Western Daily Press (Saturday)
All-American diner experience can now be yours on the A420
THE respected film critic Philip French said motels were a “metaphor for angst and alienation” - places for “illicit sex, planning crimes and dividing the spoils”.
Of course, he was referring to motels in all those seedy American road movies starring unhinged characters played by the likes of Dennis Hopper and Billy Bob Thornton, not to mention Bates Motel in Hitchcock’s Psycho.
In this country, these cheap roadside hotels have had a rather different image. Who can forget the groundbreaking Crossroads Motel in the long-running TV soap opera?
The A420 Shrivenham Road from Swindon to Oxford is far removed from the dusty highways of Arizona. Route 66 it is not.
Standing next to a branch of M&S on a roadside site that was once a Little Chef, Mollie’s Motel & Diner is the latest venture from Nick Jones and the team behind celebrity hangouts like Babington House in Somerset and Soho Farmhouse in the Cotswolds.
Inspired by the classic American diner, it’s a state-of-the-art and upmarket version of a motel (think king-size beds, Egyptian cotton sheets and rainforest showers) with a diner and proper drive-thru in the car park.
With its leather booth seating, red plastic tomato-shaped ketchup dispensers on Formica tables and brightly-lit open kitchen and chicken rotisserie, the all-day 1950s-inspired diner looks as if it has been lifted straight out of an episode of Happy Days or the film set of Grease. I half expected The Fonz or John Travolta to swagger through the restaurant and order a burger and thick milkshake.
Instead, my fellow guests ranged from new mums with babies, old boys in tweed jackets, ladies with pearls and hip young things who may or may not be supermodels. In short, it was the typical crowd you might expect in anything to do with Soho Farmhouse, but there were also hi-vis-wearing workmen and on-theroad suits popping in for a quick lunch and email catch-up (there are sockets under each table - a smart move).
Open from breakfast through to the evening, the menu rolls through the day, starting with eggs, avocado on toast, bacon, sausage and smoked salmon baps, as well as waffles and healthy grain bowls.
For lunch and dinner, there are small bites like cheesy nachos, corn on the cob and a retro prawn cocktail.
Mindful of it being a venue most people have to drive to, the drinks menu is short but includes American and Cotswold beers, classic cocktails, sodas, freshly made juices and thick milkshakes.
The main menu is all about classic American diner staples at affordable prices. That means burgers from £7, half a rotisserie chicken for £10 and breaded fried cod sandwich with tartare sauce and iceberg lettuce for £8.
A chicken sandwich (£8) was a meal in itself even without the fries, which are extra unless you go for the Dirty Deal (£11 including fries and soda).
The crisp, buttermilk-fried chicken (it must have been a boneless quarter of a bird) was twice the size of the soft white bap, which had been layered with iceberg lettuce, slices of (admittedly tasteless and anaemic) tomato, chipotle mayonnaise and ketchup.
Purely in the name of forensic research, I also ordered the 8oz rump steak with crinkle-cut fries (£15). The steak, supplied by Pat Thomas Butchers down the road in Faringdon, was properly seasoned and beautifully cooked, mediumrare as requested. The chips were as hot, crisp and salty as they should be.
From a short choice of desserts, banana split (£5) was enormous with long slices of banana smothered in a mountain ice cream, cream and chocolate sauce, with a few strawberries on top. It was an unashamedly old-school, artery-hardening dish that seemed never-ending.
This is the first in what Nick Jones hopes will be a series of Mollie’s Motels opening across the UK, including one near Cribbs Causeway. Affordable American diner classics backed up by slick service in the coolest Cotswold motel, it’s a brilliant concept and one set to drive road users well and truly back to the future in the most delicious and sticky-fingered way.
RATING 4/5
Mollie’s Motel & Diner, A420 Shrivenham Road, Faringdon, SN7 8QU. Tel: 01367 707777. www.molliesmotel.com