This bid to revive UK roadside stays – by the Soho House chain – offers a smart take on the classic US motel but with swish rooms and quality food
The words “motel and diner” conjure up many images – US highways, neon, palm trees, Edward Hopper, cherry pie and coffee refills – but rarely rural Oxfordshire. Yet here I am, turning off an A road near the pretty village of Buckland at a big red sign for Mollie’s Motel & Diner.
The location is not the only unusual thing about Mollie’s. It may be next to a BP garage but the reception area’s glass cabinets filled with Hershey’s chocolate and popcorn, shelves of design books, objets d’art and plants, and Scandi-style chairs feel a million miles from a petrol forecourt. If I had booked via the app, as the billboards advise, I could have gone straight to the room using my phone as a key. Instead, I wait at check-in behind families with accents as crisp as their shirts, who look like they’ve just popped over from the nearest Cotswolds village.
The brains behind Mollie’s is Nick Jones, credited with reinventing the country house hotel when he opened Babington House in 1998, and whose Soho House empire now spans three continents, with members’ clubs, townhouses and beach houses in several glamorous cities.
Now he is on a mission to reinvent the roadside stay in the UK. He chose this spot on the A420 west of Oxford because he lives nearby and drives past it daily. Also, the numbers make sense: 24,000 cars use the A420 every day but there is little choice for hungry drivers. Now a billboard advertising the diner, a drive-thru and “a spare room for a night” aims to lure travellers heading for the bright lights of Swindon, or locals looking for somewhere to put up a visiting relative.
Mollie’s isn’t the UK’s first modern motel – the eco-friendly Pig Shed opened on the A1065 in Norfolk late last year; and the super-stylish Mhor 84 on the A84 in the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs national park is another success story for the Mhor collection – but it may soon become the best-known. Jones has already earmarked 10 sites across the UK, mostly roadside but some in city centres, too. The next Mollie’s will open in 2020 at Cribbs Causeway just off the M5 north of Bristol; Manchester will follow, with more than 200 rooms, three restaurants and a rooftop pool and bar. “I have been fascinated by the roadside ever since I was a kid. But I think there is room for something different,” Jones tells me.
These newcomers aside, UK roadsides are in dire need of a revamp. But, as Heston Blumenthal’s efforts at Little Chef made clear, change isn’t always welcomed. The menu the Michelin-star chef devised for the Popham Little Chef in Hampshire in 2008 was dropped in 2013. Braised ox cheeks and mussels in white wine did not cut the mustard with Britain’s drivers.
Mollie’s is a more drastic overhaul. A Little Chef on the site since the early 1990s was knocked down to make way for a dark-wood, boxy new-build diner and 79-room motel. Although the concept is inspired by US motels, Jones wanted to avoid the retro look; bedrooms are modern and soothing thanks to blond-wood panelling, a pale colour scheme and decent sound-proofing – I can’t hear the traffic at all. And the Egyptian cotton, “rainforest” shower and Cowshed products (the spa brand is part of the Soho House group) are a pleasant surprise in a £50 room (£75 from May). And as Mollie’s does not appear on booking sites – thereby avoiding 18% commission – those rates are fixed, rather than “from”.
The diner is also more classic than kitsch. I like the greeny-blue leather booths, tiled floor and chrome bar – and so does most of Oxfordshire if the queue at 6.30pm last Saturday is anything to go by. My eight-year-old son and I sit watching at least eight chefs at work in the open kitchen. The menu features diner favourites: burgers, rotisserie chicken, shakes – but made with high-quality ingredients. The food arrives quickly but the kitchen seems to struggle with a full house and drive-thru queue: my chicken quarter (£6, free-range, marinated for 24 hours) is juicy with lots of flavour; but one patty in my son’s “dirty double bacon burger” (£10) is burned to a crisp. Milkshakes are so sweet even my little sugar-fiend could only manage half.
If I had been with my partner, I might have had a drink in the reception area or headed down the road to the Lamb at Buckland. But we’re in our room by 8.30pm watching a TV doc about Chester Zoo. The next morning it’s back to the diner: granola and yogurt for me; waffles (again, too sweet) with berries and cream for the boy. Breakfast isn’t included – there is free coffee in reception – but with eggs on toast at £4 and “bargain baps” from £5, it compares with breakfast in Starbucks.
The initial success of Mollie’s is no doubt driven in part by the Soho House connection – not many motels host a celebrity opening party – but once the stardust has settled, the big red sign will continue to be a beacon to anyone intrigued by the idea of 1950s America on an English roadside.
• Accommodation was provided by Mollie’s Motel (doubles £50, £75 from May, room only), Shrivenham Road, A420, Buckland, Faringdon, Oxfordshire
Ask a local
Rachel Coltman, visitor experience manager, west Oxfordshire National Trust
• Walk
If you head out from the NT car park in the village of Buscot along the Thames path, you’ll come across second world war bunkers guarding the lock. Crossing the river at the Anchor Boat Club makes for an ideal walk.
• A brew and a slice
Tearoom TT Linnet, at 41 High Street, just off the square in Highworth, provides a welcoming cup of tea and slice of homemade coffee cake.
• Local meat
I love butchers Andrews in Highworth (16 High Street). All the meat comes from local farms, which helps reduce food miles, and there’s nothing better than a homecooked Sunday roast that supports a local shop.
• Visit
The village of Swinbrook is magical, with a trickling stream, and its churchyard is where the Mitford sisters are buried. Stop off at the Swan for a bite or a drink.
The Guardian
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