Play it again, Sam

Although the original meaning of the term 'brasserie' was a restaurant where beer was produced - the early day French equivalent of a microbrewery, I guess --in contemporary London the word conjures up a relaxed dining establishment with assured, quality food. No frills, necessarily, just honesttogoodness grub and at decent value for money.

The eponymous Sam (Harrison) has attempted to create this along with a buzzy, informal, all-day neighbourhood bar in Chiswick's Barley Mow Centre, a one-time paper factory and now home to some 100 or so small businesses.

The space is large and industrial, softened by contemporary, relaxed furnishings and flattering use of lighting. The bar occupies one part of this cavernous space and has a long row of intimate looking onefaceone banquettes running beneath the windows; the brasserie bit occupies the rest of the space, is split-level and, although looking dangerously close to unnervingly smart, offers paper menus as placemats instead of linen napery.

Sitting in the bar one evening I was seriously impressed to discover that the buzzy atmosphere was being generated by a clientele that spanned all ages, each looking equally comfortable rubbing shoulders with the other. It is seldom, these days, that you find a venue catering to the needs of all the immediate local communities, and a refreshingly comfortable change it is too.

Cocktails are priced from £5.50 and the short list of ten will change regularly, apparently. I guess they'll improve, given the passage of time and experience of the staff, but there is a good range of beers including draught Staropramen, Leffe and Guinness, and bottled Asahi, Zatec, Bittburger, London Pride, Pilsner Urquell and Peroni Grand Reserve.

You can go to Sam's and just have a glass of wine. Happily, many do, and why wouldn't they given the depth and range of this seriously erudite, irresistible list of mostly New World offerings. It's well-priced, too, with 15white and nine red all available at under £20 per bottle and there's an applaudable range of bins by the glass.

We decided to eat in the brasserie, but the sniffy maitre d' clearly didn't like the cut of my jib and, after what seemed like several minutes examining his (almost empty) list of bookings, relegated us to the mezzanine area, which is virtually a service-free zone.

The menu includes a million things you expect from a brasserie: steaks, salads, mussels, and substantial modern British dishes. It's all extremely well prepared and reasonably priced (for Chiswick) given that starters average at £6 and mains at around £13.

Sam The Man clearly has a success on his hands and I'll be happy to make any number of detours in the future to enjoy his brand of quality hospitality.

Sam's Brasserie & Bar
11 Barley Mow Passage, W4