I managed to live in the south-east of England for many years before discovering that Brighton pays host to the second largest arts festival in the UK, after Edinburgh. It rumbles on for about three weeks in June with music, dance, theatre, comedy, book talks, galleries, outside performance and all manner of other chicanery. There’s probably less emphasis on comedy than Edinburgh, but that’s likely because Brighton hosts the UK’s largest comedy festival for two weeks in October!
Anyway, one very important part of our annual pilgrimage to the Brighton Festival for me are the Artist’s Open Houses. These are showcases for all manner of contemporary arts and crafts that pop up all over the city in front rooms, kitchens, gardens and sometimes the whole house. Jewellery, paintings, photography, clothing, homewares, pottery, and just about anything else you might want to buy for yourself or as gifts. Grab a booklet from the first one you visit and you can plot your campaign of exploration around the Victorian terraces of Brighton & Hove’s edgy
suburbia. I don’t think there’s another city in Britain where this could happen; the critical mass of “creative types” just doesn’t exist.
Where is this ramble going? Well, the Open Houses return for a couple of weekends in December every year to cash in on the need for interesting Christmas presents, so that’s where we were last Saturday. Lunch break at The Chilli Pickle was of course necessary and delicious. Goose momos with redcurrant relish! And at the end of the day we found our way to 24 St Georges, a new-for-2011 restaurant in Kemp Town.
The décor is dark and best described as reasonably-priced elegance. But certainly comfortable, I was very happy unwinding there after a long day. The staff were friendly and helpful, and carefully resisted hovering despite us being the only diners for almost an hour (we took an early table, it certainly filled later).
My starter was pigeon; described as terrine and smoked breast with mulled pears and J-choke puree. The fag packet-sized slab of terrine laughably dwarfed the three pea-sized blobs of puree, three tiny slivers of breast and ickle cubes of pear. Which is a shame, as every single element was delicious and nicely complementary. Maureen won the starter round with moreish quail scotch egg, made with a mushroom duxelles in place of mince. The porcini and salsify accompaniment was grilled properly, though the salsify was oddly devoid of flavour.
Maureen chose the skate wing to follow, and I personally have never seen it cooked and served rolled before. It looked like a fat and impressive white sausage. The flavour was great, though the inside was still startlingly pink and it’s a good thing we like our raw fish and were willing to trust that “local skate wing” really did mean it was jolly fresh. My main of beef medallions on braised ox tail was cooked spot-on; medium-rare beef, glistening and unctuous shreds of ox tail and a good mash.
For pudding, I had an Earl Grey rice pudding with walnut ice cream and rhubarb. The ice cream had a decided walnut flavour but was terribly powdery, the rice pudding had a good texture but no discernible bergamot, and the rhubarb additions were well-made but had no apparent connection to the other elements. Bit of a muddle. Maureen was on safer ground with a slab of chocolate sprinkled with sea salt, and some pistachio ice cream. Nothing to mark down there, if you like your chocolate.
I’d say that 24 St Georges is very fair value, at around £28 per person for three courses without drinks. There was a bit of a feeling of hit-and-miss about the dishes, but this might polish out with time. If you’re in Brighton and in need of a good evening meal in comfortable yet smart surroundings, I’d recommend it.
