THE BRIEFING

THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF LUXURY

P.14

THE MEMBERS’ CLUB

The historic Arts Club

goes international

P.18

THE CAR

The world’s first

£1 million SUV

P.22

THE OPENINGS

The hottest restaurants

on the scene right now

P.26

THE PHOTOGRAPHY

The poignant winner of a picture award

P.28

THE RESTAURANT

This quirky speakeasy isn’t easy to find

P.30

THE HOTEL

Visiting the birthplace of champagne

P.32

THE PUB

The ‘grotty’ Michelinstarred boozer

P.34

THE ECO RESORT

A wine estate in the

foothills of Mount Etna

The five-star Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa in Champillon (p.30)

01

THE MEMBERS’ CLUB

The Arts Club Dubai

NOWHERE SCREAMS NEXT-LEVEL LUXURY QUITE LIKE DUBAI, MAKING THE EMIRATE AN OBVIOUS CHOICE FOR THE ARTS CLUB’S FIRST INTERNATIONAL OUTPOST. LUXURY LONDON TALKS TO CEO AJAZ SHEIKH

Words: Kari Colmans

It is, perhaps, no surprise that Dubai was selected for the first international outpost of The Arts Club, London’s historic private members’ club, first established in 1863, with help from Charles Dickens, and now one of the capital’s most exclusive playgrounds.

“Dubai serves as a fantastic gateway and hub between Europe and Asia and is a diverse destination with a very exciting creative and entrepreneurial scene,” says Ajaz Sheikh, CEO of the The Arts Club Dubai. “With so much potential to grow and innovate – as we have seen with how the city and country has handled the pandemic – we are very happy to contribute to the growth of Dubai’s creative, cultural and artistic community.”

The Dubai Club will aim to align itself with The Arts Club in London in what it offers its members: from the wealth of important literary and artistic events to some of the standout dishes from its famous Brasserie. “But it also has its own identity and vision,” says Ajaz. “We felt strongly that we had to reinterpret and tweak it a little for its new home.”

The much-loved Brasserie restaurant, for instance, has been reimagined for Dubai. Head chef Mussie Imnetu will still be serving the famous crab cake with Meyer lemon sauce and fennel salad, plus the delicious house burger, but will also be offering new dishes, like Waldorf salad and a Valencian paella.

As well as the Brasserie, The Arts Club Dubai has its own original restaurant, Rōhen, run by head chef Michael Hoepfl, whose CV includes stints as head and executive chef for both Zuma London and Miami. Standout dishes, Ajaz assures me, are the tacos (crispy duck with chipotle hoisin

or beef brisket, huancaina and jalapeño salsa), the squash curry steamed buns, and grilled king crab leg with miso butter and nori crunch. “Bold, lively and loud, Rōhen is the beating heart of the club,” he says. “It’s the dining destination where everyone wants to be seen.”

Elsewhere, Alveare is defined by the culinary simplicity of Italy, exploring some of the country’s long-lost regional dishes. Inspired by the golden era of the 1960s and 70s, there is an emphasis on charismatic table-side service. Oscuro, the cigar lounge in London, has also been developed to reside on The Rooftop in Dubai, with a beautifully hand-crafted humidor and world-class selection of cigars. In all, there are seven craft-cocktail bars.

Top designers from Milan-based interiors agency, Dimorestudio, worked their magic on the club’s truly breathtaking interiors, terraces and rooftop, combining a rich and sophisticated colour palette, and blending inspiration from both the past and present. Rooms vary in size with grander lounges and restaurants for entertaining and socialising, and smaller, more intimate spaces for discreet business meetings or quiet contemplation.

“We want members to feel like they’re in someone’s stately home or townhouse, which is again inspired by the London Club,” says Ajaz. “However, as the space of the Dubai Club (65,000 sq ft) is much larger than London, our approach to the internal architecture had to change as we were working with a giant modern structure. Therefore, we needed to create drama and interest within the vast space. We have been lavish with fabrics, colours and textures, creating softness and comfort. On the third floor, the Palazzo lounges really interpret what a Club should feel like, in the traditional sense.”

