordinary post office counter at the rear of the building from the disco balls adorning the new restaurant’s shiny bar, although customers queue alongside some of the restaurant tables as they wait to post their parcels. The restaurant used to be a McColl’s, a more traditional bedfellow of the post office.
Mr Nowkandi, who is also postmaster at Bookham, opened the High Street building as a stationery shop and cafe in 2020, but says Covid forced its closure.
“I told my staff to keep asking customers, to see what they are missing in the area,” he said. “Over 80% of customers were saying a sushi restaurant and a place to have quality entertainment. I came up with this idea; let’s turn this shop area into a restaurant and bar area with live music.”
Mr Nowkandi’s brother and an investor based overseas are the co-owners, although he has helped to get the project off the ground.
The dress code terms and conditions, which caused uproar, had been uploaded by a manager with “limited command” of English, he said, and without permission of the owners. They were removed within 24 hours and the manager in question no longer works there, the owners confirmed.
Mr Nowkandi said he was on the receiving end of the backlash and he hoped, in time, people would see the “true meaning” of the restaurant.
“The venue is designed to allow locals to have access to a high-end restaurant like many in central London and to secure the post office, which plays a key role for locals, while most banks in Leatherhead are closed or due to close,” he added.
“Since this idea is unique and new, it is difficult for many people to digest, but as a small member of the Post Office, which has always been in the heart of all communities, I am very happy that I was able to maintain this important service in this place.”
The restaurant menu includes £12 smoked salmon sashimi, ribeye steak at £26 and beluga caviar for £150. Cocktails are priced £14 to £16 or you can splash out on a £425 bottle of Armand de Brignac champagne.
There were some opening-week cancellations following the dress code error, said Mr Nowkandi, but there were also new bookings and the venue has been busy at weekends, when it opens until 1am.
And he had to laugh, he said, that the furore did make Leatherhead “famous”.
Beluga’s owners again said they apologised “unreservedly for un-intentionally publishing dress code terms that are wholly unacceptable”, and they also asked for residents’ forgiveness.
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