Sam Taylor-Johnson is a close friend and director of Back To Black, the story of Amy Winehouse. Checking in with her during filming, she always reassured me it was intense. It was challenging. It was exhilarating. But, the best part was working with Marisa Abela. One night a few months ago, Sam called me at home to tell me Marisa was in The River Cafe and could we send her a glass of champagne? When I told this to Michael, a friend visiting me from New York, he said, ‘Ruthie, we're not sending her a glass of champagne. We're going there right now to give it to her ourselves'. This month, Bac ..read more

Imagine going to a close friend's birthday, months after the death of your son. Imagine realising it was too soon and telling the man you're talking to who you hardly know, why you need to leave. He takes your arm and insists on seeing you to the lift. Then he goes down with you until you get to the street. This becomes a ten minute walk to the car park. A climb up the stairs, him holding your hand tightly until you find your car. Driving off, you see him in the rearview mirror waving goodbye. I was this woman, and Tom Hollander was this man. And his act of tenderness and compassion has stayed ..read more

“Across a garden from where Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and I are sitting, people are having Sunday lunch in The River Cafe. Walking into the room you hear the rise and fall of conversation and laughter, friends and families connecting over food. At age 37 Vivek was appointed as the youngest Surgeon General of the United States by President Obama and is now serving a second term with President Biden. During Covid in his gap between terms as Surgeon General, he might have researched illnesses – cancer, heart disease and diabetes but instead he chose what he saw as another epidemic of our time ..read more

The first time that Sarah Jessica Parker and I spoke, the tables were turned. She was on the phone in The River Cafe kitchen, and I was on a beach in Mexico. It was really hard to hear her with the noise of pots and pans, the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean. But her dazzling warmth travelled the 6000 miles. If the phone connection was poor, the friendship connection was instant. Last month, she was in The River Cafe with her family, and I was there with mine. They were sitting on table one, just a few feet from the pink wood oven close to the drama of the kitchen. And there she was ..read more

'Rick Rubin is a decades-long creative force in the music industry - Co-founder of Def Jam, and winner of seven Grammys. Rick has discovered, mentored, and produced artists such as: Adele, Eminem, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Run DMC, and for me, most movingly, Johnny Cash. His values, principles, and kindness guide everything he does.  Though, Rick Rubin is up there in the clouds and I am firmly on earth, we look at our work in a similar way. Keep it simple, keep it honest and admire, respect, and love the people you work with.' For more than 30 years The River Cafe i ..read more

If you're in politics, being outgoing, engaging and caring is part of the job. And these are the words often used to describe the Governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, and first Lady Tammy Murphy. But having been close to Phil and Tammy for as long as I have, I know this is truly who they are. In 2008, Phil was the finance chair for the Democratic National Committee and as Americans abroad, we supported the presidential campaign for Barack Obama. Phil and Tammy worked day and night traveling to London so often we thought they lived there. Our conversations then were always about society and pol ..read more

There is a well-known cartoon in The New Yorker magazine depicting President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his pyjamas, on his knees next to his bed, saying a prayer for his wife, the most active first lady in history. ‘Dear Lord, please make Eleanor tired tomorrow’. I can imagine the friends and family of Stephen Fry saying the same prayer, for there's very little Stephen doesn't do. Actor, comedian, television host, director, a prolific writer with four novels, three autobiographies and countless columns in national papers. But should you ask, as I've been doing, the people who know him reall ..read more

Fisher Stevens and I were recently brought close together by one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, Philip Guston, and one of the greatest footballers, David Beckham. Last September he was in The River Cafe with the producers of Beckham, the series he directed for Netflix. We agreed to have breakfast at my house and the next morning he arrived. Walking up the stairs, Fischer stopped at the large pink Guston. It was hard to tear him away as he spoke about the painting and what it meant to him. A half hour turned into more than an hour as we talked about art we looked at, architecture ..read more

I’ve known Emily Mortimer since she was six. Her parents were close friends—John, a playwright and barrister, and Penny, a fly fisher and tennis player, who managed the no small feat of smoking while playing the game. What Emily does now is impressive—she's an actor, a writer, and director, known for such films as Notting Hill, The Pursuit of Love, Newsroom, Match Point, and Apple TV’s latest, The New Look, with Juliette Binoche. Not that she has only worked onscreen. Emily was one of the first employees of the River Cafe, back in 1989 when being 17 and totally inexperienced was no obstacle to ..read more

Restaurateur Danny Meyer opened Union Square Cafe and Gramercy Tavern in New York more than 30 years ago and proved values matter. One could not only treat staff with the respect they deserve, but make customers happy. Happier, as they say, when they leave than when they arrived. Danny then launched Shake Shack in 2001, a hotdog stand in Madison Park. The rest, as they say, is history. Today, when Ruthie has a question about fair policies for the people who work with her or how to think about expanding or contracting The River Cafe, or whether it would be possible to do exchange ..read more