Guests will be particularly wowed by the beautiful staircase, which anchors the entire space, somehow encouraging both separation and flow simultaneously. The entrance to the Club is also unusual in its formation. “We built a box within a box and gave it a sense of arrival,” says Ajaz. “Then, as you go up from the ground floor in the glass elevators, you have this incredible 30-metre chandelier running the height of the building.” Each room connects directly to the next, allowing members to move seamlessly through the space, while high ceilings and marbled floors also add to the grandeur.

Much like its sister club, famed for its roster of innovative speakers and artists, The Arts Club Dubai has a similarly fascinating calendar, from talks on cryptocurrencies, NFTs and previews of artworks and films, to seminars with business owners and book clubs, as well as cocktail society classes and wine-tasting dinners.

The club has just run its first two art exhibition programmes, with both presentations hailing from the Middle East: Think it Forward: Selections from The Elie Khouri Collection and Huguette Caland: Faces and Places. Curated by Amelie von Wedel and Pernilla Holmes of Wedel Art,

who curate the permanent collection and exhibition programme at the London club, these shows mark the beginning of a programme that will showcase the best collections in the region and beyond, as well as timely solo and group shows of emerging and established artists.

Over the past 10 years, The Arts Club London has established a reputation for showing great artists ahead of the curve, as well as hosting important talks and performances – a practice to be developed further in Dubai, says Ajaz. The upcoming summer group show, Geometric Bodies: Regional and Diaspora Artists, celebrates Dubai’s art community, featuring regional and diaspora artists from largely local galleries.

As the festive jet-set crowd dust off their Chanel dad sandals and Dior beach baskets, Ajaz can’t wait to welcome British visitors who want in on the action, whether they’re looking to party on the rooftop as they look out onto the Burj Khalifa, or Sunday brunch with the whole family. “Our membership forms an exciting new community of like-minded, diverse and dynamic people, all hailing from different cultures and sectors, both from this region and further afield. The wonderful winter sunshine has arrived, and our doors here are open...”

If you are an existing member of The Arts Club in London, you can add the international tier to your membership by emailing membership@theartsclub.co.uk; theartsclub.ae

02

THE CAR

Prodrive Hunter

THE WORLD’S FIRST £1 MILLION SUV TRADES ULTIMATE LUXURY FOR EXTREME OFF-ROAD PERFORMANCE

Words: Jeremy Taylor

The Rolls-Royce Cullinan and Bentley Bentayga are two of the most expensive SUVs a lot of money can buy. However, all that will change next year when a wild-child rival crashes onto the forecourt with a seven-figure price tag.

The all-new, British-built Hunter has been developed by motorsport company Prodrive and is the most outrageous road car in decades. Not since the Lamborghini LM002 of the 1980s has anything this madcap been allowed to tread tarmac – which will almost certainly help it garner instant popularity.

Styled by former Jaguar design guru, Ian Callum, Hunter is based on the car driven to fifth place by Nani Roma at this year’s gruelling Dakar Rally. It may look like a jacked-up dune buggy but this is a highly sophisticated machine, capable of covering vast distances across any terrain.

The street-legal version – to be revealed later this year with deliveries from January 2022 – will have increased power and could create a niche for more dirt-focused 4x4s in a booming, luxury SUV sector.

The car is the brainchild of Prodrive founder and CEO, David Richards. Richards won the World Rally Championship as a co-driver in 1981, alongside Finnish legend, Ari Vatanen. Back then they competed in a modest Ford Escort.

A former chairman of Aston Martin, Richards once headed up the Benetton F1 team and currently runs Lewis Hamilton’s all-electric X44 Extreme E operation. This year’s Dakar Rally was Prodrive’s first ever entry – previously it won three World Rally Championships with the likes of Richard Burns and Colin McRae.

“As we developed the Dakar vehicle, I thought it had the potential to make a sensational road car, too. This is a hypercar that isn’t designed for the race track. It will be

the Ferrari of the desert.”

Richards says the two-seat road version will be almost identical to the rally car, save for a few key changes.

“It will be 300mm wider, with larger tyres and even more power. There will be no steps into the cabin and the seats won’t be on slide adjusters. If you can’t manoeuvre yourself in then you probably shouldn’t be driving the car.”

The first Hunter road car is still under wraps, so I’m strapped in to Roma’s Dakar version. Powered by a heavilymodified Ford EcoBoost 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo engine, the competition car is restricted to 400hp and 516 lb-ft of torque to meet strict FIA regulations.

