Dilapidated" is how former footballer Joe Teixeira bluntly describes the restaurants at stores of the John Lewis Partnership before his arrival. "The catering operation was neither evolutionary nor adventurous," says the group's head of catering. "What I've done is give it a vision."
And what a vision! At flagship London store Peter Jones, high above the rooftops of Chelsea, light streams in from the roof and from a glass wall offering panoramic views.
At 4.30pm the Top Floor restaurant is full of families, young mothers with babies, school kids, lone shoppers, and businesspeople sitting around smoked glass tables.
Fresh from running around for the photographers, Teixeira settles his compact, energetic frame into a chair. He is relaxed and engaging, without a trace of the wide-boy swagger you might expect from an ex-footballer. "We have created an inclusive environment that makes no one feel uncomfortable," he says brightly.
More than £4m was invested in the Top Floor, as part of an ongoing £100m renovation of the whole store. Since the restaurant opened last June, sales have risen by 180%. The restaurant currently has the sixth-highest turnover in the store's league table, which is topped by the audio and television department. Its "dilapidated" predecessor held 20th place just a year ago.
Teixeira explains that the restaurant is designed as a seamless extension of the shop floor, so that customers don't feel a jolt in identity passing from one area to another. Deceptively airy and spacious, it manages to pack in 270 covers, combining large-volume family catering with assisted service.
It consists of a chef's centre, where you place your order with the chef behind the counter, pick up a number, and then receive table service. Dishes include calves' liver and bacon on apple bubble and squeak, goats' cheese tartlets, grilled salmon, and lamb cutlets, all cooked to order. There is also a self-service light snacks and soups counter, a pâtisserie, and an espresso bar. Average spend is £8. There are 103 full-time and part-time catering staff at Peter Jones. Including staff restaurants, John Lewis employs a grand total of 5,500 catering personnel at its 26 stores, 25 of which have public restaurants.
"Peter Jones is the benchmark the other restaurants must rise to," Teixeira says. It is both a destination restaurant, as well as a place for shoppers to eat. Businesspeople use it for breakfast meetings, mums start coming in mid-morning, local residents use it for lunch, and shoppers come in for afternoon teas and cappuccinos.
The four most easily adaptable restaurants - in Nottingham, Southampton, Cheadle in Cheshire, and Bristol - have already been completed, and there are another 20 to go.
Teixeira's life before John Lewis reads like a Boy's Own adventure story. As a teenager, he played professional football in Portugal, and was also employed by Crystal Palace FC. He has sailed around the Caribbean, working as an assistant food and beverage manager on SS Carnival, the fifth-largest cruise liner in the world.
He has also demonstrated real entrepreneurial flair. In the late 1990s, fed up with being ripped off by restaurant wine prices, he came up with the idea of a café and off-licence rolled into one. At Parisa café-bars, customers could choose from more than 200 different wines, buy them and take them home, or drink them on the premises for a corkage rate of £3 per bottle plus the retail price.
A couple of years on, with the help of advisors Investec, he raised £56m in venture capital to buy the 35-outlet Pitcher & Piano chain from Wolverhampton & Dudley. His game plan was to restructure its management and restore profitability. The idea was either to float it or sell it after seven years and amass a personal fortune.
In a perfect world, Teixeira should be well on his way back to the Caribbean by now - this time to retire in luxury. But his ambitions have been thwarted more than once. A recurring knee injury put paid to his teenage football career and he never made it into Crystal Palace's first team.
The café-bar-cum-off-licences disappeared when Parisa was bought by SFI Group, who re-branded them as Slug & Lettuces. Investors backing his £56m bid for Pitcher & Piano got cold feet after September 11 and abruptly pulled out.
In late 2001, looking for a job, the 40-year-old Portuguese spotted his current position advertised in Caterer. He admits he wasn't that interested at first, but went for a chat, largely out of curiosity. Hearing about the plans to modernise the John Lewis stores and restaurants excited him. He then convinced the John Lewis board that catering was worth investing in, and his business plan for a five-year modernisation programme was accepted.
So, more than a year on, what has he achieved? He has employed three regional managers to give operational support a more hands-on approach and created new roles in purchasing, project management, and training. He has revamped the menu, and is trying out central purchasing.
