TABLE FOR TWO
Chard maintains the ever-rising standards that Kathryn Flett has enjoyed in Hove
This week, choosing a pleasant venue in Hove in which to have a convivial lunch would have involved a set of choices that would have seemed inconceivably abstract back in the mists of the third week of January, when I met my friend Amy at Chard on Western Road.
On that day, leading news stories included the sad passing of the former Python, Terry Jones, and Prince Harry reuniting with Meghan and Archie in Canada; meanwhile, the BBC website announced (with a metaphorical shrug) that “Wuhan, a Chinese city of 11 million people, has temporarily shut down its public transport system as it tries to halt the outbreak of a new strain of virus.”
Meanwhile, Amy was busy texting me from her window seat in the firstfloor dining room at Chard to say she could see me making my way across the zebra crossing … but I couldn’t see her! Surely this was the most exciting thing that Ye Olden days Hove could offer up at 1pm on a ‘‘Dry’’, and possibly tiny bit ‘‘Vegan-y’’, January Wednesday?
What I didn’t know then, but do now, is that a mere 12-minute drive across Hove from BN3 1AF to BN3 7LT would have taken me to Ground Zero for the so-called coronavirus “super spreader” Steve Walsh: a pub called The Grenadier, where (as of this writing) all 20 of the dining slots between 5pm and 9.45pm are currently available!
On Jan 22, had I, somewhat randomly, been hanging in Hangleton Road, while desperately craving faux-Mexicana, I might well have countenanced the “Sizzling fajita spiced chicken fillet, soft flour tortilla wrap, peppers, guacamole, sour cream, jalapeños and cheddar cheese” (with free Wi-Fi), inevitably washed down by a bottle of chilled Corona lager.
However, this week, I would without hesitation don a biohazard suit and drive the 3.3 miles (or 2.9, depending on your choice of internet mapping device) back to Chard, a local restaurant set up by a three young ‘‘DFLs’’ (Down From Londoners), including Benny, in the kitchen, and her sister Rae, front of house.
The trio (there’s a Ciaran, too) kicked off their business with local pop-ups before securing this easy, stylish space above an interiors’ store (note, however, that upstairs access will not be so easy for, say, wheelchair users; plus there’s a quirky outside loo) at the westerly end of Western Road. It is already dearly beloved in its catchment area; the restaurant expands to include the back of the downstairs shop in the evenings when it is “particularly lovely” – or so Amy, a local resident, tells me.
With near-universal five-star TripAdvisor reviews (we’ll overlook the baffling two-star dis by Dawne, from Nottingham: “The views are stunning. They do have special nights for food and drink but need to think about discounting the entrance fee” – to which Chard replied with a plaintive: “We are not known for our views and we do not charge an entrance fee. We serve lunch and dinner and do not have special nights for food and drink as that is our main operation. Is there a chance you have posted a review to us instead of another business?”), not to mention an AA rosette and a mention in the 2020
Rising star: After just a year trading, Chard, in Hove, has already received an AA rosette and a mention in the
Good Food Guide.
Chard’s first year of trading has been a corker. However – and this wasn’t the case for many years – each of the last few times I’ve visited Brighton and Hove, I have eaten better than I did on each previous occasion. The bar keeps being raised and is now pretty high.
Amy correctly observed that “Sheep’s milk cheese can go either way” (for example, she dislikes ricotta and loves pecorino), but she declared the creamy Sussex Slipcote, made up the road at the High Weald Dairy, to have “a slight tang that complements rather than overwhelms the tartness of the pomegranate and sweetness of the candied beets and slices of pickled onion”. The latter, she was quick to point out, “is very much the modern kind, not the fish & chip shop kind”.
Though the menu was lunch-lite and exceedingly “V”-friendly, I craved meat – specifically the “flank, green sauce, beets, horseradish, rocket and parmesan crisp”. At 14 quid, this was the top of the lunch range; however, the rare beef slivers, nestled in their lovely little green puddles and pierced by the golden wondrousness of parmesan crisps, were only trounced, visually, by our pinkly petal-scattered alcohol-free pomegranate fizz. It tasted mighty fine.
Amy’s pistachio dukkah, meanwhile, “added crunch and texture and, quite frankly, I could scatter it over every meal”. The result? “The sort of cleancut-muscular salad you can eat even when it’s bitterly cold outside.”
When it’s cold outside, you invariably need a dessert, too. My lemon drizzle with lemon ice cream was light and zesty; Amy’s chocolate cake with meringue only marginally bigger than a petit four but punching well above its weight with the accompanying burnthoney ice cream: a star turn.
With just 20 covers in a pretty, airy room, Chard is a perfectly charming spot for some louche midweek luncheoning of the “self-quarantining” variety. If one were going down with an unpleasant though by no means necessarily fatal virus, however (and Steve is, of course, now fully recovered) one might seriously think about sneaking in another drink, and even possibly a pud, before one dialled 111. Lucky Hove.
I Gigi General Store, 31a Western Road, Hove BN3 1AF: 01273 027147; chardrestaurant.uk