> The Insight, March 04
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Insight Restaurant Guide: Joogleberry Playhouse
No raspberries here as Tom Allen found outBrighton is one of the most exciting places in the country, right? But how many places really fit the bill? No doubt Health & Safety make it more difficult for premises with a stage and a restaurant, and a café during the day. But perhaps that’s why, since Joogleberry (properly The Joogleberry Playhouse) opened last August, its been on everyone’s lips.

You can read elsewhere in this month’s The Insight about the history which culminated in Joogleberry’s founding. Suffice to say, over the entrance is a blown-up, blurry black and white photograph of Café Herrenhof in Vienna, which was run by the father of Joogleberry owners Sue and Geoff. The intention was for the Playhouse to evoke the big café openness of such pre-WW2 establishments of which Prague’s Grand Café was a notable example.There are other-worldly touches inside, like the old-school wooden, interior lit ‘Box Office’ booth and ‘Theatre’ canopy over the stairs leading down to the stage. There are Buddha statues, plants, pictures and outré mobiles hanging from the ceiling.

The menu is well thought out. Proper bohos like me need picking food to allow them time to gabble and drink and there’s plenty of mezzo and tapas plates. For starters I had a tapas of meat and cheese. If that is what the meat and cheese tapas looks like every time someone orders it, they’re onto a winner just on the strength of this one dish: big chunks of Parmesan, chorizo, salami, Manchego, dolcelatte on top of sprigs of rosemary, basil, deep fried sage, interspersed with berries and caperberries.

It was positively pagan and, as Craig David would say, proper Bo! The food, especially the main meals, are European brasserie style, including grilled salmon, wild boar sausages and pasta. There’s also a range of set menus to draw big groups in. With central Europe in mind, I tested a Hungarian Goulash, which was what such a stew is meant to be, rich and sweet. If the goulash was anything to go by, the main menu is deceptive, because the simple sounding dishes are well cooked and hold their own.

In a highly unbohemian move, I didn’t drink alcohol although the wine list is long. However, I was pining for my usual reviewing companion, and my inner suffering drew nods of approval from the other artists and creative types eating around me. Joogleberry is a bit of experiment. Under a year old, the place is still maturing. It will become a fixture because the food is excellent, there’s a stage downstairs and the proprietors know the score. On a cold, wet Tuesday night, it’s a hot place to go. Essential InfoDécor: Central European art studio bohemian.Food: European brasserie.

Service: Good.
Price: Affordable.
Atmosphere: Cool / bohemian.
Times: Midday to Midnight seven days a week

> The Insight Feb 04
“… the food is excellent… on a cold wet Tuesday night, it’s a hot place to go.”

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