He views Selfridges as his closest competitor - although Selfridges buys in brands, whereas the John Lewis brand always dominates concessions. "If we wanted a sushi bar, we wouldn't bring in Yo! Sushi. We'd do it ourselves," he says.
JL Café Bar, a sophisticated concept aimed at "ladies who lunch" is piloting this year at the Bluewater store in Kent, and in Sloane Square next year. The restaurants will be on the fashion floor and aim to draw in an average spend of £12, excluding wine.
At pains to point out he is not a contract caterer, Teixeira says: "I like the sense of belonging that comes from working for the organisation directly. I feel proud that the business sees catering as a core concern. A lot of retail caterers don't see themselves as a profit centre. It's short-sighted. We don't want to stick the café in a little corner space. Let's give it a great view, where possible."
Teixeira observes that, until now, he has rarely had the chance to make a permanent difference. Because of the John Lewis ethics of democratic decision-making, there is little risk of its restaurants being contracted out.
"With a Plc, shareholders are looking for returns tomorrow, which clouds judgement, whereas the partnership takes a longer view. John Lewis has got the balance right between long-term investment and short-term profit. It's refreshing to make the right decisions rather than decisions just for the City."
But Teixeira's entrepreneurial spirit hasn't dimmed: "My commitment here is at least until the project is complete. But I am ambitious and still want to go to the City and buy things. I want to earn as much as I can."
Joe Teixeira - the full CV
1979-80: SS Carnival cruise liner, assistant food and beverage manager
1980: Professional footballer for the Portuguese team Vitoria Guimaraes
1981: In Crystal Palace FC squad
1982-84: Portsmouth University, business administration degree
1984-86: Pizza Hut, graduate trainee rising to area manager
1987: Burger King, assistant marketing manager for Northern Europe
1989: Pizza Hut, operations director for Portugal
1992-99: Greenalls pubs and restaurants (now De Vere Group), operations manager
1999-2001: Parisa Group, operations director
2001 to date: John Lewis Partnership, head of catering
So what is the rival up to?
Five years ago, most House of Fraser customers were women aged 40-plus, shopping for home furnishings and brands like Viyella. Its restaurants served comfort food, such as pasta bakes, lasagne and sliced bread sandwiches.
But the group has since repositioned itself as a designer brand store. Even Gucci has become a concession. The fashion-loving woman between the ages of 22 and 35 is now the store's largest market sector. Piero Sardano, restaurant operations manager, has the task of targeting this new group but not losing the loyalty of the traditional customer.
He is responsible for 73 cafés or restaurants, with annual sales of £27m, at 47 stores. Many are Roux Express and Roux Café concepts (pictured right), licensed from Albert Roux four years ago.
Sardano has changed menus to include dishes such as Caesar salad and tartine of roast vegetables, which a working girl can eat on the hoof in a lunch-hour shopping break. The Roux Café in Birmingham now has a casual quick dining area of wooden chairs and sofas as well as a more formal section of upright fabric chairs. This modification will be repeated around the country.
Having previously managed Groupe Chez Gérard and Marco Pierre White restaurants, Sardano has found the sheer scale at House of Fraser a big change. "It's not something you can move overnight," he says. Four months into the job, he's also getting to grips with the system he has inherited.
House of Fraser contracts out its catering, as well as employing Albert Roux as a consultant (he gets a percentage of turnover). Eurest has the contract at stores in London and Scotland, and Sheffield-based caterer Massarella covers the rest of the country.
Both contractors are responsible for all investment in the restaurants and kitchens, while House of Fraser pays utility overheads. Sardano says: "There are a lot of parties to co-ordinate. But having two contractors introduces a competitive element and keeps them on their toes. I've set up audits and controls, and competitions between the units." Other measurements of performance include mystery diners and comment cards.
Nevertheless Sardano says House of Fraser would make far more money per square foot if the restaurant space were given over to retail. So why have them at all?
Restaurants and cafés bring people into the store who wouldn't normally come in. They move people around the store exposing them to new purchase opportunities. And they reinforce brand loyalty. "If customers go away saying or thinking, 'I had a really nice lunch at House of Fraser', that reinforces brand loyalty," Sardano says.
But making restaurants destinations in their own rights is no longer a priority. "If we've got a restaurant full of people without House of Fraser shopping bags, we're missing our target audience."