» Bom-Bane restaurant
Andrew Kay sings for his supper at Bom-Bane’s in Kemp Town
Life, being what it is, can all become a bit serious. Even for me in my role as roly-poly fat man at large for Latest 7. I am only too aware that my waxing lyrical on the joys of food and drink can border on the indulgent at one extreme and the straightforward rant at the other. There are days when, to be really honest, all I want is a fish finger butty with Heinz salad cream.
I shouldn’t moan, one friend openly admonishes me for complaining about what she describes as a charmed life with a charmed job. And from time to time an invite pops in which certainly lifts my spirits.
One such invite arrived at the end of the festival. Dinner at Bom-Bane’s for Bom-Bane’s: The Musical.
‘‘Good food, loads of organic wine, great music, humour, sadness, lunacy and an epic mountain of chocolate-draped freshly cooked waffles’’
Now to my shame I have neglected Bom-Bane’s and for no good reason. I may have been slightly disturbed at the concept of Yorkshire/Belgian cuisine, but that’s not a good enough excuse. I replied to the invite in the affirmative and a week later, accompanied by the ubiquitous Mr L, we arrived.
Bom-Bane’s can legitimately be described as eccentric. The décor defies all the rules of good taste – and looks amazing. The tables are works of anarchic art, ours rose a good 18 inches at random throughout the evening, another revolved, one had a pepperpot that set chimes ringing and one had a model pier with tidal water that came and went.
Maitresse Bom-Bane is fully in charge of her unruly child of a café but is aided and abetted by Nick Pynn, musician extraordinaire, who by legend has played a different instrument on every UK number one hit since 1804, or some such lunacy. Anyway he is a seriously good multiinstrumentalist so we were in good hands.
Dinner came with songs; songs about dinner, about how Jane opened the café, how the staff arrived and as if by magic, could sing and play instruments too. And they certainly can play and sing. Better then good, they are brilliant.
We laughed continuously from beginning to end and it was delicious laughter, people all sharing in the one joke. It was as if, somehow, we were in a parallel world where revolving tables and singing waitresses were the norm. An evening away from the drabness of the real world and from the high arts in which I had immersed myself for the previous three weeks.
Dinner was good too. A starter of tapenade, hummus and roasted red pepper dip came with good bread and lovely oven-baked tomatoes. Next out came stoemp and sausages with Belgian beer gravy. Now I am not unfamiliar with stoemp, having eaten it in Amsterdam a few times. Basically it is a mix of mashed potato and vegetables. In Holland the veg content tends to be heavy on the cabbage, at Bom- Bane’s it boasted broccoli and carrots. The gravy was good enough to eat with a spoon and the sausages were big and meaty. It was hearty stuff to fuel our hearty enjoyment.
By now we had learned of the difficulties of working at Bom-Bane’s, the struggle for survival and the fun too. The girls appeared and sang, then served the food and drink. Nick appeared with a lute, then a dulcimer, then a fiddle and then a guitar. A harmonium was wheeled in and out and a strange orb on the stairs produced various sci-fi sounds as it was caressed.
This was quite clearly an extraordinary event; good food, loads of organic wine, great music, humour, sadness, lunacy and an epic mountain of chocolate-draped freshly cooked waffles with an equally impressive hill of fruit salad. We all politely took a share and there was plenty left for seconds all round.
Now I have eaten in some of the finest restaurants around and dined on fine foods and wines. But I have seldom had this much pure pleasure, music, food and merrymaking that did not depend on indulgence, did not make demands of me, simply filled my belly and then made it ache with laughter. In a coup de grace Jane appeared in a stunningly lunatic hat complete with animated model of the restaurant and with staff on a motorised staircase caught in perpetual servitude. It was all I could do to remain on my seat.
Bom-Bane’s, 24 George Street, Brighton BN2 1RH is open Tue-Sun,12.30-11pm, last orders for food on music Tuesdays is 7pm.
Bom-Bane’s: The Musical will be performed again on June 28 and July 17 and 26. Call 01273 606400 or visit: www.bom-banes.co.uk
