REVIEW: Woodlandia: Patterns

Woodlandia

Patterns

Free

Patterns; bar & music venue on Brighton’s seafront are offering customers the chance to push through some fur coats (faux very Brighton…) and get lost in an enchanting snowy forest this winter complete with effects, digital animals and warm and cosy food & drinks.

Patterns have transformed themselves into an enchanted forest with nostalgic and immersive visual delights of Britain’s woodlands  in winter.  Inspired by Narnia, brought to life by a multi-level digitally projected and interlinked forest, complete with softly falling snowflakes, inquisitive wild animals and scents of the forest air.  They’ve got a new menu full of festive treats to enjoy as you watch a flock of birds fly around the room or a snow fox dart in front of you. My companion and I, sipping delicious Hot Buttered Rum from old tin mugs, watched the sunset from a discarded Chesterfield in their woods with swirling snow projected around. The music was cool, laid back and quality retro, it was sweet and fun.  We followed the buttered rum with a few Turkish Delight Martinis. They tasted like something the White Witch would have served little greedy Eric as he was spirited away in her (real) fur lined sledge…… Lanique Rose liquor, rose water, grenadine, vodka, chocolate liquor, chocolate bitters. As tasty and complex as it sounds, I was seduced and ready to do her evil bidding.

I ordered from the new festive menu and had the Pulled Duck ‘N’ Apple Hot Dog, hotdog with pulled duck, braised red cabbage and caramelised spiced apple (star anise, cinnamon) and seaside chips, crisp chips flavoured with seaweed, just right and filled me up on the start of an evening out.

Each weekend there are curated immersive events, inspired by the natural world, including Yoga in the Forest, Woodland Lino Cutting with Jessica Sharville, Wild Winter Wreath Workshop, and Urban Foraging Cocktail Workshop. Check the website here for more info on the workshops.

The digital wizardry is created by Brighton based digital projection artist Thomas Buckley . Woodlandia is around until the end of the winter and it promises to change and grow with the seasons. We were told the forest will thaw and turn green with the first flushes of spring. Great fun and presented with a lot of idiosyncratic care and creative attention to detail, it’s a cool space to get warm and hide out from the winter seafront winds this festive season and a superb place to have a staff/social night (you can reserve one of the themed areas for free if you drop them an email) or one of their superb festive cocktails, the bar staff are as attentive and cute as the bar is, and the food reasonably priced and all cooked fresh.

Patten’s continues to offer an unusually warm and creative welcome unlike most on the seafront, now it’s time for another of those lovely Turkish Delight cocktails…

Woodlandia

Until Feb

Free

See full details on their website here:

Patterns

10 Marine Parade

Brighton

BN2 1TL (or just look out for the lamppost that marks the entrance…)