IL Bistro in the Lanes marks 50 years with a £35 anniversary dinner
Michael Garman opened it in 1976, billing it as Brighton's first Mediterranean steakhouse. His son Abe now runs it, and the birthday dinner is on 29 October.
IL Bistro, a small Italian and French restaurant in the Lanes, opened in 1976 and is now marking 50 years. On Thursday 29 October it is holding a three-course anniversary dinner for £35 a head, with the price covering two wine pairings.
Its founder was Michael Garman. In the restaurant’s own telling, he came back to Brighton after travelling in Provence and along the western coast of Italy, and wanted to open the city’s first Mediterranean steakhouse. “For the first time, Brightonians were able to order fresh pasta, arancini, dry aged beef, tiramisu and negronis,” the restaurant’s history says.
His son Abe owns it now. The restaurant says it still sticks to the same principles, using local suppliers and dry-aged British beef. It sits in an 18th-century fisherman’s cottage, which the owners find “rather fitting” because Michael spent years in Portofino, Livorno and Saint-Tropez.
On the anniversary menu
The dinner goes back to the French and Italian dishes the restaurant has cooked over the years, with two choices for each of the first two courses.
To start, there are sardines alla Siciliana, rolled with herbs and roasted in a sauce of tomatoes, peppers, capers, raisins and olives, served with a Sicilian Grillo. The other option is ham croquettes on béchamel, with a Macon Chardonnay.
The mains are coq au vin with guanciale, mushrooms, baby onions and mash with a Pinot Noir, or grilled Mediterranean swordfish with garlic butter, olives, capers and homemade chips, with a Gavi di Gavi. Dessert is tarte aux pommes with vanilla ice cream.
Tables are booked through the reservations page at ilbistro.co.uk/contact. For a table of more than eight, email info@ilbistro.co.uk or call 01273 324584.
IL Bistro won Best International Cuisine at the 2025 BRAVO awards. On weekends it also serves breakfast and lunch, including a £10 pasta lunch with a glass of house wine, beer or a soft drink.
Restaurants Brighton reported the anniversary dinner in its weekly food news.
Sources
- About (IL Bistro)
- 50th Anniversary Dinner menu (IL Bistro)
- Reservations (IL Bistro)
- Weekly Food News: Pizza, pudding and 50 years of IL Bistro (Restaurants Brighton)
- IL Bistro Brighton (Restaurants Brighton)
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Sources 4, 5 · Restaurants Brighton
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