However, without race restrictions, the street version could be increased to 650hp, with a massive 400mm of suspension travel – as well as the option of a 500-litre fuel tank for epic adventures to the remotest corners of the planet.

Strapped on a carbon-fibre seat with a six-point rally harness, the short, stubby bonnet and low windscreen allow a better view of the terrain ahead, while a camera system is essential for any reversing.

A Sadev, six-speed sequential gearshift is far simpler to negotiate than I expected, with front, centre and rear differentials giving the Hunter incredible traction.

Based on a high-strength, tubular steel chassis with carbonfibre bodywork, the engine is cleverly situated under the windscreen. The mid-mount allows for a better balanced car, vital when hurtling across rough terrain at high speed.

It’s relatively basic underneath the steel spaceframe, with no adjustable adaptive dampers to iron out the bumps. The road version is likely to feature paddle-shifters on the steering column, like most high-performance cars.

A spare wheel is located in each rear flank, with another set forward of the engine under the bonnet. Fuel is stored behind the cockpit – a smaller, 200-litre tank is also available but will still cost hundreds of pounds to fill.

On a narrow, tree-lined course in Dorset, I rarely change out of third gear, while the four-wheel drive Hunter crashes down ruts and leaps over uneven surfaces with remarkable ease. I doubt I’m using 50 per cent of the car’s capability as Roma urges me on faster.

ENGINE 3.5-litre V6 twinturbocharged THE VITALS FOR THE PRODRIVE HUNTER (RALLY VERSION)

POWER

400HP

MAX TORQUE

700 NM

TRANSMISSION WEIGHT FUEL RANGE

4WD 1,850KG 500 LITRES 800KM

It’s a thrilling, brutal beast of a car – far more extreme than a Lamborghini Urus or Aston Martin DBX. With just two seats and limited storage space, it flings the rulebook of conventional SUV design out of the window.

Although Hunter will be built at Prodrive’s headquarters in Banbury, some assembly work will be carried out at a facility in the Middle East, where all the cars will be registered. They can then be imported back to Britain using a special vehicle type approval.

Standard fit on the road car will include a few basic luxuries, such as air conditioning, an infotainment system and leather-trimmed seats.

“People ask why the car will cost £1 million. Most of that expense has been in the development stages – creating what is essentially a Dakar-capable car that owners can use on the road,” said Richards.

“I believe that if you let the engineers design a car it will be purposeful and capable but look like a dog’s dinner – Ian Callum has done a fantastic job on the styling.”

Back at the makeshift pits, Richards is on hand to open my gull-wing door. The Hunter is a relatively weighty 1,850kg but handles more like an extreme go-kart than a conventional SUV – a fact he is keen to stress.

“There is a limited market for this type of machine but we hope to build around 20 for customers around the world. Hunter won’t be the quietest, most sophisticated or smoothest-driving SUV but it’s a car that you can take on the road, turn left in the dirt and then keep going for hundreds of miles.”

Covid delayed development of the road-legal Hunter but as Prodrive technical driver, David Lapworth, explained, the vehicle will be little different to the rally version that Roma drove to success at the Dakar in January.

“This is not a toy for posing around the streets of Knightsbridge, it’s a serious rally car that also happens to be road legal. I’m sure some people will drive it in London but Hunter will be most fun away from the tarmac.

“We deliberately tried to keep the car as close to the Dakar vehicle as possible – getting the balance right between comfort and off-road usability hasn’t been much of an issue. If the driving position isn’t right then you need to use a spanner. You wouldn’t expect Lewis Hamilton to have a seat on sliders.”

Whether the Hunter ends up being the most pointless plaything or the ultimate off-road machine might depend on where you live. The first buyer is based in the Middle East, where barrelling across the sand dunes is a national pastime.

In the UK, finding somewhere to exploit the performance of the Hunter could be a major drawback. Even so, I wouldn’t be surprised to see one on the streets of the capital in 2022. Perhaps the ultimate challenge of driving a Dakar-based SUV is being able to pop down the shops, without leaving the tarmac.

prodrive.com

03

THE OPENINGS

London’s hottest new restaurants

A HOST OF RED-HOT VENUES HAVE BEEN RAISING TEMPERATURES ON THE CAPITAL’S SOCIAL SCENE. THESE ARE THE SIZZLING NEW DINING SPOTS TO SECURE RESERVATIONS AT THIS WINTER

Words: Nick Savage, of Innerplace Concierge

PARK ROW Brewer Street, W1F 9ZN

After much anticipation, the DC Comics-themed venue Park Row is now open. Nestled in the art deco rooms that used to house MASH on Brewer Street, there are five separate spaces drawing inspiration from some of Gotham City’s most famous (and infamous) residents.

