My natural inclination is to give chain restaurants a wide berth, and my first and (to date) only Nando's - in Newport in September - proved to be not cheeky but profoundly dispiriting. I left with the sense that they cared little about anything, including customer satisfaction and any semblance of culinary quality.
So it was surprising to come across this story about the company's generous patronage of the visual arts in its native South Africa. Rather than covering restaurant walls with bland identikit images the world over, Nando's seems to take a much more curatorial approach, forging close working relationships with artists and purchasing unique artworks for display.
The artists quoted in the Guardian article are uniformly positive about the company's policy, citing the creative freedom and opportunity to work full time that the support grants them, as well as the chance to exhibit in a less stuffy and elitist space than a conventional gallery.
Some companies would no doubt adopt such a policy just to be able to loudly blow their own trumpet (hello Brewdog!), but it seems as though journalist Rachel Savage had to do a bit of digging to research the piece - so credit to Nando's for quietly backing the arts. If only they took the same level of interest in the dining experience...
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