Ask twenty people to an evening launch in a hotel function room and you’ll get a polite yes from most of them and a real evening from a few. Ask them to cross the Solent for lunch on the seafront and it becomes a day they talk about. The journey does half the work before you’ve said a word about the product.
That’s the case for launching here. The house is on the sand at Ryde, the view is the Solent, and the kitchen belongs to Chef Robert Thompson MBE, whose name tends to get people to reply to an invitation. What follows is how a launch day can run, and what we’d want to know from you before planning one.
The crossing is part of the event
Most of your guests won’t need a car. The FastCat from Portsmouth Harbour crosses to Ryde Pier Head in 22 minutes, and the hovercraft from Southsea lands on the Esplanade. Both are a short walk from our door. Trains from London Waterloo run straight to Portsmouth Harbour, so a guest can leave town mid-morning and be on the terrace for lunch.
It also gives the day a natural end. When everyone knows which boat they’re catching home, you don’t need anyone standing up to wind things down.
A shape that works
- ArrivalDrinks outside if the weather’s with us, in the bar if it isn’t. The view does the introductions.
- The revealShort. People have come a long way, so they’ll give you their full attention for ten minutes, and it’s wise not to ask for forty.
- LunchIn the dining room, or at one long table downstairs in The Cellar for a smaller group. A menu written around your product or your brand, if that helps tell the story.
- The afternoonCoffee on the terrace, a walk on the beach, one-to-one conversations that don’t need a meeting room. Then the boat home.
That’s a starting point, not a package. Some launches want a dinner that runs late. Some want the whole thing done by three. Tell us what the day is for and we’ll plan around it.
Choosing the room
For an intimate launch to buyers or press, The Cellar is hard to beat. The 1945 seats up to twenty at one long table, with a private bar, and The 1982 seats up to sixteen at the chef’s table, with a window onto the kitchen. One table means one conversation, which is often the point.
For more people, or if you want the view in every photograph, the dining room, the sea-view bar and the terrace are upstairs. Numbers for those depend on how you want to use them, so the events page is the place to start and the enquiry form is the quickest way to get a real answer.
Food and drink that belong to the brief
The easy mistake with a launch lunch is treating the food as a break from the message. It can carry it instead. If you’re launching something from the Island, the menu can be built around Island produce. If it’s a drink, the kitchen can cook to it and the bar can pour it properly. The wine list runs to around 260 bins if you’d rather let us choose the bottles.
Tell us early if you want Robert involved on the day. It’s one of the first things people ask about, and one of the things we’d rather plan properly than promise in a rush.
Photographs
The house photographs well without much help: the dining room has real colour, The Cellar has candlelight and marble, and outside there’s a sea wall that makes a good plinth for almost anything. If you’re bringing a photographer, check the tide tables. At low tide the sand runs out for about half a mile, and at high water the sea comes right up to the wall. Both look good. They don’t look the same.
If it rains
It’s an island. Every outdoor plan we make comes with an inside version, and the inside is the restaurant itself, so nobody feels they’ve been moved to the back room.
What we’ll ask you
- What you’re launching, and who it’s for
- A rough date, or a few you could live with
- Roughly how many guests, and how they’ll travel
- Whether you want the whole house or part of it
- Anything you already know you need: a screen, a stage, a product display, a photographer
A paragraph covering most of that is plenty to start. Send it through the enquiry form, or call us on 01983 526118.
Questions we get asked
Can guests get to Royal Maritime House without a car?+
Yes. The FastCat from Portsmouth Harbour crosses to Ryde Pier Head in 22 minutes and the hovercraft from Southsea lands on the Esplanade. Both are a short walk away.
Is there parking?+
Not on site. There are two public car parks within two minutes’ walk, one of them directly opposite.
How many people can come to a launch?+
The Cellar seats up to 20 in The 1945 and up to 16 in The 1982. For larger launches in the restaurant and on the terrace, send us your numbers through the enquiry form on the events page.