Going For A Song – Carluccio’s
Andrew Kay enjoys Opera A Tavola at Carluccio’s
If I’m perfectly honest, over the years my experiences of dinners with entertainment have not been good. Sometimes good food with bad entertainment, sometimes good entertainment with bad food and sometimes bad food and bad entertainment. So, as you can imagine, I was fairly nervous about Opera A Tavola. Not that I was worried about the food at Carluccio’s, I eat there often and love it. No, it was the singing that had me worried.
I arrived to find a rather nice drinks reception with excellent nibbles, mountains of crisp whitebait and little chicken pieces with ham and sage went down well with quality chilled Prosecco. My guest for the evening was Dr W, who arrived a few minutes later, but soon entered into the general conversation that would be key to the whole evening. I liked that we mingled to start and loved the fact that there were some familiar faces in the crowd.
Eventually we were asked to come to the tables as the evening proper was about to start. Now opera and Italian song is a fairly rich diet so the menu was nice and simple. We started with platters of antipasto, crusty bread with olives, capers, artichokes, ham, salami, huge olives and stuffed peppers. It was a delight and I have to say, almost enough for a supper in itself. The doctor and I made pretty light work of it though and washed it down with a nice glass of Gavi di Gavi each.
After that the first series of songs started, a mix of Neopolitan song, Offenbach, Donizetti, Mozart and Verdi, a nice mix of popular and a little more challenging that set the tone for the evening. And after two visits to Glyndebourne that week anything less might have seemed far too light. The singers were excellent too, filling the room with their powerful voices and engaging the audience throughout.
The main course came out as the applause subsided, perfect timing indeed. A slow roasted chicken leg with a rich mushroom and marsala sauce was a hearty dish packed with flavour and above all achievable in the time frame of the evening for the kitchen. I think the real success of the evening was in fact the simplicity of the parts and the slickness with which they were being brought together.
There was mashed potato too, lovely, creamy clouds of the stuff, easy to eat and chatter at the same time and between the singing there was much chatter. We drank a bottle of Barbera with the main which was deep and rich and a great match for the rich mushroom sauce.
After the main we had Gershwin, Rossini, Gounod Mozart and a nice dollop of Gilbert and Sullivan to prepare us for dessert.
Dessert was a fruit tart, simple but nice, but served with really great mascarpone ice-cream that I will certainly have to revisit.
Finally a bit of My Fair Lady, Granada, Noel Coward, Strauss, Show Boat and Dvorak for those of us who like it a little more demanding. Cameo Opera are Judith Buckle, Clarissa Stedman, Arthur Coomber and Matthew Craven accompanied by Lesley Ann Sammons at the piano and they will be returning in early February for second helpings.
Carluccios got the evening absolutely right and at £35 a head, excluding wine, it has to be said I thought it was great value. Good food, good music and good company. I would certainly be happy to go again. The evening was a total sell out so booking for the next one in February will be essential.
Carluccio’s, 1 Jubilee St, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1GE, Tel: 01273 690493, www.carluccios.com/restaurants/brighton
