BY KELLY BESWICK
Tradition meets cutting edge at this all-day eatery located on the ground floor of a shiny new art-themed hotel on Great Eastern Street and the result is both playful and delicious…
Enter The Brush Grand Café at the art’otel Hoxton and first impressions are a tad confusing. The hotel itself is achingly modern, all glass and steel girders, with walls adorned with colourful street art, much of it courtesy of D*Face, although a couple of original Banksys are also on show. The same bold aesthetic flows through to the restaurant, however the menu, staff and service are very much at odds, drawing on the sort of grand European cafés that grace St Mark’s Square in Venice. It’s an interesting juxtaposition to say the least, but once greeted and seated by the friendly, impeccably attired waiting staff and quickly supplied with aperitifs to help ease us into the menu, it all started to make sense. Just because the design of a place is hip, edgy and contemporary shouldn’t preclude its food offering from being firmly rooted in the tried and tested. Upon this realisation, my young dining companion and I sat back in the notably comfortable chairs to enjoy a lunch of the classics.
To start, we decided to share the Beef Tartare with Confit Egg and Sourdough, which arrived in a glistening mound with a bright yellow yolk on top that was just crying out to be broken. The tartare itself was melt-in-the mouth, with plenty of capers, the heat of mustard and seasoned to perfection. Suffice to say, the plate was quickly empty.
Our mains arrived to great fanfare, carried aloft on a silver platter by a uniformed young man, before being decanted onto the table by our smiling waitress, who quickly returned with the bottle of Pinot Grigio Blush we’d ordered to accompany our meal. Thankfully, the elaborate delivery of our mains was justified, with my companion’s Chicken Caesar Salad declared one of the best he’s had, and trust me, he’s had a fair few. While I couldn’t find fault with my Half Roast Chicken with Garlic and Red Onion Jus, other than the portion was such, that I struggled to finish it. Sides included Sprouting Broccoli, Chilli and Almonds and Carrots, Burnt Butter and Sage, again all perfectly executed.
Upon finishing our meal, our waitress invited us to peruse the dessert counter, which my companion duly did. While the array of cakes, pastries and assorted sweet morsels all looked utterly delicious, we decided to opt to for a Vanilla Crème Brûlée to share, and even this defeated us! A double dose of espresso each was required to fuel us home, but not before we could conclude, that sometimes even the oddest of pairings can work.
art’otel Hoxton, 1-3 Rivington Street, London EC2A 3DT
artotellondonhoxton.com
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