What: Located in the Grade II listed former Westminster County Court building, the restaurant has undergone a £2.5m refurbishment that includes the installation of a new whisky-focused upstairs Spey Bar.
Who: The Browns group is one of the oldest brasserie chains in the country having been established in Brighton back in 1973 by Jeremy Mogford. The group began by growing predominantly in university towns such as Bristol, Cambridge and Oxford and now has an estate of 26 restaurants throughout the UK with sites across London as well as Bath, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The new Spey Bar comes to London from the team behind Quaich Bar at Scotland’s Craigellachie Hotel.
The food: Browns serves a classic English brasserie menu such as a range of steak cuts and chips; fish and chips; fish pie; and a chicken and bacon club alongside harissa-spiced lamb rack; rhubarb barbecue pork belly; and roast cod, wild garlic and asparagus. A selection of chef’s specials is available every Friday and Saturday that include a Surf & Turf, featuring a whole lobster and two 7oz fillet steaks to share; and a 16oz chateaubriand for two. The restaurant also serves afternoon tea, brunch, and Sunday roasts as well as a pared back lunch and early evening menu with two courses for £22.50 and three courses for £27.50 available midday to 5pm Monday to Friday. A separate bar menu is served at Spey Bar which features the likes of oysters; mini lobster rolls; haggis scotch egg; crab on sourdough; and smoked duck breast with toasted soda bread.
To drink: Whisky lovers are spoilt for choice at Spey Bar, where there are more than 100 different whiskies on offer. There’s also a cocktail list of classics alongside signatures such as The Stratton, made with Copper Dog whisky, vanilla and milk punch; and the somewhat idiosyncratic Rab C Highball, with Hendricks gin, blue raspberry, Cîroc Red Berry, WKD Blue, and supasawa. Those not on the source can choose from Brewdog Punk alcohol free, Coke and Irn Bru, naturally.
The vibe: The £2.5m spend has gone on creating a modern and luxe interior which, while not matching the opulence of The Ivy Group, has a premium feel given the size of the group. The colour palette in the dining room invokes blues and blush pinks while Spey Bar has deeper greens and reds and a large wooden feature bar. The building also makes use of its history with the former county court cells serving as wine cellars and the original courtrooms, judge’s chambers and study being turned into private dining rooms.
And another thing: Browns has created some nostalgic cocktails to celebrate its 50 years, including a Lemon Bon Bon Bellini and Pineapple Upside Down Cake Highball.
82-84 St. Martins Lane, Covent Garden, London, WC2N 4AG
50 years in the restaurant business is not to be sniffed at.
Browns may not be the casual dining brand on everyone’s lips, but in the competitive restaurant sector it has stood the test of time where others have failed, writes Stefan Chomka.
I remember going to Browns in Brighton 30 years ago with my mother for steak frites and thinking it was the height of sophistication. The smartly dressed waiters, wooden tables and round back chairs that scraped noisily on the wooden floor, the numerous huge gilt mirrors and soft lighting created the feel of eating in a Parisian bistro (not that I had been to the French capital at that point in my life) and felt pleasingly modern yet also reassuringly old fashioned and grown up. That the restaurant remains three decades on, and this year in fact celebrates its 50th birthday, is no small accomplishment, made even more impressive in that it hasn’t had to change much in its time to stay relevant.
With the likes of the significantly more glamorous The Ivy, a branch of which has opened directly opposite the original Browns, opening at pace across the country, it’s easy to think of Browns as a brand of the past. Yet with 26 sites across the country, it appears to still be able to hold its own in a market that has seen the rise and fall of a number of larger high street chains. It is interesting that PizzaExpress, often heralded for its longevity, is only eight years Browns’ senior.
The Covent Garden Browns is a far cry from the Brighton original, with the brown wooded French brasserie aesthetic of old being replaced with a much lighter colour palette, plusher furniture and more modern fittings. The result is a restaurant that feels more in tune with the high-ceilinged building in which it sits as well as the high-footfall location, where it counts other brasseries including Balthazar and The Delaunay as its neighbours. But in doing so, it also puts it more in step with nearby rival The Ivy Market Grill, which is a bold move.