Smashed: An announcement

The UK restaurant scene digested

Photo by Pressmaster

This should be ‘Smashed #80: Review of the restaurant reviews’. It was going to be really good. I was going to respond to Dan O’Regan on the subject of restaurant critics, weaving in Camilla Long’s review of Materia Prima, controversial chef Victor Garvey’s new Notting Hill restaurant, and my own view of the place, which I visited last Friday. The good news is that you can read Dan’s piece The Difference Between Taste and Judgement today and I will have my say on Friday. I can’t do it any sooner because I will be eating my way around London tomorrow and Thursday for future editions of Smashed.

The reason I haven’t been able to complete Smashed today is that I’ve overrun a bit on another Substack-based project Serving Up, the newsletter of Brighton’s Best Restaurants. Full details of the newsletter are below and I really hope that you’ll sign up. As I explain below, Serving Up is designed to be a great read for anyone who loves restaurants, food, drink and travel, no matter where they are.

Everything always takes longer than you think it will, doesn’t it? The further complication is that I have teamed up with a new partner in Brighton’s Best Restaurants, Sue Woodward, the former director of World’s 50 Best and we are completely re-imagining Brighton’s Best, an entity I founded a decade ago and which is long overdue a major overhaul. That has meant some serious brainstorming on mission, vision and values (I know, all horribly corporate sounding but incredibly useful when you are trying to formulate a fiver year plan), reviewing ideas for a re-brand, looking at options for building a new website and inviting people to join an advisory panel of culinary experts among many other things. Brighton’s Best Restaurants 2.0 may be a way off yet, but the newsletter is nearly here.

I’m launching a second restaurant newsletter this Friday

The first edition of Serving Up, the newsletter of Brighton’s Best Restaurants will be published this Friday at 5pm. You can sign up for free by clicking here. Published twice a month, it’s entertaining, informative and useful. If you love restaurants, wine and cocktails, then you’ll love Serving Up. Interview-based features, including ‘The Lowdown’ (a quickfire food and drink Q&A with a top chef) , ‘What’s In My Glass’ and ‘My Storecupboard Standby’, will tap into the knowledge and expertise of the chefs and front of house people that make Brighton’s restaurant scene so exciting and dynamic. There will also be recipes for Brighton’s Best Cocktails and mini-reviews of Brighton’s Best Dishes being served at the latest restaurants to open in the city and more established places with new offerings.

You’ll learn not only about the Brighton scene and the people behind it, but also find out about their favourite food and drink spots in the UK and abroad, and what they like to cook at home and in their restaurant kitchens. Serving Up is designed to appeal to the general restaurant, food and drink-obsessed reader as well as visitors to the city and of course my fellow locals. Bristol and Brighton are twin cities, at least in a spiritual sense, so it was a no brainer to ask Meg at The Bristol Sauce to contribute regular restaurant recommendations from her home city and help broaden the scope of Serving Up. In return, I’ll be contributing Brighton recommendations to The Bristol Sauce. I’ll also be announcing a London partner for the newsletter very soon.

A reminder that you can sign up for free by clicking here. I can’t wait for you to read it. See you Friday when normal Smashed service will be resumed.