Eat & Drink
Originally published on Friday, 31st October 2008
Duke’s Hotel
Burgundy, Merlot, Sherry, and The Square - Urban Junkies has teamed up with wine guru extraordinaire Tom Harrow to bring you the Wine Chap's useful Wine Tips.
GrapeVine: Duke’s Hotel
Continuing with our Bond theme from last time, Dukes, celebrating its centenary, is offering an overnight Bond About Town package for aspiring sauve spies/femme fatales. Enjoy innuendo-laden banter and footsie during three-courses in the dining room, before perfecting your seduction etiquette (i.e removal of socks) in a classic double upstairs.
Earlier in the afternoon he gets a shave at Truefit & Hill while she has a Miss Moneypenny Manicure in the health club before WineChap’s highlight: a Martini masterclass with bar manager, Alessandro Palazzi, in the hotel’s bar where Fleming reputedly had the inspiration for 007’s ‘shaken not stirred’ mantra.
Alessandro, as charmingly old-school as the martinis he lovingly prepares, will guide you through their history and evolution, in an anecdotal journey of famous and favourite regulars, with useful preparation tips from serving temperature (28-34°) to ingredients (unwaxed lemon peel, a dash of orange bitters, Beefeater’s Crown Jewel Gin), as you sample some of his potent creations, including the voguish Vesper, from Bond’s last outing. One of these will lend you Roger Moore’s easy charm, two - Connery’s roguish self-confidence and three, leave you reeling like you have been in a fight with Daniel Craig.
An overnight stay, Friday or Saturday only, (the above all inclusive plus brekkers) is £450 for two. Available until end of December.
Dukes Hotel: St James’ Pl, SW1A 1NY • 020 7491 4840
DrinkOut: Texture
On first viewing, Texture appears a little confused about its gender orientation. The décor is typically Hedge Fund Lunch modern refit, whilst the cuisine looks more post-Selfridges spree, weight off Laboutins, girl fodder. But there is no such confusion with Icelandic (and ex-Petrus and Pied A Terre) chef-patron Aggi Sverrisson’s culinary credentials. Alongside award-winning Master Sommelier and co-founder Xavier Rousset, he is responsible for a bracingly individual, and well executed dining experience. The Pazo Señorans’ 2007 Albariño, which showed textbook fresh lactic notes on the nose and a zesty palate, proved a good foil for the clean, intense flavours of a classic pea and mint granita, and asparagus and parmesan snow.
Next, a Dry Oloroso ‘Alamo’ from Bodegas Pedro Romero, with aromas of parma violets and burnt toffee, was intensely nutty on the palate, its salted almond flavours a powerful choice for the liverish chargrilled pigeon with sweetcorn puree and bacon popcorn. This was a great combination and a bold match (sherry? mid-meal? with gamebird ?) which not only demonstrated the genial Xavier’s confidently innovative wine-pairing skills, but also the evident dialogue between chef and sommelier. And lastly on to the plate was cod accompanied by a salty chorizo, which offered a broad base for a weighty Condrieu ‘06 Domaine Monteillet, with its rich, oily, apricot and white pepper tones.
Rousset has compiled a carefully chosen and well-balanced winelist; Gallo-centric, but refreshingly uncluttered by Claret, preferring Burgundies and Rhones, (which also notes the size and production quantities of each region for interested wine geeks). Sverrisson’s Nordic-influenced cuisine, meanwhile, emphasizes intensity of flavour over density of ingredients, meaning that, whether power- or lady-lunching, you leave feeling vital not venal - sufficiently clean-limbed to leap fjords post-prandially without fear of a stitch.
Texture: 34 Portman St, W1H 7BY • 020 7224 0028
Top Tip: Trattoria
…Ristorante Semplice , Blenheim St, W1,opens its Trattoria next door on November 6. Expect simple Italian classics from the ex-Locanda Locatelli team served from noon until 11pm, with a monthly-changing regional focus (Tuscany up first, Piemonte in December) and a limited menu available outside traditional meal times for those peckish for antipasti with their Prosecco at 4pm.
50% off the bill during preview period 27th-5th
Bookings essential: 020 7491 8638
Trattoria: 22-23 Woodcock St, W1.
