Tunnel of Love
Following a pretty gnarly fire in the Brasserie kitchen back
in June last year, owners Soho House (the genius behind Dirty Burger, amongst a
few high-profile others) took the opportunity to redesign Electric Brassiere
and so called in Brendan Sodikoff, the celebrated chef behind Chicago’s
French-American diner Au Cheval, to help design the concept, menu, and even
train the staff.
And help he has: In keeping with the Sodikoff aesthetic,
Electric has the low lit, bare bricked, white tiled sheen of his US based
diners, not too dissimilar from what is commonly popularly in London right now.
It's well polished. But there are some tidbits of Americana that give it a
certain nuance: decadent red leather booths, comedy large yank beer taps
hosting an impressive selection of brews, and wood panelling behind the
bar.
It makes it feel like it's been there for a long, long time. It also feels genuine.
Along with the booths, counter seats add an authentic diner
feel - sitting there you become privy to the banter between the expo and the
chefs. Intermingled with the chatter from the bar and the booths, and the low
grumble of dance muzak from a reel-to-reel in the background, it is super buzzy
and boisterous.
The menu mixes it up more polished restaurant items with
diner classics too - bone marrow with beef cheek marmalade casually sits alongside
the humble hot dog. Everything is tarted up to a certain extent, what
constitutes a portion of wings on the menu the financial equivalent of a swift
knee in the bank account, but watching orders confidently leave the kitchen
quality is evident.
Burger +1.
The double-pattied single cheeseburger arrived impaled with a steak
knife, unnecessary but ceremonial. The thin patties, well-seasoned and crusted,
are melded together with a sticky Jack cheese. Similar in method to an In 'n
Out Double Double, it creates an impressively robust beefy, salty, viscous
unit. We like it that way. And Millers again cement themselves as the Google of
the London burger bun with an impeccable effort.
Before the lid is thrown on, layers of mandolin-thin pickles
are lobbed on the burger, followed by slews of hint-of-mustard mayo, and a
generous sprinkle of diced red onions. The layering creates a crunchy tangy
condiment but, and rarely do we say this, but tragically there is just too much
of it. The mayo oozes everywhere and really takes the sting out of the cheesy
meat bomb, dropping the whole just a notch. Shame.
Confusingly, the burgers here are buy-one-get-one-free. A single is a double. A double is a triple. Keep that in mind because the single is easily enough meat.
Bologna NOUN [UNCOUNTABLE] INFORMAL /bəˈləʊni/
It is the bologna sarnie that is the Rosette winner.
Reams and
reams of wafer-thin meat, thrown on the hotplate to cook through, heating it to
melt-in-the-mouth consistency, draped in slice upon slice of cloched cheese
until it droops over it like an over-soused girlfriend, smothered in mayo and encased in the same
Miller's bun.
It's too easy to eat by far. It is much more an American sandwich in London than nearly anything else we can think of.
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