Wild Flor on Church Street, Hove (credit Roarke Pearce)
“Well priced, excellent modern European cooking with the most generous of hearts. Lucky, lucky Hove.” Tom Parker Bowles, Mail on Sunday
Wild Flor is a neighbourhood restaurant on Hove’s Church Road, serving classic British and European cooking alongside world-class wines. The menu has a strong focus on locally sourced and hyper-seasonal ingredients while a fantastic wine list mirrors the menu in balancing quality and value. With a beautifully pared back interior evoking the ambience of rustic French elegance, diners are as welcome to stop by for a plate of Ortiz anchovies, olives and almonds and a glass of Fino on the way home, as they are for three courses with paired wines and to stay past midnight.
A bustling and residential area, Church Road is lined with artisan shops, wine bars and restaurants, where Regency houses back on to the seafront, only a few minutes from Wild Flor and fifteen minutes from the centre of Brighton.
The restaurant offers an à la carte menu from which guests can order familiar plates of comfort food alongside more luxury items. Dishes might include roast courgette, romesco and goat cheese; Iberico ham; veal sweetbreads, almonds, peas and sherry sauce; lamb rump with chard and salsa verde and for pudding, pistachio éclair, black cherry and marjoram; apple and thyme jellies and a plate of fine British cheeses.
Inside, teal leather banquettes and bistro wooden tables are laid simply with glassware, exposed red brick walls are lined with bottles and hung with wine prints. A large blackboard is chalked with that day’s lunch and dinner menus. The wine list is short with intelligent and interesting choices with lesser known varieties sitting alongside the finest examples of grapes and blends from around the world. Where the list stands out is providing elegance and diversity and aged wines at good value such as Pinot Noir 'Dundee Hills’ from the Willamette Valley or Savagnin ‘Sous Voile’ by Daniel Dugois in the Arbois.
Robert Maynard, Faye Hudson and James Thomson run front of house operations as co-owners with many years’ experience at some of Brighton’s best restaurants. All three have known each other for years and share an immense enthusiasm and commitment to delivering a first-class dining experience and bringing all that they love about food and wine to Hove. In Wild Flor they have created a relaxed comfortable setting for diners to enjoy some of the best food and drink the city has to offer.
New head chef Chris Trundle joins the original team at a really exciting time, as Wild Flor continues to evolve and adapt. Chris boasts an incredible CV, having held head chef positions at the Michelin-starred Manfred’s in Copenhagen and Lyle’s in Shoreditch, London which was ranked 33 in The World's Best Restaurants in 2019. His style of food favours honest and uncomplicated dishes using hyper-seasonal ingredients that makes people happy, using classic cookery techniques.
Chris heads up the kitchen team with sous chef Laurence Kinghorn-East who began his career at acclaimed Gingerman Group in Brighton, before taking positions at the Michelin-starred kitchens of Matt Gillan at The Pass and with Merlin Labron-Johnson at Portland in London and latterly at Osip in Bruton, Somerset.
The Team
Faye Hudson, Director
Faye spent 8 years at The Gingerman in Brighton, the majority of which as assistant manager, before opening Wild Flor. She specifically looks after front of house and all aspects of customer service at Wild Flor and loves nothing more than working the floor. She and James met while working for the Gingerman group and are now husband and wife.
Robert Maynard, Director
Rob has seen all sides of the wine and restaurant trade with his two most prominent positions being his time as Gingerman Group Bar Manager and a year working with Butler’s Wine Cellar in Brighton. After spells working in various bars across Brighton, James and Rob started working together again at Hove’s Ginger Pig in 2014.
James Thomson, Director
James has worked in hospitality since he was 15, starting in pubs and bars before working in a fine dining restaurant in New Zealand, aged 19. On returning home, James had management roles before taking on the role of General Manager at the Ginger Pig in Hove. It was working for the Gingerman group that James met his now wife and business partner, Faye, as well as developing a great working relationship with Robert before joining forces to open Wild Flor together.
For more information please contact Hannah Blake at The Dining Room on hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk or 07730 039361