Brighton's Hotel Du Vin ready for summer with fresh new look

I HAVE some sympathy for the deputy manager at Brighton’s Hotel Du Vin.

She told us that when she started the job it took her weeks before she could find her way round this labyrinthine building to all 49 bedrooms.

It took us almost as long to get back to our room after dinner – but that may have been down to the cocktails.

A Deluxe room

These are strange times. Thanks to Covid, our one night in the Hotel Du Vin was essentially our Summer Holiday 2021.

Nothing wrong in that, of course, Brighton is a great city break destination. But we actually live here.

Still, after weeks of lockdown, it’s good to get away from the same four walls and the demands of children – and what better way than a few drinks and dinner followed by a night in a good hotel?

Hotel Du Vin in Ship Street – in the heart of The Lanes and handy for just about everywhere – is something of an anomaly.

It’s part of a well-known and very popular chain, which means you know pretty much what you will get when you check in.

The terrace

But it also feels like a boutique hotel – intimate, friendly, eccentric, even – but without the pretensions that can blight stays in Brighton.

That eccentric note starts with the outside of this 1920s Mock Tudor building – a nod by its original architect to the fact an inn has stood on the seafront here since the 1600s.

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The first building, back in the 17th century, was called The New Ship Inn (to avoid confusion with the nearby Old Ship) and when Londoners started coming down to Sussex to take the waters, it became Brighton’s main coaching inn.

It’s still one of the best places in town to stay and Hotel Du Vin took advantage of lockdown to give it a revamp – the biggest since taking over the site in 2001.

All 49 rooms have been refurbished with individual themes and come with plasma TVs and air conditioning. Choose from a classic double, a deluxe room or a range of suites.

The latter includes the Sea View Suites, which offer two roll-top baths, a Nespresso machine and – nice touch, this – a telescope.

As you are by the sea, you could push the boat out and book into the Signature Suite.

It’s got all the other Suite stuff plus a lounge and a private roof terrace with views out on to the Palace Pier.

A good indicator of the quality of any hotel is whether the locals use it.

Several of Brighton’s great and good (sorry, can’t reveal names) keep private wine collections there and pop in to drink them and to see and be seen.

But then Hotel Du Vin does have a private club feel – leather armchairs, wood-panelled walls, subdued lighting – and a warm, convivial atmosphere.

The barman does a mean cocktail, too, although service was a bit slow the night we went. Blame it on a sudden rush of people celebrating freedom.

It wasn’t quite warm enough to sit out in the vine-covered pergola in the hotel’s pretty courtyard so we had dinner in the bistro, a smart, airy Parisian-style brasserie with marble tables and banquettes.

The bistro

Hotel Du Vin’s restaurant doesn’t reinvent the wheel but what it does, classic French, it does with panache.

It’s no-frills cooking that is fresh, tasty and very reasonably priced.

We opted for the smoked salmon classic and the tiger prawns in aioli as starters, followed by the rib-eye steak and frites.

To go with it all, the sommelier recommended a very good Californian Zinfandel and an equally impressive white Bordeaux.

I divide restaurants into those that serve creme brulees and those that don’t. HDV does it and it is a big one, too, with the perfect crystallised sugar top. Fantastic.

And don’t miss breakfast, either. There are pastries and cold cuts but take my advice: Have the full English.

Hotel and restaurant chains can often be a letdown but this perennial Brighton favourite is no Vin Ordinaire.

l Visit www.hotelduvin.com for prices and availability.

Kate Parkin