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"How about those two over there?"

My wife indicated a red-faced, Sloaney couple who were loudly ordering another bottle of red wine.

"Nah," I said. "Too old."

We were having dinner at Zucca on Westbourne Grove and playing 'Spot the Notting Hill Tory'. Zucca is ground zero for this set of well-heeled young Conservatives, the West London equivalent of Granita, the now defunct Islington restaurant where Tony Blair and Gordon Brown struck their famous deal. Indeed, the day after Michael Howard announced he'd be stepping down, the Notting Hill Tories convened at Zucca to plot their next move. It was at this meeting, reportedly, over a glass of Pinot Grigio, that George Osborne agreed to step aside to give David Cameron a clear run at the leadership. No doubt in 10 years time, when Cameron is Prime Minister and Osborne is his troublesome Chancellor, the Old Etonian smoothie will conveniently forget that he ever promised to pass on the reins of power to his Parliamentary colleague.

Then again, they may get no closer to Downing Street than W11. The phrase "Notting Hill Tories", which was coined by the Spectator's Peter Oborne, hasn't done this set any favours. In addition to Cameron and Osborne, they include Michael Gove, Guy Black, Rachel Whetstone, Ed Vaizey, James Bethel, George Bridges, Edward Heathcote-Amory, Alice Thomson and--an honourary member since he lives in Islington--Boris Johnson.

"They sit around in these curious little bistros in parts of London, drink themselves silly and wish they were doing what the rest of us are getting on with," said the influential backbench Conservative MP Derek Conway last year. "They'll just have to be a little more patient."

To describe Zucca as a "curious little bistro" doesn't quite do it justice. Owned by Tom Byng [check first name], who at one stage owned 192 as well, Zucca has been a Notting Hill favourite since it first threw open its doors eight years ago. It offers customers a choice of two floors, though no self-respecting Tory would be seen dead in the basement, and a range of modern Italian classics. My wife and I sat at a little wooden table in the upstairs dining room, just to the left of the galley kitchen. In a larger restaurant, being seated so close to the kitchen might be considered a bit de classe--I'm a Shepherd's Bush Tory, after all--but Zucca is so compact it's pretty much unavoidable.

The remarkable thing about Zucca for a restaurant that's so closely associated with a group of right wing, ex-public-schoolboys is how unpretentious it is. It reminded me of Riva in Barnes; it's a well-run, dependable neighbourhood Italian. I had fritto misto followed by penne with Italian sausage--both excellent--while my wife had a mixed salad followed by minestrone soup--also good. If Zucca has a whiff of privilege about it, that's more to do with its location than anything else. In the past five years Westbourne Grove has emerged as one of London's fanciest shopping precincts--the Bond Street of W11--but that wasn't the case when Zucca first opened. In those days, what is now a branch of Joseph was a Texaco garage.

So will Channel 4 be making a drama documentary in 2015 about the deal struck at Zucca in 2005? Supporters of David Davis, the frontrunner in the Conservative leadership battle, claim David Cameron and George Osborne are too posh to follow in Blair and Brown's footsteps. Ironically, being educated at a top public school is more of a handicap for ambitious Tories than it is for their Labour equivalents. Yet the electorate is surely less class-conscious than it has ever been. If I was a Notting Hill Tory, I'd be pleased to be associated with this restaurant, not least because it seems so classless. If the staff can make a resident of Shepherd's Bush feel at home, I can't imagine anyone being unwelcome.