64 Degrees of separation
He set new standards with his groundbreaking restaurant 64 Degrees. Now he’ s landed in Seven Dials with The Canopy. We sent Gilly Smith to meet Michael Bremner
Michael Bremner, arguably Brighton’ s most influential chef, is nursing a coffee at The Canopy, in Seven Dials. Carla Grassy, his ex-wife and business partner at the café which serves brunch and cake to a local crowd by day and a stunning and affordable three courses by night, cooked by Bremner himself, hands over Daisy the Dog. This is her café, and she’ s got work to do.
It’ s two weeks since the pair shut up shop at 64 Degrees, the tiny restaurant in the Lanes which exploded Brighton’ s food scene when it opened in 2013. The pioneer of modern small sharing plates in Brighton, it introduced the theatre of food to a city still looking for a culinary culture that it could call its own.
Guests sitting at the pass could watch chefs topping freshly made pasta with truffle butter and its signature 64-degree poached egg yolk while the column inches piled up. Giles Coren couldn’ t get enough of the cabbage-leaf kebab, while Financial Times’ Tim Hayward wrote“ this shows all the riotous sexy joy of a tapas joint in backstreet Barcelona”.
It was Brighton’ s time to shine, and it ushered in a golden era of eating out in the 2010s. The Set in Regency Square, Silo in the North Laine, Plateau in the Lanes, Murmur- Bremner and Glassy’ s second opening on the beach- suddenly the food scene was hitting the headlines, and not just in The Argus.
“ I feel very awkward talking about these sorts of things” Michael says when I ask him about the legacy of 64 Degrees 12 years on.“ We never did it for the customer. 64 Degrees came from my wanting to create an environment where I would want to work.”
The hyperlocal ethos of early Due South where he had worked under Robert Shenton( who also owns Riddle and Finns) gave him plenty of creative challenges. But when the opportunity popped up for his own place, he wanted to play with his food.
“ When I started 64 Degrees”, he told me,“ I had Sam Lambert and Josh Kitson working with me, and I said to these guys‘ I want to be in a position where we can do absolutely anything. Where there’ s no rules.’ I used to joke and say if we found an organic rat, I was well up for putting it on the menu, to just totally go out there and be crazy. I probably cooked better back then because I had no one criticising me. It was just us doing stuff. That’ s what created such an amazing place.”
But with the column inches came the customers, and with the customers, the Trip Advisor reviews and the heavy weight of expectation. He’ s a big man, this awardwinning master chef, but he’ s still smarting over a recent Google review of a Canopy breakfast of avocado on sourdough titled“ The Fall of Michael Bremner”.“ We had a one-star
Trip Advisor review of 64 Degrees because of our light bulbs,” he says. I can see it still hurts.
Murmur, his fish-focussed beachfront restaurant which looked out over the West Pier past the uplit bronze installation was his way of dodging the critics. For a while. But the toll of running two successful restaurants was proving too much for his young family, and with the end of his marriage to Carla, Murmur closed its doors last autumn. Even though the partnership has just given birth to The Canopy, he knows that 64 Degrees and Murmur was an impossible dream.
“ My youngest, Heidi, was about only 18 months when we opened 64 Degrees. You sacrifice so much in a restaurant and you’ ve got to do this balancing act of thinking like I’ m doing this for a better future for my kids. I loved it so much, you know; walking in there was just like an absolute joy. So, when people have little digs at you or say ridiculous things, you can’ t help but take it on board. I hate it.”
I wonder if it’ s Brighton’ s food culture that’ s the issue, the Sisyphean task of engaging a tourist town in eating great food cooked with heart and soul, using ingredients that come from living soils and farmers that care about animal welfare. He sighs.“ You could get a train into London, eat a very, very good meal and probably spend the same amount of money as you would in Brighton now. And that’ s including your travel.”
It’ s a long way from Brighton’ s golden era. Michael blames the economy.“ The hospitality industry at the moment is brutal”, he says.“ When I first opened 64 Degrees, we were turning 100 people a day, 60 for dinner, 40 for lunch at about £ 60 a head. We were killing it. But staff cost was less. Rent has never really changed that much for me, so that’ s been quite consistent, and the produce was a lot cheaper. Now everything’ s cranked up. And it’ s crazy, but everyone still thinks you can get a meal for the same price as before.”
We talk about what’ s next after a series of late summer Michael Bremner pop ups at The Canopy, and his eyes begin to glint again. I tell him that I see a man who’ s learned the hard way how to balance life as a chef and a dad, and who’ s thinking about how to get it right next time.“ Absolutely, yeah, yeah. I’ ve always been the one out front and I want to be in a position where I’ ll set up situations, but then it won’ t be so dependent on me.”
He tells me that he’ s keeping the space where 64 Degrees began but turning it into something that benefits the community.“ That’ s not something that I’ ve really done in the past,” he says.“ I mean, I do charities and I’ ve always wanted to do things that I’ m proud of. But this is an idea that I’ ve had for probably seven years, and I want to achieve something that’ s really special.”
l The Canopy, 87-93 Dyke Rd, BN1 3JE 01273 000216 https:// thecanopycafe. co. uk /