Calling all roast lovers! There’s a new supper club that’s offering relaxed home-cooked Sunday lunches once a month.
It seems like every other restaurant plays host to a supper club these days, but Hove-based friends Lauren and Ben are bringing back the OG home-dining vibes with new venture The Sunday Joint. Celebrating community and the leisurely Sunday lunch in Lauren’s home, there’s no table turning or sneaky add-ons if you fancy a bit more gravy here.
“My friend Ben [who’s helping with hosting] and I are passionate about creating a relaxing, restorative and generous Sunday afternoon experience. It’s about bringing people together for great conversation over wonderful, wholesome food,” she said.
The name pays tribute to a restaurant Lauren’s mum used to run – a love of making good food for good people runs in the family. And Lauren’s got pedigree herself: she’s always been a passionate cook and host and trained at Ireland’s Ballymaloe Cookery School, working as a private chef alongside her career building food brands like Higgidy.
The culinary magic takes place in Lauren’s light-filled open-plan home kitchen that opens out into her garden – perfect for enjoying a welcome aperitif that Lauren will probably have created from foraging and fermenting local goodies. We went to the very first one and it’s safe to say we were pretty blown away… how many Sunday lunches kick off with a crisp home-made elderflower champagne?
So, what’s included? For £25, you’ll get an aperitif (this month it’s a beautifully bottled home-made nettle beer), nibbles, a mouth-watering seasonal Sunday lunch with all the trimmings (from full-on roasts to more summery variations), followed by homemade pudding and a cheeseboard – served sharing-style so you can help yourself to as much as you fancy (always a plus!). And a very warm welcome, obviously. We reckon this is a mighty good deal, especially when you compare it to the costs of other roasts around town.
So what did we eat?
We kicked off in the kitchen with some home-baked loaded focaccia bites and the most delicious elderflower champagne – made from the elder tree in Lauren’s garden, no less. It was a great chance to get to know our fellow guests over (generously poured) drinks in a super-relaxed setting and get a front-row seat as Lauren and Ben continued the pre-lunch prep.
On to the main event: our starter was an excellent Yorkshire pudding, which we were told is actually traditionally eaten as a first course with the aim of dampening the appetite. Top marks for the gravy, too. For the meat-eaters there was “super succulent” free-range brined and roasted chicken and an excellent beetroot and red onion tarte tatin for the veggies and vegans. The roast potatoes were some of the finest we’d eaten – crisp on the outside and moreishly soft on the inside, but the trimmings didn’t stop there. We also tucked into a flavour-packed cauliflower cheese, roasted carrots and asparagus.
We were pretty stuffed by this point so had a break in Lauren’s lovely garden before heading back to continue the feast. Pudding was an excellent sticky toffee pudding with ice-cream, followed by a huge cheeseboard with grapes and an array of crackers.
As you’ll see from the above, dietary restrictions are well catered for. There’s zero chance of an uninspired second-best option (there’s no “not ANOTHER mushroom risotto?!” sigh here) – you’ll still get a centrepiece home-cooked dinner.
It’s a pleasingly intimate affair, too: the dining table seats eight people and you can turn up on your own (which we did), bring a friend or book the lot, for a special occasion maybe or just because.
It’s BYOB (no corkage charge) and there are no time slots, either – you won’t be ushered off the premises straight after eating; in fact, you’re welcome to enjoy a post-prandial chill and chat.
So, if you’re tired of restaurant roasts and fancy getting out for an infinitely more relaxed top-notch home-cooked dinner, we’d highly recommend the Sunday Joint. Don’t miss out – the next event is on Sunday 18th August.
Sunday 1st September and Sunday 6th October; from 1pm; £27.80
Central Hove (full address revealed on booking)
Book here
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