THE TEMPLES OF THE COCKTAIL MARTINI
Once housing the Duke of Richmond’s hunting hounds, The Kennels is the
central clubhouse for all of the estate’s sporting and social
memberships
Friday 27th March 2014
It was s nice to arrive at the GRRC's finely detailed Clubhouse, 'The Kennels', the evening of Friday 28th March, after a long, weary trip from Italy. I looked forward to the soothing properties of their Martini cocktail, of which I had a great memory since 2012 and couldn't wait to repeat it.
Unfortunately, things change: the splendid 'flat' Martini cocktail glass of yore has disappeared and has been replaced by a much more conventional, narrow 'cone'. The Martin cocktail itself was too watery, a sure sign of the bartender having shaken it istead of gently mixing it, as I expressly asked. Too bad....
Saturday 22th March 2015
After a long and pleasant Saturday at Goodwood for the 73rd GRRC Meeting, I did rather enjoy the Martini in the Kennels' lounge, well mixed, in a decent 'average' glass. However, I feel that the lack of any 'accessories' to this cocktail, like chips or nuts or whatever, made it a somewhat poor experience; we asked for nuts (that in Italy are put on the table by the waiter without being asked, free, with many other edible items to make everything happy) and they were brought after 15 minutes and cost a whopping £3! Then they didn't have any olives to put in the Martini cocktail..... adding to this the fact that a steak listed at £25 on the menu was put on my bill for £38, I would say that Lord March probably has to take a closer look at this faraway province of his classy Empire and put things straight. This time, the Kennels was a somewhat dull, mechanical experience without much joy nor fascination
The Kennels,
Chichester, West Sussex,
PO18 0PN
Tel 01243 755000
