Grace Dent reviews 45 Jermyn St.: I can think of no better place to go AWOL

Grace Dent finds old-school joy at 45 Jermyn St
45 Jermyn St: Not for the abstemious
Grace Dent12 December 2017

I have a terrific soft spot for Jermyn Street, sitting elegantly behind Piccadilly — just a brief skip away from the ragged hordes on the steps of Eros, the open-until-midnight Boots and the lo-fi electric billboards that resemble a sort of Lidl-brand Times Square — yet it’s a different world entirely.

Here is a land of olde English gent’s shirtmakers, obscure members’ drinking societies, Dickensian-style jewellery kiosks and always at least one slightly inebriated Right Honorable. He was supposed to be back in Sussex by teatime, but it all went rather awry.

I can’t say that 45 Jermyn St, the new cocktail bar on the ground floor of Fortnum & Mason (taking the place of the 60-year-old The Fountain Restaurant), will be an enormous help to such easily led people. I arrived making all sorts of abstemious faces, then spotted the drinks list and promptly ordered a Buckland (champagne with blackcurrant and lemon verbena) — and that quickly escalated to a Char Lady (Mount Gay rum with elderflower, gooseberry and Darjeeling tea). Because here, ensconced in a high-end bistro, is a serious cocktail bar staffed by folk who won’t collapse like a soufflé when you move beyond signature drinks. This is rarer than you think in London, where there are often cocktails, cocktails, everywhere and not a drop to drink.

45 Jermyn St opens for breakfast and stays open late for supper. I feel a slight fool for telling the world about it, as presently it’s all new and shiny and undersubscribed. But better than all of this, the lighting is glorious. A creamy pinkish hue envelops the maple-coloured leather booths and pistachio woodwork, but more importantly it bathed me in a 1940s MGM film-star mist. Useful when you’re greedily coveting an ice cream float from the ‘Afters’ menu like a woman not remotely ready for a close-up.

Anyone who refuses a date here after hearing news of 45 Jermyn St’s floats (think Wimpy Coke float, then go much, much more upmarket) is not worth taking out anyhow. Brown butter syrup, Four Roses bourbon, cornflake ice cream... No? How about Sarsaparilla syrup, Gosling’s Black Seal rum over gingerbread ice cream? You’d rather stay in and look at clean-eating bores on Instagram wanging on about titivated quinoa? OK. I don’t think we should get married.

So, yes; finely tuned but unfussy service, gorgeous lighting, good cocktails and imaginative puddings. I’m pretty much won over. Did I mention the caviar trolley? There’s a lovely touch here where, after choosing Beluga, or perhaps Golden Oscietra, a man trundles over with a trolley of baked baby potatoes and sour cream and a set of scales to weigh the caviar, before whisking up scrambled eggs on a tiny hot plate. Absolute gold-standard, old-school joy.

I’m yet to find out what they do to herald an order for snails with Gorgonzola and garlic butter. I wasn’t enormously excited by the choice of starters, but I’m sure others will be: grilled bones with parmesan, game consommé, chicory with shaved fennel and Blue Vinney cheese all felt like dishes for a stuffier clientele.

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Another positive in its favour, though, is the thoughtful vegetarian menu, featuring the likes of woodland mushroom pithivier, pumpkin ravioli and Lincolnshire onion and fig tart. For a main I ordered spätzle with Dorset blue lobster and sea aster. It was a buttery, satisfying plate of oceany carb-tastic lumps. I groaned throughout. My companion wasn’t blown away by the slightly dry tagliatelle with white Alba truffles, but you can’t win them all.

But do order the fennel gratin, as life is too brief to wafer-slice a fennel at home; nor would it taste like this. They also do a Knickerbocker Glory and tarte Tatin, but the Bourbon float was the winner for me. If one is going to get mysteriously waylaid along Jermyn Street, I can think of no better place to go AWOL.

The bill:

1 Buckland £12.50

1 Char Lady £9.50

10g Golden Oscietra £32

1 spätzle £14

1 tagliatelle £19

1 fennel gratin £4.25

1 petit pois £4.75

1 ice cream float £12.50

3 glasses champagne £36

2 Americano £7.90

TOTAL £152.40

45 Jermyn Street, SW1; 45jermynst.com

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