Autumn hearth menu

The fire is lit from 5pm through to the end of November, with cellar suppers every Wednesday.

Warmly lit dining room with timber tables, low pendant lights and an open kitchen at the far end

Twelve tables, one fire, no hurry

Everything here is cooked over wood and eaten slowly.

A small hearth kitchen built around a wood oven, a kitchen garden and a short cellar list. The menu changes when the growers change it, and we write it out every afternoon.

Request a table Read tonight’s menu

Tonight on the fire

Whole plaice, leeks in ash, barley and brown butter
Seatings

Early at 5:30pm, late at 8:15pm, counter walk-ins between
From the cellar

Forty bottles, mostly low-intervention, all open by the glass on Wednesdays

When the kitchen is open

Service through the week

The oven takes four hours to come up to heat, so our week is shaped around it. Lunch runs Thursday to Sunday; the counter stays open between seatings for a plate and a glass.

Monday Closed. The garden gets cut back and the oven is relined. Closed

Tuesday Dinner only, one long menu written from the morning market. 5:30pm – 10:00pm

Wednesday Cellar supper. Four courses with every open bottle by the glass. 6:00pm – 10:30pm

Thursday Lunch and dinner. Bread comes out of the oven at noon. 12:00pm – 10:00pm

Friday Lunch and dinner, with the counter kept for walk-ins all evening. 12:00pm – 11:00pm

Saturday Two dinner seatings; the kitchen garden menu runs at lunch. 12:00pm – 11:00pm

Sunday One long lunch over three hours. The fire goes out at five. 12:30pm – 5:00pm

Written out each afternoon

The menu

This is the current card. Two or three dishes change every week as the growers deliver, and anything marked from the garden was picked that morning.

Openers

Hearth bread, cultured butter

Three-day sourdough baked on the oven floor, butter churned in house and salted with sea flakes.

Charred leeks, hazelnut, sheep’s curdGarden

Leeks buried in the ash overnight, peeled at the pass and dressed with toasted hazelnut oil.

Smoked trout, pickled gooseberry

Cured for two days, smoked over apple wood, served cool with last summer’s gooseberries.

Beetroot, walnut, aged goat’s cheeseVeg

Roasted whole in salt crust, sliced thick and finished with walnut and a little honey vinegar.

Sides

Potatoes cooked in dripping

Garden leaves, mustard dressingVegan

Grilled hispi cabbage, anchovy butter

From the hearth

Whole plaice, barley, brown butter

Grilled on the bone over embers and basted with butter until the fins crisp. Served to share for two if you ask.

Short rib, ember onions, bone marrow

Nine hours in the cooling oven overnight, then finished hard over the fire for colour.

Roast celeriac, barley miso, sageVegan

A whole celeriac cooked slowly in the ashes, glazed with miso we ferment upstairs.

Lamb shoulder for the table

34 pp

For four or more, ordered when you book. Comes with flatbreads, garden herbs and pickles.

Sweet things

Burnt honey custard

Baked quince, brown sugar cream

Cheese from the cellar, oat crackers

A plated hearth-cooked dish of fish with charred vegetables on a ceramic plate — Plaice off the embers, plated at the pass.

Reading the card

Allergens and dietaries. Every dish is cooked to order, so most can be adjusted. Tell us in your table enquiry and the kitchen will write it on the ticket rather than ask you again at the table.

The set hearth menu. On Wednesdays and for tables of six or more we serve four courses from the same card, chosen by the kitchen that morning. It is the best way to eat what came off the fire first.

Drinks. The cellar list is short and printed on the back of the card: forty bottles, half of them under forty pounds, plus cider from one orchard and non-alcoholic ferments we make here.

Field notes

How we cook

Four habits that explain most of what arrives at your table, and why the menu is shorter than you might expect.

One fire, lit at two

The oven is fed with ash and beech and never goes above the heat it wants to be. Dishes are timed around the fire cooling, not a thermostat, which is why the card is written in the afternoon.
Bread before anything else

The day starts with dough. It proves while the oven comes up, bakes on the floor stones at noon, and the crusts that do not sell become the crumbs and the broth base.
The garden sets the limit

Eleven raised beds behind the kitchen cover herbs, leaves and most alliums. When a bed is finished, the dish comes off the card rather than getting replaced with something flown in.
Short cellar, long pours

Forty bottles chosen to sit beside smoke and salt. Nothing on the list needs explaining in jargon, and we would rather open a good bottle by the glass than sell a thin one by the carafe.

Choosing where to sit

Our three rooms

Name the room you would like in your enquiry. If it is already taken that evening, we will tell you which of the others suits the occasion best.

Low-lit bar room with bottles on open shelving and stools along a timber counter — The cellar counter, kept for walk-ins.

Shared plates of roasted meat and vegetables set out along a long wooden table — The long table laid for a set hearth menu.

The main room

Twelve tables facing the open kitchen, so you can watch the fire being worked. Warmest and liveliest part of the building; best for two to four people who want the full card.

Seats 2–4

The cellar counter

Eight stools at a timber counter beside the bottles. Always walk-in, never reserved, and the right choice for one plate, one glass and a short evening.

8 stools

The long table

One oak table in the back room for groups eating the set hearth menu together. Quieter than the main room and the only space we will hold for a whole evening.

Seats 6–14

Asked often enough to print

Questions

Do you take walk-ins?

Yes, at the cellar counter. Eight stools are kept back every service and never held for bookings, so if you arrive without a table, head straight there. The main room is reserved in advance.

How far ahead should I enquire?

The main room usually fills about three weeks ahead for weekends and under a week for Tuesday and Thursday. The long table is worth asking about a month out, especially in December.

Can the kitchen cook around allergies and dietaries?

Almost always, and we would rather know when you enquire than at the table. The whole card can be cooked without dairy or gluten with a day’s notice; vegan dishes are marked on the menu and two more can be prepared on request.

Are children welcome?

Very. Early seatings suit younger guests best, high chairs are in the main room, and the kitchen will cook a smaller plate from the card rather than hand over a separate menu.

What happens with large groups?

Six or more guests eat the set hearth menu at the long table. We agree the shape of it with you beforehand, then the kitchen chooses the dishes on the day from whatever the fire and the garden give us.

Can I bring my own wine?

One bottle per table, on Tuesdays and Thursdays only, with a corkage charge. Please mention the bottle in your enquiry so we do not pour you something similar from the cellar.

Is there a dress code?

None at all. The room is warm and smells of woodsmoke, so wear something you do not mind carrying home with the evening on it.

Tables are confirmed by hand

Request a table

Send what you are after and we will reply with a seating time, usually the same afternoon. This is an enquiry rather than an instant booking, so nothing is held until you hear back from us.

What we need: A date, a rough time and how many of you there are. Everything else is optional.
What you get back: A confirmed seating, the room we have put you in, and any notes the kitchen needs from you.
Changing a booking: Reply to the confirmation any time before the morning of your table and we will move it.

Your name

Preferred date

Service

Number of guests

Room, if you have a preference

Dietaries, occasion or anything else

We reply by email only and keep your details for the booking itself.