These include The Iceberg Lounge, where guests can enjoy cocktails served by the likes of Oswald Cobblepot, aka The Penguin; The Rogue’s Gallery, hosted by Catwoman and serving cocktails like the Blue Boy, which is poured from a painting whose colour gradually drains as the drink fills the glass; the Monarch Theatre, a 20-seat venue serving an 11-course tasting menu; and Old Gotham City, a villainous late-night no-reservations bar secreted away at the back of the venue.

Park Row offers something new and fun in Soho. It’s an amazing space with plenty of quirky Easter eggs for the DC die-hards but is also a proper restaurant with a strong live music offering. Park Row would be ideal for a date with lots of talking points or for groups after an entertaining night out.

parkrowlondon.co.uk

GINZA ST JAMES Bury Street, SW1Y 6AL

Following a £2.5 million refit, Ginza has launched on St James’s. The first London outpost of the globe-spanning restaurant group, Ginza St James’s is a high-end and authentic Japanese restaurant which is well suited to the chic neighbourhood of SW1. The kitchen celebrates the traditional cooking styles that have been used for centuries in Japan, with the extensive menu split between an à la carte and dedicated sushi and teppanyaki offerings.

ginza-stjames.com

SESSIONS ARTS CLUB Clerkenwell Green, EC1R 0NA

Cabin Studios, Sätila Studios and Florence Knight have opened Sessions Arts Club, bringing together the best of art, design and food. Sited in the beautifully-restored Old Sessions House, located in the heart of Clerkenwell, the creative studio features a restaurant, wine bar and art gallery space in an impressive 18th century Grade II-listed building. Sessions Arts Club has a private feel, creating a sanctuary to escape from the fast pace of modern life.

sessionsartsclub.com

EKSTEDT AT THE YARD Great Scotland Yard, SW1A 2HN

Multi award-winning Michelin-starred chef Niklas Ekstedt has opened his first restaurant outside of Stockholm, launching Ekstedt at The Yard, part of Great Scotland Yard hotel in Westminster. Set within the historic 5* hotel which was once the home of the Metropolitan police, the hotel’s new flagship restaurant brings Niklas’ signature style of wood fired ‘old Nordic’ cooking to the UK for the very first time.

ekstedtattheyard.com

Innerplace is London’s personal lifestyle concierge. Membership provides complimentary access to the finest nightclubs, the best restaurants and top private members’ clubs. Innerplace also offers priority bookings, updates on the latest openings and hosts its own regular parties. Membership starts from £100 a month, innerplace.co.uk

SUCRE & ABAJO Great Marlborough Street, W1F 7JP

Two Latin American superstars have come to Soho to launch this two-header. In the basement is Abajo, where Tato Giovanonni has opened a destination cocktail bar with glow-in-the-dark drinks. Upstairs is the restaurant by Fernando Trocca where the Latin American cuisine is served in one of London’s most beautiful new dining rooms.

sucrerestaurant.com

MIMI Curzon Street, W1J 8PG

MiMi Mei Fair is the third restaurant from Jamavar and Bombay Bustle mastermind Samyukta Nair. She’s recruited ChineseSingaporean chef Peter Ho to oversee the kitchen, specialising in Peking duck and bringing his experience to bear from Hakkasan and HKK. Set in an old Georgian townhouse on Curzon Street, it has several different dining areas, all inspired by the Forbidden Palace in Beijing.

mimimeifair.com

BIBO SHOREDITCH Curtain Road, EC2A 3PT

The Mondrian Shoreditch launched its flagship restaurant – Dani Garcia’s BIBO Shoreditch – in August and it has been an absolute firecracker. The lively, urban space, perfect for casual lunches and spirited dinners, brings García’s world-class dining to the city for the first time, and plays very well indeed with the Shoreditch food scene, famed for its distinctive and unforgettable flavours.

sbe.com

04

THE PHOTOGRAPHY

Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award

A WINNING SHOT OF TOURISTS TAKING PICTURES OF A CAPTIVE ELEPHANT BEGS THE QUESTION: WHO ARE THE REAL ANIMALS?

