Marvellous Mark in Margate. Wine Bottle Battle. Critics & More.
Rayner worries about his shirt. Hayler eyes Orrery. Long fries Fenix.
Hello, everyone. I hope you had an excellent bank holiday weekend. We managed to get both we wanted — some sunshine — and what we needed — a bit of soaking rain. After a pretty epic day on Friday — lunch at 64 Goodge Street, a wine tasting, and dinner at an old favourite — I snuck off to Margate for dinner on Saturday. Let’s start there.
Masterchef Mark O’Brien Features as Dreamland Gem Briefly Restored.
Movies were new in 1935, and theatres were springing up all over. Margate was enjoying a sustained heyday. The Dreamland amusement park decided to capitalise on the popularity of cinema and built its theatre using the fashionable art deco style in a dominant position right behind the beach. On the first floor, they created a huge brasserie-style café with giant picture windows that framed a stunning west-facing view of Margate Sands and the sea beyond. It was tailor made to watch the sunset. And there was a tremendous art deco bar, made from polished wood. A baby grand piano stood in the corner.
Over the years, the space evolved. For a while, it a massive all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet called Cosmos. And then, like much of Margate’s seafront in the 1980s and ‘90s, it turned to dust.
Last weekend, it was briefly restored to something of its previous glories. The brilliant F&B team at Dreamland, led by Hannah Jeeves, invited guests to come and experience the space.
For food, they turned to Mark O’Brien, recently a finalist in Masterchef: The Professionals and presently the chef at nearby Willy’s, which is attracting rave reviews. (See Grace Dent in Critics Wrap-Up below.)
For the record, I was tracking Chef Mark very early: Two years ago, I adored his Snake Oil Barbecue residency at the Daisy cocktail bar.
It’s clear that his journey to Masterchef finalist has rightly put the focus on the talented Irishman, and that his own skills and techniques have continued to evolve.
His dinner at the Dreamland Café was, well, a dream. And it was made even more miraculous by the fact that the building has no electricity or running water, so Mark and his team had to build a temporary kitchen to cater for roughly a hundred guests.
Dinner opened with shared starters. A beef tartare on toast was particularly delicious. An American-style shrimp cocktail had real horseradish heat. Main course was “smoked and grilled piranha” with onions, bone marrow sauce, fantastic potatoes, and all the trimmings. Dessert of “Burnt eaton mess,” was a highlight. It was banquet-style catering, but not as you’re used to.
With Mark’s delicious food plus the amazing art deco atmosphere, it was a really special evening.
Before dinner, I got chatting with a local, who told me about attending formal dances in the downstairs ballroom back in the 1980s. She also recalled the Café, still operating at full tilt, as a special occasion place, worthy of getting dressed up.
Today, the building feels like a relic to admire, and while it would be easy to romanticise the possibility of a return to glory, it simply needs too much work for that to be practical in the short term. But massive kudos to the F&B team at Dreamland for making the most of the asset they have. I hope they’ll make it a slightly more regular series.
Wither Wine by the Bottle?
This FT article from Alice Lascelles (gift link) is generating lots of chat, posing a provocative question: “Is it last orders for wine by the bottle?”
Lascelles cites Liberty Wine’s annual Premium On-Trade Wine Report to support her view that diners are drinking less at restaurants and that smart restaurants are dramatically expanding their wine-by-the-glass range, relying on technologies like Coravin to protect both wine freshness and economic benefit.
I’m lucky to be a member at 67 Pall Mall, a private members club for wine lovers, which serves hundreds of wines by the glass. It’s fantastic to have the chance to try lots of new things and to carefully match a wine with a specific dish, then change to something else for the next course.
I’m delighted that restaurants like Row on 5, which features prominently in the FT piece, are giving diners more choices.
But I don’t think we’re facing the imminent end of pairing a good bottle of wine with lunch or dinner. Indeed, the same report shows that, while average wine consumption in restaurants has declined significantly since 2019, average spend per glass or bottle is up, particularly for premium choices. So restaurants are moving fewer bottles and glasses, but diners are willing to splurge more. So the solution, Liberty argues, isn’t just more choice. It’s also greater premiumisation.
