If you follow your nose down Piccadilly Arcade, you will soon find yourself at the door of Marc-Antoine Barrois. To enter the master perfumiers is to tumble down the rabbit hole of sensory discovery — there’s literally a rabbit out of Alice in Wonderland there to welcome you. 

Maison Marc-Antoine Barrois joined the row of exquisite offerings at the Piccadilly Arcade in 2022. We spoke with the founder and artistic director, Marc-Antoine Barrois, and his brother Quentin Barrois, Head of UK Operations, about how a brand that’s so innately French found a spiritual home in the Piccadilly Arcade, one of the most quintessentially English pockets in all of London.

What makes a Marc-Antoine Barrois perfume special? 

MAB: I invite you to come and discover for yourself! But one thing in our DNA that I believe makes a difference is the sincerity we put into what we do. I create with my heart and never for market reasons.

QB: We like to create beautiful things and to create value. Respect is important to us — respecting our customers, our suppliers, and the people who work for us. If you love what you create, you will do something respectful. This all goes back to Marc-Antoine’s background in haute couture. [The founder’s pedigree includes Hermès with Jean-Paul Gaultier and at Jitrois, as well as the tutelage of Dominique Sirop.] There’s an elegance to our brand.

What do you think your shop brings to Piccadilly Arcade? 

MAB: With humility, I think it brings poésie [poetry] and emotion. London has set a standard for retail that is super high. I hope that my store can make kids’ eyes sparkle, in the same way that my kids’ eyes were sparkling at the sight of store windows in the arcade when they first saw them. The NºIV scented candle is named for our address — 4 Piccadilly Arcade. How did you develop it? 

MAB: I am a dreamer — London was a dream. With the store in the arcade, I dreamt of a big blue rabbit to live in the boutique. It inspired the wonderful, scented candle named NºIV. It is a lavender and carrot flower composition that embodies a chic Victorian fantasy. 

QB: Marc-Antoine takes his time when creating new scents — he took his time in the shop to smell the atmosphere and the energy. For me, the lavender scent matches well with the English way of seeing.

You mentioned creating with respect — this seems to also echo in your commitment to protecting the environment.

 MAB: I am faithful to my ecological beliefs. Our products are made in France, using recyclable packaging. They are composed with no UV filters or preservatives, and we are committed to constantly improving. 

QB: We want to respect the nature that is all around us. We do not use plastic in our products. We choose everything very carefully: nothing is done without thinking. This is why we launch maybe one new perfume every year — we want to give each product the time and attention to shine.

How has St James’s inspired you? 

QB: We love the plane trees that are everywhere in the city — the London plane. They are beautiful, but you have to wait a long time before that becomes apparent. We use cuts from the London plane in the shop. It is like a message that the most important thing is not always what you can see from the outside. You have to go deeper. Across our brand, we like to be careful with every detail. If you look at the packaging for the NºIV candle, the illustration is the shape that you see as you enter the Piccadilly Arcade. It’s just a little reminder to spend time on the small details, to look around, and take your time.

Cicchetti is a feast — and not just for the palate — every detail has been considered, and they know how to take care of you. Cicchetti (pronounced chi’ketti) — the name is a reference to the Italian small-bites-style of eating serve up everything from pizzas and truffle pasta to trattoria classics like Veal Milanese. 

We sat down with Marcello Distefano, CEO of the San Carlo Restaurant Group, to talk about his commitment to constant reinvention, and the importance of providing a warm welcome.

How would you describe the experience of running a restaurant in St James’s?

MD: It feels like you’re at the centre of the world here. There are so many nationalities coming to visit. You get people coming from the hedge funds in Mayfair, as well as people trickling in from Soho just up the road. It’s always moving and changing. There are increasingly strong synergies between restaurants, art and fashion — you get all three in St James’s.

We’ve got Jermyn Street, which is all about the quality and craftsmanship that’s so important to the area. Our food has always been about quality and simplicity because Italian food is all about simple, great products. If the food is good enough, you don’t need to mess around with it too much. Just like a tailor chooses the finest fabrics, there’s craftsmanship in sourcing great ingredients. That’s been our focus, and that works really well in St James’s.

How have your Italian roots shaped the Cicchetti experience?

MD: We’re an Italian family from Sicily. My father was from Ragusa. He grew up in a simple family in a region where life is all about food. All we do is eat! I’ve never witnessed such long discussions over a tomato, over mozzarella. There’s just so much passion about every single ingredient. And that’s the way we run our business.

My father founded San Carlo, and he was a classic restaurateur. He knew how to pull all the pieces together and set the scene — a great chef, a great front-of-house maître d’. When he married it all together, it created this vibe, this special emotive feeling in the restaurant.

What’s your favourite Italian dish?

MD: We are constantly researching, travelling and looking for new menu ideas, but we keep the staples the same: simple pastas, grilled fish and hams that we buy from Italy. Veal Milanese in breadcrumbs is probably one of my favourites. And Spaghetti Pomodoro — it sounds so simple, but when it’s done properly and finished perfectly, it’s one of the most amazing things to eat. Maybe it’s because I’ve been eating it since childhood.

Familiarity is sometimes the best flavour, isn’t it? 

MD: Yes, and it’s the same with restaurants too. Once you become familiar with somewhere, it’s a very different experience. Restaurants are such a big part of our lives — we have so many memories there, as the place where we celebrate important moments in our lives. Sometimes a great restaurant becomes an extension of our homes, as the place where we like to go and eat, enjoy the food and just enjoy the experience.