Danny Drinkwater opens restaurant, doesn’t call it Eatfood

Danny Drinkwater, in theory a football player at Chelsea, has joined the restaurant business. Perhaps inspired by teammates David Luiz and Willian, who opened a restaurant, ‘Babbo’, last year in London’s Mayfair district, Drinkwater’s new venture opened its doors yesterday in Danny’s home town of Manchester.

It’s called Eatfood Foodwell — close! — and it’s so much more than just a restaurant. There’s a yoga studio (sorry, “wellness” studio), a deli (sorry, “health” deli), and a shared working space: “LA-inspired”, which I suppose is short-hand for all these fancy new-agey concepts. (I personally associate near-authentic Mexican food with Los Angeles and Southern California in general, rather than just evolved, modern health clubs.) There’s also a cocktail bar (sorry, “superfood” cocktail bar), so you can’t really go wrong. Their menu looks pretty good to me, it should be noted, if a bit dangerously eclectic (steak and fish and curry and poke and ramen and nachos and vegan brownies and!)

The concept is headed up by someone named Christian Coates, but Danny’s listed as one of the “directors” of the company — a “huge passion” of his as he says in the Instagram caption — so he’s probably involved at least as an investor and perhaps a decision-maker as well.

In any case, best of luck to him in this new venture. Maybe some day we’ll even see him play for Chelsea again, too? (Like the situation with David Luiz last season, he’ll probably need a change of manager for that to happen however...)

***CALIFORNIA IS NOT JUST LOS ANGELES GRUMBLE GRUMBLE GRUMBLE***