Having spent several years working in large corporate hotels, Lawrence and Julia Murphy decided to ‘go it alone’ with their first Restaurant, Fat Olives which opened in January 2000. A combination of Lawrence’s earlier career, spending time in kitchens in France & Switzerland, along with Julia’s front office sales skills, gave rise to them becoming ‘The News Restaurant of the Year’ runners up in their first year of opening - again in 2005 and more recently in 2008. These awards are gratefully received as they are awarded through votes from the local readers & customers views via the Portsmouth News. The restaurant is also featured in the four main food guides for 2010 and listed in Egon Ronays' Top 200 restaurants in 2005.