The Royal in St Leonards has made some changes. It now operates seven days a week and has a bar snack menu including cheese toasties, sausage rolls and beer sticks. It also opens on weekdays at 3pm with a ‘Prix Fixe’ menu on Monday-Thursday from 5.45pm onwards (good timing for commuters coming straight from the station opposite in need of de-stressing). 

It is still operated by James Hickson, who has a solid hospitality background in London restaurants and gastropubs, but the kitchen is now headed up by Andrew Taylor Gray, formerly of Petersham Nurseries and Winemakers Club. 

The last time I ate there was in March 2020 – we had the suckling pig ‘sharing platter’. I still remember how tasty it was, and also that the newly refurbished pub was very popular and full of raucous diners. Since then, it has acquired and retained a Michelin Bib Gourmand and cemented its reputation locally with seasonal dishes and fresh, local food. Reviews include comments about the place itself: “calming shades of pea green”, “The largest ceiling rose I have ever seen!”, and the food: “proper food without the fuss”, “simple but so much flavour”.

Jay Rayner categorises the Royal in the ‘family’ of gastropubs with a British sensibility “filtered through an understanding of the eternal verities of rugged French and Italian country cooking”. A good description which explains why it feels both sophisticated and homely. 

A few customers have grumbled about the prices, although others point out they are reasonable considering how “well sourced and sauced” the food is. Partly because of this, I was keen to try the Prix Fixe menu. It changes frequently, but I would describe it as comforting and hearty, although you might need some help with deciphering it. At £22 for two and £26 for three courses, it struck me as good value. When I visited, there were two meat, one fish and two vegetarian options, perfect for those who don’t like too much choice.

The service and the wine were excellent. It was lively for a Monday night: two large tables of diners and some smaller groups including the people with a beautiful lurcher at the next table who observed that they could happily eat their way through the whole menu. 

For starters, we chose mussel escabeche and beetroot hummus. Both were tasty, but the beetroot was excellent (somehow, I can never make beetroot taste that good at home). Then I had the grilled napa cabbage with fava beans and walnut tarator. That’s a Chinese cabbage: charred at the edges with a slight crunch, but also soft and sweet. The tarator is an interesting nut-based sauce, reminiscent of Georgian food. Wherever it’s from, it certainly helped to ramp up the flavour. My partner chose melt-in-the-mouth venison with its earthy mixture of spelt, leeks and wild garlic – yum.

We treated ourselves to desserts of poached pear and chocolate sorbet and the affogato. My pear was huge and perfectly poached, and my partner enjoyed the combination of the coffee, gelato and shortbread.

I left the Royal feeling pampered but not too stuffed. Verdict? The Prix Fixe menu is very reasonably priced and a great choice for anyone who wants to try a slightly adventurous mid-week meal but wants to sleep well and wake up feeling bright the next day.

The Royal St Leonards, 1 St Johns Road, St Leonards theroyalstleonards.co.uk 

Gina and James outside the off licence
CREDIT: Rachel Manns

You probably know that Queens Road has had a rocky past history in retail; why did you decide to open a wine shop there?

Gina: We live close to Queens Road and we both have a sentimental nostalgia for traditional off licenses. During lockdown we were dis-appointed not to have a good wine shop nearby, having got stuck in a bit of a rut with mainstream options. 

Along with many other Queens Road business owners, we sense the potential in the area – we knew the space would work for the concept we had in mind. Also, we were really lucky to have someone in mind to manage the shop: Drew Carr is responsible for the day-to-day running, while I continue my career as a freelance events manager and James runs his pub, The Royal, in St Leonards. 

We knew Hastings supports independent shops and hope that people enjoy the opportunity to buy wine from a local business. We feel very supported by the sense of community on the road and throughout the town. 

How do you view the comp-etition in St Leonards? Are you positioning yourself in terms of a similar clientele, prices, etc? 

Gina: We don’t necessarily view similar retailers as competitors. We feel there is a shared vision that specialist independent shops are still viable businesses. Operating a small shop isn’t for the faint-hearted – it’s hard work and immensely challenging on a daily basis, so we are supportive of fellow independent businesses and lucky to have so many in our community. 

Hastings Natural Wine Week was a great example of local wine retailers coming together to support each other and showcase the exemplary wines that the participating bars, shop and restaurants have to offer. 

The Manager Drew Carr
Photo by Rachel Manns

Will you continue to focus on wines from Europe and the UK, or will this selection evolve over time? Is there anything new for Christmas?

James: An old London friend of mine, wine consultant Ruth Spivey, (who now lives in St Leonards) was integral in selecting our opening range. Her expertise and industry relationships enabled us to
choose a very high standard of wines predominantly made by independent producers. As we grow the offering, we rely on customer feedback to inform our buying choices – as well as our own gut feelings.

We’re putting the finishing touches to our Christmas range, which won’t deviate too much from our core offering of interesting, quality wines at a wide range of price points. There will be some specially assembled case deals with Christmas dining and drinking in mind, as well as some more unusual and fun bottles for gifting. As Ruth always says, our wine list always reflects the uncomplicated values of, “good wine made by good people in a good way”.

We’re aware that we can’t compete with the supermarkets on price, but we can offer higher quality, unique wines, as well as sharing their provenance. All wines are available to drink in at the shop for an £8 corkage fee and we have a weekly menu of ‘by-the-glass’ options, allowing people to try out wines. 

We hope to grow the online side of our business and think Christmas will be a great time for people to take advantage of free local delivery (TN31-TN40 postcodes for orders over £50). 

There are a lot of upcoming events, including one tonight. How are they going?

Gina: Organising and hosting events is one of the most fun aspects of running the shop. We also regularly welcome winemakers and suppliers to showcase their products. Ruth Spivey hosts a regular tutored tasting series called Flight Club, which is an intimate exploration of six wines with a different theme. So far each of the Flight Club events has sold out. 

Our first party, Fizz & Chips, was a great success and we plan to have a party at the shop each month, changing themes to suit the season – we had mulled wine and cider for Halloween and a Beaujolais Nouveau party for 17 November. 

You have a playful name for the shop as well as memorable names for some of your events. Do you have a clear strategy for promoting the shop?

James: In the early days of creating the shop’s identity a few people were not convinced by the name, but we knew it was right for us. The puns just keep coming! And the graphics we create are just
a way to invoke the fun we find in sharing wine with friends and customers. 

Obviously, it’s important for us to be memorable and we believe the best way to do this is to ‘be ourselves’. As a brand, we have a lot of work to do establish our identity and our customer base. We are realistic that this will take time, and the most important thing is to remain consistent and authentic.