Roth Grill - BRUTON

Meal type: Lunch Price per person: £20–30 Food: 5 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5 Recommended dishes: Sunday Roast

Selling Picasso’s to publicity shy billionaire art collectors, sounds like such a bit of a cushy number. We can however get a glimpse of the skill sets required in Swiss gallery owners Iwan Wirth and Manuel Hauser’s diversification into the development of a UK based hospitality business. Or to be more accurate, several hospitality businesses. Their recent openings showcase an eclectic mix of wonderful art, honest food, comfortable beds and decent wines. One of them, the Fife Arms, the iconic flagship of the enterprise, encapsulates under its grey tiled roof, everything that is positive about Scottish hospitality, while transforming the provision of informal luxury accommodation into literally an art form. The hospitality experiment started with the acquisition of a farm in the rolling hills and apple orchards (now vineyards) of Somerset, near to the village of Bruton. Farm buildings have been converted into a 6 bed luxury gite (private chef to order), a spacious art gallery, cafe, bar, restaurant, and farm shop. Slightly confusingly, the venture sometimes goes by the name Hauser and Wirth, sometimes Art Farm, Durslade Farm Shop, and Roth Bar and Grill (design of the bar care of the descendants of conceptual artist Dieter Roth). In any event, last year I was fortunate to catch the last day of a magnificent display of works by the late Henry Moore in the farm gallery. If the entirety of the Somerset collection could be conceptualised by Dieter as an Anne Redpath still life, flowers in vases, cups on the farmhouse table, the next development in the portfolio had Frank Auerbach charging into the room, trowel in hand, blending autumnal colour combinations using enough paint to cover the hull of the Royal Yacht Britannia. I visited the Fife Arms in Braemar, a skip and a jump from Balmoral, in 2019 within a year of its opening. Having read the first Fife Arms reviews, as the co-owner of Hotel Les Deux Chèvres, a boutique art hotel in Burgundy, I had a professional excuse to satisfy my art appreciation curiosity. Frank’s bold brush strokes combined dollops of tartan, interspersed with stags heads, a stuffed Queen Victoria, Picasso’s, Freuds, and 1,500 odd other works of interest all under the roof af a magnificently converted 45 bedroom former Victorian coaching inn. For each room there were two staff, estimated conversion costs in excess of £20m, and the same again on the contents (not counting the Picasso and Freud). The integration of a local’s bar serving pies and pints with the 5* luxury ground floor salons, is a design masterpiece in its own right. And so to the latest offering, the re incarnation of a Mayfair pub, into a Mayfair pub, Mount St Restaurant, and rooms for private functions. To be frank, after staying at the Fife Arms, the Audley pub and Mount St restaurant, would need to be an unmitigated disaster, before I would give it a negative review. Of course it is not. The bar is pleasant, the service on a busy evening, good; the choice of beers, excellent. The restsurant, an interesting menu array of modern british, I have not yet sampled. But why The Audley? For profit? Surely not. Had it been renamed the Fife Arms (London), a few stags heads and bucket loads of fine Scottish whiskies and langoustines imported, I would get it. But those are my brand musings, and probably better expressed elsewhere. On the assumption there is a grand plan to the expansion of the Group’s hospitality interests, I await the next installment with interest. And should they consider a French wine village, I have just the opportunity ready and waiting in Gevrey Chambertin! In the meantime, bravo, and thank you very much for the journey so far, Manuela and Iwan. Food: 3 Service: 4 Atmosphere: 4

Love the food and the atmosphere in the outdoor area here! We shared the roast chicken and a few plates of vegetables and it was heaven. Such amazing quality ingredients. Service: Dine in Meal type: Lunch Food: 5 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5 Recommended dishes: Sunday Roast

Lovely atmosphere. Quick and friendly service. Good knowledge of the menu. Limited vegan and vegetarian options. Service: Dine in Meal type: Lunch Price per person: £20–30 Food: 4 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5 Recommendation for vegetarians: Somewhat recommend Vegetarian offerings: Clearly labeled vegetarian dishes

Great food, staff and setting. Food: 5 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5