Words: Anna Solomon

In an image captured by wildlife photographer Adam Oswell, the focus is equally on an elephant performing for a crowd, and the crowd itself, implicitly asking where the true spectacle lies: is it in the captive elephant, or the people consuming its exploitation?

This type of entertainment, especially in tourist hotspots like Thailand, has raised concern from animal rights organisations. Training for such shows often uses pain-based punishment, and an increase in elephant tourism, combined with the low birth rate of the animals in captivity, has driven a rise in poaching calves. There are now more captive elephants in Thailand than wild ones.

‘Elephant in the Room’ was one of the winning images in this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards – a competition organised by the Natural History Museum that judges images based on their artistic composition, technical innovation and interpretation of the natural world. The Grand Title in 2021 was won by underwater photographer and biologist Laurent Ballesta, who’s image ‘Creation’ captures camouflage groupers in a mating frenzy – a phenomenon that occurs once a year for only one hour, under a full moon and with a waning tide.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition runs 15 October 2021 – 5 June 2022 at the Natural History Museum, £15.50 for adults, nhm.ac.uk

05

THE RESTAURANT

Cache Cache

A SURREPTITIOUS SPEAKEASY OPENS UNDERNEATH COVENT GARDEN

Words: Anna Solomon

‘Cache-cache’ is the French name for hide and seek, and sure enough, this restaurant-bar is a challenge to find. The game starts in Covent Garden; Cache Cache is hidden underneath the piazza behind an unmarked door. The bouncer leads you through a nondescript room and through another door to reveal a space covered with reflective tiles: you have arrived.

Once inside, you’re transported to an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. Cache Cache’s aesthetic is bare-brick walls and copper pipework mixed with leather armchairs and blood-red drapes. A DJ pumps out hypnotic playlists (accompanied by a bongo player) and a heady aroma hangs heavy – it’s been curated exclusively by French perfumery Fragrance Du Bois.

By the way, there are no pictures of Cache Cache’s interior on the restaurant’s website, nor on it’s private Instagram page, so this description is all you’re going to get unless you check it out for yourself – a savvy marketing ploy. Oh, and reservations can only be made through WhatsApp.

If Russian-born general manager Ali Barchman is about, he’ll likely show you to your table, or at least engage you at some point in the evening. He’s a bit of a Mayfair legend, mainly for his eccentric fashion sense: the de facto compere sometimes, inexplicably, appears to guests wearing an African mask.

The menu, steered by Enrico Lozza using skills he learned as head chef at Busaba Eathai, is short and sweet and slightly eye-watering. It bursts with Asian flavours – soy, sesame, ginger, chili and ponzu – with a sprinkling of truffle and caviar to match the price point. You’ll also find Latin twists, such as the black angus carpaccio with jalapeno.

Diners choose from small plates (such as crispy wagyu beef gyoza, crispy tuna tartare, and passionfruit oysters), fish (Chilean sea bass or Octopus tentacles), and meat (ribeye or pork belly anticucho, which is a Peruvian skewer dish).

These are paired with intoxicating cocktails like the Princess Cache, which consists of Highlands gin infused with butterfly tea, Velvet Falernum liqueur, pineapple juice and lemon juice; or the Coca Leaf Negroni: Roku gin, Campari, Cocchi Americano and coca leaf liqueur.

From the bongo player to the masked host, Cache Cache is a dreamlike experience. This might be London’s most secretive speakeasy, but some things are too good to keep to yourself.

5 The Piazza, WC2E, cachecacheclub.com

06

THE HOTEL

Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa, Champillon, France

IF YOU’RE PLANNING ON VISITING THE BIRTHPLACE OF BUBBLES, YOU MIGHT AS WELL DO IT PROPERLY

Words: Hannah Lemon

“Too much of anything is bad, but too much champagne is just right.” Had F. Scott Fitzgerald ever driven through France’s Champagne region, he could have pretty much hooked himself to a constant IV drip of the stuff. Here, you can spittoon, swill and sniff your way around the undulating landscape sampling sparkling wine after sparkling wine.

