On any given day, you might find Julien Lombrail, a founder of Carpenters Workshop Gallery, having lunch at Table, Bruno Verjus’s Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris’s 12th Arrondissement. Across the Channel, Loïc Le Gaillard, Lombrail’s co-founder, might be twirling linguine con i ricci around his fork at London’s Pollini restaurant, in the pair’s new arts-and-social club, Ladbroke Hall.
Le Gaillard, 52, cuts a thick, manly figure, with an indented chin, dark eyes, and a receding hairline. Lombrail, 45, has unruly dark locks, a scruffy beard, and softer features. Both are French and dress classically, in slick blazers, white or blue shirts, and pants veering into too-tight territory.