The successful and polished boutique hotel chain, Hotel du Vin, even comes with its own pub in the same style. Neighbouring the hotel, it takes the traditional public house experience of old and brings it buffed and gleaming into the present day.

The Venue
The bar is housed in a landmark Brighton building that was formerly the Sussex Arts Club. Although it sits adjacent to the Hotel du Vin in The Lanes conservation area, you could almost be forgiven for not noticing the unassuming polished brass plaque and the street lantern that indicates the pub’s presence. Don’t be deceived by its low key facade however as this austerity hides a well kept Brighton secret. Once through the two entrance doors you are faced with the bar itself, which runs almost the entire length of the room. Made of distressed pewter and with glasses and beer tankers hanging above it right up to the ceiling, it imparts the immediate comfort of organised clutter. The room itself is fairly small and most seating is either in front of the bay window looking onto the street or towards the back of the restaurant.

The walls are painted in a distressed brick and plaster design by Gary Myatt that really adds to the warmth of the room despite the fact that it’s a clearly contrived design feature. Daily newspapers are laid out on the Captain's Table in a small lounge off the main pub that has its own open fire, black and white photos of Brighton and the pier through the early 20th century hang along the walls in the bar and the tables and chairs are a medley of different styles and grains of dark wood – a clever touch in making the planned perfection of the pub appear relaxed and accidental. The colour scheme is really restful too. Scatter cushions and the fabric seat backs are muted tones of blue, brown and green and everything is easy on the eye, inviting you to pull up a mismatched chair, order a brand new old pewter effect, glass bottomed tanker of ale and stay a while. That said, however much the decor works, you can’t escape the fact that the walls are painted to look old. The chairs are purposely different. This is a ‘pretend pub’ du Vin.

The People
Due to the venue’s current licence, they cannot actually let you drink at the beautiful bar itself which is unfortunate given that they are marketing a traditional English pub and begs the question as to whether venues can ever really succeed as truly traditional-styled pubs without opinionated and inebriated old men propping up the bar? Although they are trying to get it changed, vertical drinking is not allowed at present and this does somewhat limit its capacity as there is only room for 22 people sitting down. However, its multi-purpose nature is a redeeming feature which means that this is easily overlooked. At the back of the building, there’s a spacious function room that holds up to 80 seated guests and there are even 11 hotel rooms for anyone too soporific to wander home.

Despite the homely feel of Pub du Vin, the service is impressively professional and extremely attentive. Because of the ‘No Vertical Drinking’ rule, table space can be limited during busy times however staff go out of their way to seat you. The clientele is a general overspill of hotel guests who fancy a change from the Hotel du Vin bar and well heeled Brighton folk fresh off the street. It certainly isn’t pubby in its dress code so don’t expect wax jackets and Wellingtons or toothless locals popping in for a swift pint before Sunday lunch.

The Food
Reading the Pub du Vin menu is like taking a trip back in time to the best meal your grandparents cooked for you. It’s all about simple British dishes that you may have forgotten were so good and ingredients that had lost their cool factor and needed Pub du Vin to remind us how nice nostalgia really is. Begin with a selection of snacks that include pickled eggs (£1), pork pies(£3.50) and a pint of prawns (£4.50), the latter served in a chilled metal tanker with a finger bowl and extra tanker for the shells. There is plenty of thought put into this pub grub and how it’s meant to be eaten. The choices for starters and main courses are small but perfectly in keeping with bar food choices generally. To start, there’s an equal selection of fish and meat dishes with plenty of choices that it’s likely you won’t have seen on a menu for a long time. The Scotch Egg with curried mayonnaise(£4.50) is reminiscent of home cooking. Browned and slightly charred breadcrumbs cover a distinctive peppery sausagemeat. Other choices include crispy duck faggots (£4.00) and a salad of black pudding and poached egg (£4.00).

For the main course, there is no light option. Its comfort and stodge all the way with some British classics such as rump steak and chips (£15.00), lamb shank with mash and gravy (£12.50) and breaded scampi accompanied by chips and peas (£11.50). The Harvey Ale battered fish and chips is a generous portion of cod, hanging over the plate that struggles to accommodate it. The thick cut chips come wrapped in newspaper print cardboard cones that give what could have been ordinary fish and chips the ‘du Vin’ treatment. They really do think about the little touches here that are so easy to do yet so effective. They know that the paper cone will give the dish a how-it-used-to-be feel to it. They know real newspaper would be unhygienic and give you the next best thing. They know it’s nice to have gauze over your lemon wedge to avoid foraging for pips in your dish. They think about these things. The fish batter is slightly under seasoned but nevertheless crunchy whilst the cod is cooked to perfection - soft, falling away on the fork and moist. The accompanying Tartare sauce is creamy with tangy capers full of flavour but never dominating the dish.

The gammon steak, pineapple, fried egg and chips (£12.50) is another hearty serving of protein. What adds to this dish is they way that they have gently flame grilled the pineapple to impart a caramelised sweetness to what is otherwise sometimes a slightly too sharp fruit accompaniment. Forget school dinner gammon and pineapple. Each element of this dish is clearly carefully considered. From the gammon that’s char grilled but retains its moisture to the fried egg, soft but not too soft, and served on the side of the meat so as not to ooze over the gammon unless you choose to mix the two flavours. In fact, the only thing that doesn’t seem considerate is the timing of the main course which arrives too quickly after the clearing of the first. The chef either cooked the main course far too early or he has a brand new antique looking crystal ball in the kitchen to match the wallpaper.

Dessert is the last leg of this hearty trip down memory lane. If you can possibly move to signal the waiter for the menu, you will be confronted with four choices. Treacle tart, apple crumble, baked cheesecake or chocolate brownie, all at £5 each partnered by the last order in gluttony – cream, ice cream or custard. Good thing that the pub has 11 hotel rooms as you may want to lie down afterwards.

The Drink
It goes without saying that the literally translated ‘pub of wine’ is going to have an extensive wine list. However, what’s even more appealing is that they do try and create a sense of locality about the Central Brighton pub by sourcing ale and wine from small suppliers in the county. Feeling loyal as a local you may be tempted to sample a homegrown tipple. However, after careful deliberation and a free tasting courtesy of the barman and his wise advice, you may in fact conclude that your palate isn’t ready for West Sussex tannin. If not, there is still plenty to choose from on the wine list that stretches further afield and isn’t even limited to Europe. New World wines from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and South America all feature. It’s a pity that more don’t come by the glass however. Most bottles are below £50 but only half of the reds and whites are below £20 per bottle making it costly for a couple experimenting with different wines.

More pleasingly, bottles of beer and draught ales are all locally sourced from Sussex and served in authentic metal steins with the exception of the lager - Helles from the Greenwich Meantime Brewery that’s served in the traditional Meantime pint glass. Small touches that are simple but work incredibly well.

The Last Word
The homogenised concept of a public house could so easily have gone wrong. What makes Pub du Vin a success is their attention to detail. From today’s newspaper hanging in the toilets to the old bistro tea towels they use for your napkins, every element has been considered and it is this attention to detail that makes diners and drinkers feel so thought about. The menu offers up exactly what you would expect – gourmet granny’s home cooking - and the staff are an excellent asset and all impressively knowledgeable although of course to make it truly authentic, they should have had a bar maid with a generous helping of brazenness and breast and a landlord with more tattoos than beer tankers. The final bill's bound to be higher than the bar tabs that you ran up twenty years ago but to be as considered and pampered as you are at Pub du Vin, it is a price you’ll find easy to justify.

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