As you wind through Reims (always so problematic to pronounce as an English speaker – safe to say, it’s not “reems”), your car will swoosh past the estates of Veuve Clicquot, Taittinger, Ruinart and Lanson. Coming from the other way, via Épernay, there’s Bollinger, Moët & Chandon and Billecart-Salmon.

While wine-infused decadence fills each day, stay in the Champagne region and the evenings can often fall short. It’s hard to believe but there’s a real dirge of luxury hotels in this area. Why would you finish an afternoon sipping premier cru, only to kick back in a Novotel at the end of the day?

That was until 2018, when the five-star Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa opened. Set in Champillon, just north of Épernay (quite literarily nestled in the vines), it’s in a prime location to continue what you started: drinking champagne. Not only does the hotel provide exclusive access to local champagne houses, but it also offers a personal selection of bottles in-house.

This wine-country retreat is a renovated ancient Relais de Poste (coaching inn) where riders used to make a stopover before re-joining the road. Instead of mead and soup, there’s now a spa, a Michelin-starred restaurant, and 47 luxurious rooms. For serious royal treatment, you can go big with a private jet experience. The hotel has partnered with private jet Charter GlobeAir to take you from Paris straight to the hotel, for a two-night stay with all the frills included – wine tastings, spa experience, dinner in the restaurant – and then whizz you back again.

Whether you’re visiting by plane, train or car, the Michelinstarred restaurant Le Royal is a must. It’s headed up by chef Jean-Denis Rieubland, who has placed a lot of emphasis on local produce. Vegetables are grown by the staff, meat is delivered by nearby farmers, and honey is harvested on the grounds. From duck foie gras half-cooked with figs, and grilled scallops with cauliflower mousseline, to Aubrac beef fillet, and mango perfumed with Tahitian vanilla, the pairings of ingredients are phenomenal. Of course, the experience wouldn’t be complete without the sommelier matching wines, or more often than not champagnes, to each course.

After, you can retire to a suite that is designed as a haven of relaxation. The views out onto the surrounding wineries, along with the pampering Hermès products, will have you de-stressed and snoozing in no time.

We should probably also mention the spa, which covers an area of 16,000sq ft, almost the size of a quarter of a football pitch. Working in partnership with cult brands Biologique Recherche and Kos Paris, there are nine treatment rooms where you can indulge in custom-made facials and intensive-wrap treatments. Afterwards, kick back in the eucalyptus-infused sauna, lie down in the tiled hammam, have a swim in the indoor and outdoor pools, and rehydrate with a fresh juice cleanse.

Want to make the most of the next day’s morning? Then flex to a sunrise yoga session in the hotel’s wood-lined studio. It will set you up perfectly for a that glass of champagne with breakfast...

From €406 per night (currently approx. £342), royalchampagne.com

07

THE PUB

The Sportsman, Seasalter, Whitstable

FIVE YEARS AFTER IT FIRST TOOK TOP PRIZE AT THE NATIONAL RESTAURANT AWARDS, AND 13 YEARS AFTER IT WON ITS FIRST MICHELIN STAR, THE SPORTSMAN HAS BEEN NAMED THE UK’S BEST GASTROPUB, AGAIN

Words: Daniela Paiva

Have you heard of The Sportsman in Kent? If you follow the UK’s restaurant scene, chances are this white-washed coastal pub has been on your radar for several years. If not, a brief introduction...

A ‘grotty rundown pub by the sea’, by admission of its own Twitter account, The Sportsman is a gnarled old boozer on a bleak, windswept stretch of coast in between Faversham and perennially-fashionable Whitstable. There’s evidence to suggest that some sort of inn has stood on the spot since 1642. The surrounding area of Seasalter was entered in the Domesday Book as belonging to the kitchens of Canterbury Cathedral.

Fast forward a few centuries, and self-taught chef Stephen Harris takes over The Sportsman, having previously worked as a history teacher, a punk musician and a City financier. Doing little to beautify the inside of the pub – and even less to the outside – Harris, along with his brother Phillip, begins creating a menu dedicated almost exclusively to ingredients available in the surrounding area. Fish and oysters come from the Thames Estuary, meat from local farms, and vegetables, where possible, from the pub’s garden.

In 2008, The Sportsman is awarded a Michelin star, which it still retains. In 2016, the pub scoops top spot at the National Restaurant Awards. This year, it ranked number one on the Top 50 Gastropubs list – a position it also claimed in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 (the pub was closed in 2020, due to the pandemic). You can also choose to stay at The Sportsman, but first, the food.