I think this explains some of the changes we are seeing in restaurant wine lists. Newspaper critics and friends of mine regularly complain that the good bottle of wine at £40 has disappeared from wine lists. Given this data, selling more premium options is an entirely sensible choice from restaurants already stretched to the economic breaking point.
DRC Sells for $812,500
Speaking of expensive plonk, a bottle of 1945 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti sold at auction last month in New York set a new world record. To be fair, this is a pretty special bottle. DRC is arguably the world’s most coveted wine, and there were only 600 bottles produced in 1945 before the famous vineyard’s rare pre-phylloxera vines were ploughed up for replanting. The provenance of this bottle was particularly perfect. And there’s a good chance that it’s the last time we’ll see this special wine in a public market.
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Critics Wrap-Up
✍🏻 indicates a review that you should read for the writing.
🍽️ indicates a place that sounds excellent and is probably worth a try.
✍🏻 🍽️ David Ellis (Standard) tries Auguste, the new Abruzzo-focused place in Hackney. “The full bill was just shy of £300, which both flabbergasted and horrified us — the menu cunningly makes it look, at a glance, like the place is reasonable. Not so. There is more, but in truth I don’t feel right giving it a kicking. It has enormous promise, and Bagnall and Walters are extremely easy to admire. Auguste will never be the Ledbury but, well, I think it was having a wobble. An off night. Time will tell if I’m wrong.”
✍🏻 Sam Wilson (Bald Flavours) has a better experience at Auguste, perhaps offering evidence to support Ellis’s self-doubts. “They’re giving the people what they want—but the twist is that the people had no idea they wanted arrosticini.”
✍🏻 Jay Rayner (FT) heads to Sentosa in Bermondsey for Singapore-style chilli crab, and worries about his shirt. “We are given heaps of napkins, picks and crackers and a few transparent gloves, which I quickly give up on. They make me feel like I’m about to perform an intimate examination rather than just have lunch.”
✍🏻 Slutty Cheff (Hot Fat) offers her unique take on Simpson’s in the Strand, which I have raved about a few times. “There is something deeply erotic about my lunch at Simpson’s. I am beginning to realise there is something more aloof and hot about day-time indulgence.”
The famous trolley at Simpson’s in the Strand. William Sitwell (Telegraph) visits much-lauded Tiella in Hoxton. “Tiella leaps out from the pack, reminding me of the sort of Italian restaurants my father would take me to in London in the Eighties. They were unobtrusive, they were busy and we had fun. And I don’t remember what we ate.”
Andy Hayler (andyhayler.com) reports from rebooted Orrery in Marylebone. “The main concern was the sheer number of small technical slips, which was a surprise given the track record of the executive chef, who was in the kitchen at this service. On the other hand, the galette dish showed that there is some real talent in the kitchen. Hopefully the cooking will settle down, and the early issues will be ironed out.”
Mallory Legg (The Handbook) also heads to Orrery. “The dish everyone talks about is the quail. … It’s rich, precise, and probably the finest moment on the menu in terms of dining.”
Ben McCormack (Wallpaper) tries Idalia, the first new place in Olympia following regeneration. “Seasonal British ingredients are inflected with an international accent: whole wood-roasted turbot with shichimi togarashi butter and pickled daikon, or herb-crusted Herdwick lamb cutlet with courgette flower, rolled belly and ricotta.”
Mallory Legg (The Handbook) also visits Idalia. “You come not just to eat, but to feel something, to be momentarily whisked away into a version of London that is glossier and grander.”
Camilla Long (Sunday Times) shreds Fenix, the new Piccadily outlet of the Manchester-based Greek chain. “At these prices, with this swagger, the food needs to be excellent. It isn’t. A friend who went later tells me his octopus actually came on a pre-broken plate. A reference to Greek plate-smashing, or just saving the diner the bother of hurling it across the room?”
