The power lunch is dead; long live the power lunch (opens in new tab)

“I’m doing the antithesis of power lunching at this very moment,” said Ben Elliot one lunchtime recently. “I’m eating a sandwich at my desk.” Ten years ago, such an admission from the ultra-connected, utterly-lunchable Elliot (the Quintessentially co-founder, of course) would have read like a distress signal, a cry for help, a hissing red flare from the Mayfair hinterlands. A concerned pal might pop round with smelling salts and a prepared speech; maitre d’s across town would wonder whether t...