The pub reopened for guests earlier this summer and now serves only a five-course tasting menu, priced at £65 per person. I should warn you at this point that the restaurant is pretty much fully booked until the end of the year. However, give them a call, and you might just get lucky. We nabbed a table for two at lunch on a Wednesday.

Décor-wise, The Sportsman is nothing to write home about. A traditional British pub with mismatching wooden furniture, a provincial bar, a fireplace, and chairs that could have been acquired from a boot sale. Guests, for the most part, wear casual clothes and trainers. White Transit vans dot the car park.

Of course, no one comes for the interior design. The feast begins with the waiting staff asking if you’re OK with oysters. If you are, then they arrive as an amuse bouche topped with beurre blanc sauce and caviar. The oysters are followed by canapés of pork-and-apple and tomato-and-cheese. They are about as good as canapés can be.

In the bread basket is a selection of sourdough, focaccia and a spicy soda bread that you’ll want to eat every crumb of. Butter is home-churned and salt comes from the nearby marshes. Although it’s a tasting menu, you’re given four choices for each dish. To begin, I opted for cured trout fillet

with apple, sorrel granita and seaweed. The combination of sweet, sour, salt and sea was a delight.

Next, braised halibut with chorizo sauce and black olive: moist, delicate and with a pleasant, spicy kick. The roast breast of Aylesbury duck (served pink) with blackberries and pistachios was glorious in balancing crispiness and sweetness. It was accompanied by wonderful, melting ratatouille potatoes.

The gentle flavour of a panna cotta made with wild flowers from the garden cleansed the palate for a raspberry soufflé with raspberry ripple ice cream – a classic done brilliantly. I skipped the coffee, which ordinarily would have meant missing out on a homemade macaron. The staff – attentive and friendly throughout – brought me one anyway.

If you’d like to combine a visit to the restaurant with an overnight stay, then book one of The Sportsman’s six charming cabins. You’ll find them at the back of the garden, but not on the restaurant’s website. Each cabin houses a large bedroom, en suite bathroom, fully-equipped kitchen and a comfortable living room. Thoughtful touches include a welcome letter on arrival, fluffy robes in the bathroom and a sewing kit next to the bed. Inside, each cabin has been decorated by a different artist. The Blue Cabin – they are all coded by colour – featured artwork by mosaic specialist Kimmy McHarrie. You can purchase the pieces of art that hang on the walls.

Cometh morning, cometh a breakfast basket brimming with homemade granola, cornflakes, yoghurt, honey, marmalade, orange juice, milk, butter and amazingly airy, freshly-baked bread. There is tea, coffee, sugar. Everything, essentially, to set you up for a day on Whitstable’s postcard-pretty pebbled coastline, just a short stroll away.

The tasting menu at The Sportsman costs £65 per head. A stay in a cabin costs £160 for the first night and then £140 per night thereafter, thesportsmanseasalter.co.uk

08

THE ECO RESORT

Monaci delle Terre Nere, Sicily

IN AN ANCIENT VINEYARD ONCE CULTIVATED BY BAREFOOT MONKS, A DELICATELY-DESIGNED WINE-ESTATE IS OFFERING BAREFOOT LUXURY IN THE FOOTHILLS OF MOUNT ETNA

Words: Richard Brown

Mount Etna, Europe’s largest active volcano, in Sicily’s green and wealthier north-east, has a microclimate all of its own. Here, the weather can flip as quick as a coin. Yesterday, on a beach near Sciacca, 125 miles to the west, we’d been sunbathing under a bottomless sky in 36-degree heat. Today, as the clock approached 4pm, the afternoon was drawing in like a grey Autumn day in the New Forest. Rain clouds had been chasing us since Syracuse and now they mingled with the misty halo above Sicily’s mother mountain until the clouds and the volcano’s vapour crown became one.

By the time we pulled up to Monaci delle Terre Nere, an ancient-farmstead-turned-wine-led-eco-estate, the grass was steaming and the air heavy with damp.

