A quintessentially English dining experience, Gillray’s Steakhouse & Bar will celebrate the best of English when it launches at the end of March 2012.
Located in the 5* London Marriott County Hall hotel, Gillray’s Steakhouse & Bar will be the most English of English dining destinations, from the interior design to each cut of beef. Set in the County Hall, built 100 years ago to house London’s government, with views of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, few can claim a more inherently English location or vista.
The choice of namesake, James Gillray, a famed caricaturist of the late eighteenth century, reflects the political history of the County Hall’s past, and the intelligence, style and humour of the English personality. James Gillray’s work punctuates the menu and will be exhibited on the walls of the bar and steakhouse restaurant.
An English steakhouse of the finest design, the 110-cover Gillray’s Steakhouse & Bar is a homage to top quality beef -35-day dry aged Hereford Cattle from the Duke of Devonshire’s Bolton Abbey Estate in Yorkshire. The menu features nine cuts of steak – bone-out and bone-in – 300g Fillet on the bone, 450g Porthouse and 600g T-Bone steaks. The signature dish, a 1000g ‘Bulls Head’ steak, will steal the show – a 1000g-butterfly cut, double rib steak with the bone in.
As Denver Jeffrey, Director of Food and Beverage, says, “Gillray’s Steakhouse & Bar is all about indulging in great English produce – we want it to speak English at every level”. Every inch of the menu reflects this, displaying English food at its best.
The design is sophisticated but unpretentious, playing on the eccentric but charming details of classic lighting and furniture pieces, such as Chesterfield sofa and Waterford chandeliers, all bespoke designs by designers Blacksheep.
The bar offers a sophisticated and stylish Thames-side destination, featuring one of the finest selections of gin in London and an impressive cocktail collection designed by head bartender, Carlos Santos. The newly created cocktail menu is ordered by historical era, from the Georgian era – cocktails such as National Debt, Wife & No Wife and Very Slippy-Weather each taking their name from popular James Gillray sketches – through to contemporary and modern English concoctions. The cocktail collection doesn’t stop there, but gives a nod to the next generation of cocktails – molecular mixology
The Englishness of Gillray’s Steakhouse & Bar is evident throughout the bar menu, populated by 10 English beers (and two Scottish beers from Innis & Gunn), 29 English gins (including a few British favourites such as Hendrick’s) and five English vodkas. The bar snacks menu brings Englishness to life in bite-sized morsels – Pigs in Blankets, English Crumpet & Soft Boiled Egg and Venison Sausage Rolls with HP Sauce – England on a plate.
Gillray’s Steakhouse & Bar opens at London’s County Hall at the end of March 2012.