Kieran Morris (Observer) raves about Turkistan in Welling, confusingly the first Kazakh restaurant in the UK. “If you want to eat something you’ve never eaten before, in a part of the city you may never have been to, it’s places like Turkistan that make the capital feel bigger than you thought it was.”
Ari Alibhai (The Sauce) ventures to The Tavern in Shoreditch. “Tavern sent out a near flawless meal on its first night, under the pressure of a full dining room, with the team giving the impression they were barely breaking a sweat. Now that’s just showing off.”
Gavin Hanly (Hot Dinners) test drives the newest branch of Padella in Soho. “The pasta is as good as it's ever been and it's still all priced very reasonably. Get in early before too many people realise it's opened and the (virtual) queue gets properly massive.”
Sabrina Goodlife (Palate) revisits Bibi in Mayfair. “Today’s BiBi is all grown up: the cocktail list is now award winning, the menu is tighter and now boasts a £70 N25 caviar supplement. In a market of increasingly dumbed down food, BiBi chose to get smarter, and I couldn’t be happier about it.”
Daniela Toporek (Palate) reviews Jarana, a new Peruvian place in Hammersmith. “Maybe Jarana just needs some time to get its bearings in London’s challenging (and costly) culinary scene, but once they get everything in order, trust that I’ll be on that sunny terrace, sipping a Spicy Peruvian, (finally) slurping ceviche and enjoying the sun.”
Alex Larman (The Arbuturian) heads to Tom Brown at the Capital, and finds, “a place where magic of all kinds is in great supply.”
Lauren O'Neill (Dining Out) tries Sova, a new wine bar in Notting Hill. “In terms of variety and service and just sheer loveliness and charm, I do have to say that sova is my favourite new wine bar I’ve been to in ages.”
Anna Selby (The Arbuturian) tries Luna Omakese in the City, which I enjoyed a few weeks ago. “Omasake, [Chef Leo Tanyag] explains, simply means, ‘You have to trust me.’ You’d be crazy not to.”
Beyond London
✍🏻 Giles Coren (Times) is at the peak of his powers, penning a lovely, mournful reflection on his recently-sold place in the Cotswolds, by way of reviewing The Hollow Botton pub. “We wake up sometimes on a Saturday morning when the sun is shining and one of us says, ‘Shall we go to the…’ and then, like a man with no legs who wakes up with an itchy foot, we remember it’s not there.”
Grace Dent (Guardian) returns to Margate to try Willy’s, from Chef Mark O’Brien (see above). “Willy’s really is a whole lot of wonderful.”
Tom Parker Bowles (Mail on Sunday) tries Trillium in Birmingham. “Exalted, thoroughly modern cooking, with a great dollop of old-fashioned fun.”
Dominic Preston (Braise) enjoys Franceschetta 58 in Modena. “It impresses from beginning to end, that it feels like excellent value at less than €100 per head — including wine! — and that I would book again in a heartbeat.”
Roaming Restaurateur checks out La Copine in the Mojave Desert in California. “I understand why this place is so beloved. In the middle of this dry, harsh desert environment La Copine stands out as a beacon of warmth and generosity, the menu is a love letter to local producers showcased in seasonal Southern California fare with a large side order of hipster cool.”
Ed Gilbert (Gourmet Gorro) checks out Bryn Williams in Porth Eyries, not long ago the AA’s Restaurant of the Year for Wales. “Their technically accomplished and well-priced classical cooking, served in beautiful setting, makes this a celebrity restaurant which most definitely deserves its reputation.”
Edible Reading ventures to Oxford to try The Port Mahon, but dislikes the main attraction. “The leg meat was a tiny bit tough, almost gamey, and there wasn’t perhaps as much of it as I’d hoped.”
Thanks for reading this week’s update. Been anywhere good lately? Let me know in the Comments.
On consumer spend increase by glass/bottle since 2019, do we know if that removes the impact of inflation, which would drive the price up anyway? I did not read the piece but I wondered if they addressed it.
> Main course was “smoked and grilled piranha”
I know what you meant… But made me grin.