Five hundred metres above sea level, between Hephaestus and Poseidon, fire and water, Monaci delle Terre Nere is a good place to stay if you plan on hitting Sicily’s most famous attractions. Movie-set Taormina is just 40-minutes by car; the late-baroque, World Heritage towns of Modica, Ragusa and Noto are all reachable within an hour-and-a-half. True, Monaci’s 62 acres of stepped vineyards and ancient olive gardens might be three hours from the 12th-century Norman cathedrals of Palermo and Cefalù, but you’ve got to stay somewhere, and when it comes to exploring the Mediterranean’s largest island, it pays to stay in the east. The towns are prettier here. So are the beaches.

Guido Coffa grew up in the neighbouring village of Trecastagni. He studied in Milan and Turin before work took him to the United States. The land now occupied by Monaci delle Terre Nere, Coffa explains, was donated to an order of barefoot monks by the Archbishop of Catania sometime in the 17th century. Coffa stumbled across the estate’s drystone walls in 2007 while looking for a property to turn into a home.

“I remember it as if it were yesterday,” says the former automotive engineer. “It was a beautiful day in November. During the first day of my research, I came across this piece of land with a ruin on it. I did nothing but think about it – and in the end I bought it.”

Back then, Monaci was a bramble-strangled smallholding of neglected orchards, a grand-butdilapidated 18th-century villa and a smattering of ramshackle outbuildings. Coffa fell in love.

“I decided to devote my life to the resurrection of this place. My wish was to create more than a boutique hotel in Sicily. I wanted to preserve the historic identity of the territory – to create a home that I hope retains an intimacy.”

A decade-and-a-half after Coffa acquired it, that dilapidated villa is now the magenta-purple heart of a delicately-designed, rustically-modern eco-resort. It’s where trendy-looking people with expensive-looking luggage,

some of them driving electric cars, check-in and check-out; where they order trendy dishes of zero-km, farm-to-fork food from Monaci’s charming, stripped-back restaurant; where they drink trendy cocktails, and ask for advice on what’s more worthy of a day trip, the Valley of the Temples or the Archaeological Park of Selinunte (we preferred the latter).

A handful of Monaci’s 27 rooms and suites are located within its main villa. The rest are scattered between fruit orchards and fig trees in repurposed mills and former animal shelters. Ours had a floating bed and lava-stone walls, an antique writing desk and Bose WiFi speakers. Good taste and assiduous attention to detail. All cleaning products are handmade on site. We dropped our bags and bunkered down.

By morning the sun had burnt through the clouds. We forced ourselves out of bed early, ish, and walked a path through soggy orchards to an old stone building which, centuries ago, used to be used as a wine press. It now looks like the sort of place you see in interior design magazines. Old lime mortar walls and modern microcement flooring. The first meal of the day is served buffet-style, from a long oak table laden with homemade biscuits, pastries, breads and jams. There are local cheeses, nuts and honeys. Bowls of fruit and vegetables invite you to make your own smoothies. At 9am we were the only ones there. Trendy people with expensive-looking luggage are not the type of people to set an alarm.

As well as turning his hand to farming and labouring and digger-driving and architecture and construction and interior design, Coffa enrolled on a course to become a wine sommelier. The foothills of Mount Etna, along with Piedmont in the far north, account for Italy’s two most naturally-suited wine-producing regions. Coffa is now one of Sicily’s leading crusaders for organic plonk. Vino vidi vici.

“I believe winemaking is one of the noblest human arts,” he says. “When I was a teenager, my friends always teased me because I came to parties with two bottles of local wine – but then they would take turns asking me to taste them. I still remember my first experiments in the garage at home.”

The Monaci estate currently produces five of its own labels, each bearing Coffa’s name. “We use different varieties of grape native to the Etna region,” says Coffa, “such as Nerello Mascalese and Carricante, a wine grape variety which can be found only in Etna.”

We ordered a bottle of the Nerello Mascalese at the hotel’s restaurant, Locanda Nerello. It’s a bold, tannic wine that smells like a Burgundy and makes your tongue feel dry.

After lunch – a very good courgette parmigiana and a brilliant wild fennel risotto – we took the bottle of Nerello to the hotel’s strategically-positioned outdoor infinity pool. We counted the ships in the sea and marvelled at the enchanting place that Coffa and his team have created.

Rooms from approx. from £340 a night, including breakfast, monacidelleterrenere.it

We present to you the only place on Earth where you enter the mind of the director, the musicians, the editors and the engineers of cinema. You enter a CIPOD and leave the outside world behind.