Slipping seamlessly onto the London dining landscape, a newish kid on the block looks and acts like its been around forever. Zeren Wilson takes a seat at the bar.
4pm and the place is buzzing. Bustling and brimming with bonhomie. I feel like I've gate-crashed a private party. I grab a seat at the bar and feel pretty chuffed with myself – no-one has noticed this interloper, and I feel that maybe, just maybe, I can pull this off. Have a meal and a drink and leave without anyone noticing – it's worth a shot anyway.
A joint venture between Richard Caring (Scott's, The Ivy, J Sheekey et al, darlings of Caprice Group Holdings) and Nick Jones of Soho House, this prolific and acquisitive pair have landed in a beautiful Grade II listed building dating from 1732, the site of the Gargoyle club which hosted artists and intellectuals, such as Francis Bacon, Graham Greene, Dylan Thomas and Lucian Freud in lavish interiors which had Henri Matisse casting his design flair within. Fred Astaire tip-toed his way through regularly . A place of decadence and creativity, closing its doors in the late 1970's.
Given a lavish make-over, shed-loads of cash, and a good lick of love, the building has quickly become a relevant fixture again amongst places to eat and drink in London.
Dean Street Townhouse is cocky, classy, and almost infuriatingly slick. A highlight of my last visit included a sausage roll of buttery, flakey goodness, simple, perfect – and warm too, surely the best way to find a sausage roll? My mind flashes back to what is surely the most perfect sausage roll ever cooked in London, Claude Bosi's outrageous effort in his Michelin starred Hibiscus around the corner in Mayfair, as part of a sublime pork dish in two stages. This is a sausage roll mixing it with the big boys. Is it the Keen's Cheddar in the pastry that elevates it? Sneaky, very sneaky – and great.
Smoked Haddock soufflé – is a joy, densely savoury, with a punchy cheesy finish.
Minced Meat and potatoes - a dish of cheeky puritan cockiness, lovingly rendered down from veal stock and red wine, a splash of Worcestershire sauce, and some ketchup to keep things real. New potatoes sprinkled with some parsley complete the dish.
Fish Fingers and Chips - lovingly made, some unremarkable chips, and a tartare sauce lacking a vital caper driven punch, but made in-house nonetheless.
Crumpets with Keens Cheddar - Is this a joke? Not at all, because some good soul is virtuous enough to keep an eye on the tricky crumpet/cheese timing, and this is pulled off admirably. Keen's Cheddar perfectly melted atop a yielding crumpet.
Gloucester Old Spot Sausage Roll - Flakey, buttery pastry, judiciously spiced coarse meat singing with sage, and perfect meat to pastry ratio, making it far better than the Ginger Pig's fat, gauche, monolithic effort. A triumph of sausage roll.
Another visit reveals further cute touches, such as radishes placed at the bar with small dishes of celery salt for dipping , and another bowl of parsnip and root vegetable crisps.
The only time I sit down for a "proper" meal, we are delivered the following:
Roast Banham Chicken with sage and onion stuffing - Succulent, yielding bird with crisped skin, and crunch-perfect roast potatoes that have spent time kissing some tasty fat. Only the gravy disappoints, a miserable, weedy, industrial tasting, sad apology of a gravy. I shunt it aside and dig in to the fine chicken. Macho stuffing with a twang of chicken liver to it.
Wine is from the same stable (and hence largely the same one supplier) as the rest of the Caprice Group, so throw in some decent Burgundy (Hubert Lamy, Saint-Aubin), some passable rest of the world (Dog Point, New Zealand) and a smattering of New World stars (Au Bon Climat, California), and you have a competent list – nothing here will make you wet yourself with excitement. I will reveal these particular lists to anyone who asks.
Front of house and bar staff are professional, intelligent, and eager. On one visit I'm particularly pleased to see George behind the bar, who entertained and made pristine mint martinis from the opening of Hix Oyster & Chop House in Farringdon. The man is the incarnation of Jim Carrey, complete with comic-double takes. The Mask makes an excellent martini.
The long bar is perfect to idle away a Saturday afternoon, spilling into early evening, the room feels conspiratorially convivial, and the whole set-up feels as if its been there for three hundred years. Oh, and then there's the small matter of the 39 room hotel attached next door.
Soho House and Richard Caring, strutting across London, professional, cocksure, loaded. Then stay in their hotel for 95 quid. Clever, clever f**ks.
The Restauraphile here was Zeren Wilson
Dean Street Townhouse
69-71 Dean Street
London W1D 3SE
Spend?? Starters from 5.75 – Roast Chicken at 32.00. Choose your style.
