With three big, curved windows on London Street, at night, the lights of Floyd’s Grill sparkle in the evenings, a warm glow lighting up the people inside and the pavement beyond. I stepped over the threshold leaving the cold night air behind.
Floyd’s Grill is a friendly airy space; it’s big and yet it is very cleverly designed inside to give a cheerful welcome and the feeling of VIP seclusion for you and your group. In spacious booths, at small tables in the heart of the restaurant or on tall stools lined up along the bar at the back with a view across the restaurant to the street beyond, you’ll always feel cosy and yet have room to stretch out and kickback.
Here Kwiksave once stood, and Threshers before it, but now this building has stepped up to meet the twenty-first century with class and pizazz. The interior design brings together a rich warm palette of tan, orange and burnt sienna above a floor where glowing redwood adjoins stylish black and white. There’s a friendly art deco flavour and a relaxed ambience, a chilled vibe reflected in the acoustic music playing gently in the background. From the ceiling, golden lamps and grass-green foliage descend, and glinting crystal lights undulate through the central area, whilst the light feature in the front window is a masterpiece in glass.
Running down either side of the restaurant, striped in hues of oak, the walls frame giant bespoke artworks on which bulls and oxen-skull in subdued, yet colourful patterns are overlaid on maps and photos of the town and the local environs: in one, a bull in the blue and white of Chinese pottery strolls up White Horse Hill, a local view stretching beyond him.
I chatted to manager Chris Benson to find out more about the restaurant’s ethos and their menu. “Our steaks are all prime cuts sourced from local farms, via Bourton Road Butchers in Carterton, and all the cows have been born and raised within a ten-mile radius.” Chris begins. “We are very aware that many people are now much more conscious of where their meat comes from as they choose to reduce their carbon footprint: by using meat that is locally-reared and vegetables grown on local farms, we minimise the mileage travelled by our ingredients as much as possible. The octopus though, that isn’t from Oxfordshire!” Chris laughs, “and our wine is from all over, via an amazing wine merchant who stores his stock in a disused chalk mine near Reading. We even have a delicious British equivalent of Champagne from the Bolney Wine Estate just outside Brighton. It’s a very varied selection and we had lots of fun choosing it.
We also have customers who are reducing the amount of meat they cook at home and so when they are choosing to have a steak or other grilled meat, they’re making it special. Although steak features large on the menu, Floyd’s Grill is very much a grill rather than a steakhouse and there’ll always be seafood and something vegetarian on the menu. Because we offer small plates and sides too, there’s the option of ordering tapas-style, teaming a Saffron risotto with a flatbread, for example, or roasted beetroot and goat’s cheese with fries.
We’ve also recently introduced roast dinners on Sundays and – excitingly – a once-a-month brunch with avocado and duck eggs, spicy Shakshuka, granola and yoghurt topped with poached apple and rhubarb and American-style pancakes with syrup. The menu changes seasonally, so keep your eyes open for new dishes. We expect to be bringing in lamb this spring – and in time for Mother’s Day.
We’d love to hear more from Faringdon residents about what they would like,” says Chris. “Because Floyd’s is owned by a local family and we aren’t part of a chain or a big organisation, we can be very adaptable if people have suggestions.”
I look around the versatile space – I picture both a sultry jazz evening and a rather classy afternoon tea. But first, I must finish this particularly good sticky toffee pudding.
For more information visit floydsgrill.co.uk or their Facebook page FloydsGrillLtd for up-to-date information on events and specials.
