Founded by Rosso and his chum Luke Johnson, now chairman of Channel 4, the Mandrake was in its heyday the meeting place for a tightly knit network of thirty- and fortysomething tycoons, who hobnobbed, slightly incongruously, in an upstairs room above the Pizza Express just off Berkeley Square in central London, at that time part of Johnson's restaurant empire.
Mandrake luminaries included Charles Dunstone, Ross's partner at Carphone; casino owner Damian Aspinall; Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham of the Pret A Manger food chain; Julian Richer of hi-fi outlet Richer Sounds; and Hugh Osmond, the pubs owner turned insurance baron. Anyone who was young, male, single and loaded - and had been to the right public school - flocked to the soirees. With an audience like that, the elder statesmen of the business world, such as former BA chairman Lord King, clamored to be invited as speakers - as did more colorful figures like lap dancing club owner Peter Stringfellow.
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