Gary Marshall

well the sunday lunch season is in full swing, last week we thought we were going to break 50 covers for the first time this season, but a cancellation pulled us back to 47, yesterday we had 50 booked in by saturday night so sunday was a meticulously run operation which went very well, with a tally of 62 by the end of the day, phew! if we could seat all who rang or called in on spec for tables it would have been 80 -odd! had an old chap out with his family he called me over and said 'i've been rearing beasts (that's cows in yorkshire farmer talk) for 60 years and this is one of the best i've ever tasted, so nice to see it cooked so perfectly' which was nice.

You might want to consider 1st or 2nd Dec - for dinner. ← Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Ms Sadie, very nice to make your acquaintance. ← don't encourage him CS you know not what you are getting yourself into!

bapi's one of those great regulars, only comes twice a year but regular as clockwork

thanks, and all the best to you too! i hope to visit soon when i get next organise a london trip. cheers gary

it was certainly part of the plan to do a blog but it got forgotten in the melee, plenty of times i bring a camera down and we get some pics of starters then it gets busy and the pics get forgotten! i will try to rectify this! cheers gary

ahh the energy of the young! hopefully pop in today to check it out.

well we've made it to our first birthday it's certainly been a busy year we've renovated the pub flat, installing central heating and a new kitchen & bathroom, renovated the accomodation, recruited 3 chefs, a restaurant manager and bar & waiting staff, and learned how to run the place! When we bought it neither of us had ever worked in a pub, never mind pull a pint or change a barrel and all the time i've remained working in leeds monday - friday so it's a testimony to mrs m and the team at the pub that have helped us to get this far so considering this time last year we had no permanent chefs to get in the good food guide in our first year is big achievement for chef andy and the kitchen, though what's really bringing in the punters is Andy's olive magazine piece, the like-mided foodies we were aiming for now seem to have found us! A bib gourmand for next year would be nice though.....

ahem i think you'll find a very welcoming hostelry not a million miles away from the star, what is the name again? really must go and say hello to james & kate at the pipe soon, been threatening a visit since day one! star really is a one-off though it does tick all the boxes you need in a country pub.

missed the first one caught most of the second and my thoughts mirror those above, a brilliant food programme head and shoulders above anything on at the moment. i watched 2 mins of hestons black forest gateaux prog before i realised i really couldn't care less and turned over.

well that website wasn't there on friday, i was checking it before lunch. not sure if the pattiserie is open yet, was due this week but might be delayed, best call if you're planning a trip.

'fine dining in trainers' - good line that.

some of the nicer moments of running the pub occured yesterday/today.... we had some of our favourite regulars in last night for a birthday celebration, they had a nice bottle of 99 chateauneuf du pape, which they weren't quite ready to taste so i left on the table for them to try, they know their wines and i always tell customers if it's not right we'll sort it out. Anyway 20 minutes later husband heads towards the bar with two glasses of said wine, my first thought is 'oh no - it's corked' but no, he was bringing a glass each for sarah and i! and this morning sarah rang me at work, that usually means a problem, she's too busy to ring for an idle chat so as i return the call i'm thinking of what can possibly have gone wrong this time, but no, it was about a couple who had stayed for the last few days and had so enjoyed themselves they wanted to know who they should write to spread the word and recommend us! and a fully booked weekend to look forward to...

well it took the star at harome about 8 years so i'm not holding my breath, it would be certainly be an achievement, though happy and returning customers is our main goal!! i don't know if they read it, but i wouldn't be suprised if they did, don't forget Derek Bulmer did a Q&A the other year.

who knows, everything i've eaten there has been at least 1 star standard from day one, so it is certainly deserved imho.

what tv show is this ? (not the i'm a celeb obviously)

looks and sounds great, agree re the menu titles but i've had grief for this myself so what do i know I like the dish descriptions though, when you're putting a lot of work into the garnishes you want to tell the punters about them not hide them, until you get to pierre gagnaire level or you have a resto full of understanding punters that know they will get more than just the description!

i do get the feeling that winteringham are stuck between a rock and a hard place with regards to ratings. given the reputation and esteem that the schwabs had in the industry it would be harsh not to downgrade them out of respect now they are not there, but given how long robbie thompson has worked with germain it is unlikely that the food would take a serious nose dive in quality, unless a strategic decision was taken to move WF into a more casual market. the wine list has always had almost hand drawn maps of the wine regions in it which does add to the character! what are the lunch options is it still just the set lunch or is there ALC or Tasting options? cheers gary

Why would anywhere turn a solo diner away? ← stops them selling a bigger table, if they're a small resto and usually full they're turning away money. though i can't say i've heard of it being a massive problem. for example we have 11 tables, only 2 will only hold 2 people so if we take a whole load of tables for two we can be 'full' at only 22 people when in reality full is 45-46.

And, eventhough I have a reverted to being a country bumpkin in the North, away from the bright lights of London; isn't £9 for a single Calva a bit naughty? ← which ever way you slice it, it's not a cheap restaurant, it suits the single diner very well due to the bar style seating and as i was by myself and in no particular rush i did indulge, the wine list is not as good as the paris branch where you can drink very nice wines by the glass so that was a small disappointment but the somellier pointing me towards a cheaper bottle of wine meant i could have another course! the ravioli was actually quite disappointing, i was quite suprised to see it was £15 when i got the bill, to be honest i just dived in and ordered what i fancied and worried about the bill when it came, hence the calva, by the time the bill came i really wasn't bothered

fyi, guess where tony used to work also with nathan outlaw, quite a brigade at the time, you can see them in the photos in the book, which is one of the more underrated books in my opinion. It made me want to head straight for the lords of the manor but unfortunately he was on his way to the vineyard virtually as soon as it was published.

exactly, for chefs like D E-M stocks aren't a few veg thrown in a pan with some bones like us home cooks or rustic cookers like hugh F-W would advise, they are carefully thought out parts of the meal. another example tony flinn doesn't put anything apart from bones in his stock and cooks it slowly overnight in a giant brat pan, as he logically says he wants it to taste of chicken (or whatever) not veg or herbs, they can be added later if required, and as for the common addition of tomato puree - why?!

if it can happen to basildog in padstow .... of course they'll have it all backed up won't they? !

first teaspoons now his reservation system? whatever next? i can't imagine it would be that portable unless it was all on a laptop which i'd be suprised.

glass champagne 9 jambon 9 oeuf cocotte 9 ravioli 15 pied de cochon 11 calamar 10 agneau+ extra pommes (gratis) 14 caille 16 chocolate sensation 9 pinot noir crittenden 33 (£20 cheaper than my original choice out of stock santenay, well done to the somellier for that one!) calvados 9 water 3.50 service 18.88 £169.88 i was stuffed, i thought i'd get through some cheese as well and i even turned down the offer of some crinkle cut chips

Thanks to andy's Olive magazine write up we had a table of four drive 60 miles to have lunch on sunday, i think they thought the journey worth it, the duck fat roasties seemed to have gone down particularly well! We also took a full weekends dinner & b&b from someone who'd read it too. All good stuff the new 07 good pub guide is also out and we have a decent write up in there too, we find that is probably the most influential of the guides for bookings.