F&B line-up confirmed for Oxford Graduate hotel with Social Company chef at the helm

The line-up of food and beverage outlets opening at the Randolph hotel by Graduate Hotels in Oxford this summer has been confirmed.

Chris Emery, former executive sous chef at Jason Atherton’s Michelin-starred Pollen Street Social in London and head chef at the Clocktower in New York, has been appointed executive chef at the Alice, an all-day British restaurant and bar at the 151-bedroom hotel.

Graduate Hotels has brought in White Rabbit Projects to oversee the F&B at its first UK properties, including a Graduate hotel in Cambridge due to open next month. The group is owned by AJ Capital Partners, which also has properties in St Andrews and North Berwick in which White Rabbit is involved.

The opening summer menu at the Alice will be seasonally driven and largely supported by local farmers and suppliers from Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. It will include starters of Chalk Stream trout, Porthilly oyster and charcoal mayonnaise; and chicken and duck liver terrine, cherry, brioche and summer salad. Main courses will include roasted Lake District lamb, asparagus, black garlic and morels; and pan-seared brill, Datterini tomatoes and butter sauce. Puddings will include strawberries, elderflower and Pedro Ximénez together with tarte tatin with banana, vanilla and caramel. Within the Alice will be the ‘Alice bar’, offering a broad selection of wines, craft beers and spirits.

The 78-cover restaurant, named after University of Oxford alumnus Lewis Carroll, will serve breakfast, lunch, dinner, pre-theatre dining and afternoon tea. The restaurant will also provide the menu inspiration for the other hotel hospitality spaces, namely the Snug, the Morse bar and informal lounge and dining spaces the Drawing Room and the Lancaster Room.

The Snug, a 20-cover cocktail lounge with the spirit of a bohemian English library, will adjoin the Alice and serve drinks and snacks. The 17-cover Morse bar, focused on cocktails and whiskey, will be named after Morse author Colin Dexter, who was a regular and penned some of the Morse books from the bar.

The Drawing Room (19 covers) and the Lancaster Room (40 covers) will be two physically connected spaces for overlooking the Ashmolean Museum and available for private hire, parties, dinners, receptions and celebrations.

White Rabbit is a restaurant investment and advisory service founded by former Soho House Group commercial director Chris Miller and has supported the growth of brands including Kricket, Lina Stores and Island Poké, working with early-stage chefs and restaurants to launch and grow their businesses.

Graduate Hotels was launched in 2014 by chief executive Ben Weprin and has 28 hotels in university-anchored towns throughout the US. The group is owned by Adventurous Journeys (AJ) Capital Partners, the real estate developer, owner and operator founded by Weprin in 2008.

In recent years, AJ Capital Partners acquired the Rusacks hotel in St Andrews, the leasehold interest of the Randolph hotel in Oxford and the Marine Hotel & Spa in North Berwick, East Lothian, from Macdonald Hotels. The group also acquired the Marine Troon from Cannock Group and Stellar Asset Management and the former DoubleTree by Hilton Cambridge City Centre from property company Ability Group.

The Cambridge and Oxford hotels will relaunch under the Graduate Hotels Collection this summer, while the Rusacks, Marine North Berwick and Marine hotel in Troon, Ayrshire, will come under its Marine & Lawn Collection.