Opening of the month: 28 Market Place
The trend of London-based chefs and restaurateurs bidding goodbye to the Big Smoke and moving to the countryside is not new, but in recent years the call of the wild seems to have become stronger than ever. Tom Adams swapped Soho for Cornwall when he opened Coombeshead Farm; Lee Westcott left behind Bethnal Green to launch Pensons at the Netherwood Estate on the Herefordshire-Worcestershire border (he has since returned to the capital after realising the country life was not for him); and, most recently, Merlin Labron-Johnson upped sticks from central London to open Osip restaurant in Bruton.
Fifteen miles from Labron-Johnson’s new endeavour is yet another fresh venture, 28 Market Place, this time for former Soho House director Ben Crofton and his wife Vanessa, who have enticed Dan Fletcher across as head chef. Fletcher, a finalist on BBC’s Great British Menu, used to work at The Square in Mayfair and at Fenchurch at Sky Garden, and so the change of pace of the picturesque but tiny village of Somerton will be marked, as will it be for the restaurant’s senior sous chef Matt Heeley, who worked with Fletcher at The Square (Ben also worked there).
It’s not hard to see what enticed Fletcher and co to 28 Market Place. Taking on a group of 17th and 18th century buildings, the Croftons have opened a modern and inviting restaurant with a homely reception room with dark wooden floors and a wood-burning stove that leads into a bright main dining room bedecked with hanging baskets, wicker lighting, white marble-topped tables and a green and white tiled floor. Beyond that there is a wine shop that stocks around 100 wines not found on the main wine list, which can be served in the restaurant or taken away, and an adjoining ice cream parlour and bakery (which also has its own entrance). The latter is overseen by another Soho House alumnus, Alba Lage, formerly of Soho Farmhouse, alongside bakers Ettore Mello, formerly of Nopi in Soho, and Arthur Stokes, who comes from The Bread Station in London Fields.
The dream of opening his own restaurant came at an early age for Ben, and with 28 Market Place he has embraced his debut project’s rural setting. The restaurant champions the produce of the West Country, with many of its suppliers located only a few miles from the restaurant – including its fruit and vegetables, which come from Somerton-based Plotgate, a community-supported agriculture project, managed as a cooperative and which delivers on the same day produce is harvested. Fletcher is also an advocate, and says he has spent the past few months seeking out the best products the region has to offer, and has created a menu “that lets those ingredients shine”.
Fletcher’s menu is generous without being too ambitious given that the passing footfall on Somerton high street midweek will be modest at best (Wikipedia puts the village’s population at just over 4,500). Broken down into five starters and five mains and a choice of just three sides, it features a number of vegetarian-friendly starters – white onion and rosemary soup, winter truffle and Montgomery toast; poached cauliflower mushroom, wood-fired celeriac, chestnut and truffled ewes curd sauce – while mains are more meat focused and include 50-day aged rump of beef, savoy cabbage, pressed potatoes and black sesame; and roast cod, St Austell Bay mussels, wild sea vegetables and pumpkin gnocchi. Desserts include ice cream from the adjoining bakery; mango with sheep’s yoghurt, olive oil shortbread and passion fruit sorbet; and a Yorkshire rhubarb tart.
The restaurant runs an à la carte menu midweek, with starters between £8 and £11 and mains around £22 but it sensibly pivots to a set menu for its Sunday lunch (two courses £28, three courses £33). Menu items remain similar but with the addition of Sunday lunch classics, including rump of beef with red wine-braised onions, bone marrow and stuffed Yorkshire pudding; a roast pork chop for two accompanied by Pink Lady apple, grain mustard celeriac and black cabbage; and Somerset trifle.
The Croftons are old hands at hospitality: Ben has worked with Gordon Ramsay in Los Angeles and at The French Laundry in Napa Valley, while Vanessa worked alongside Nancy Silverton at her Michelin-starred LA-based restaurant Osteria Mozza before launching restaurants on both sides of the Atlantic. LA to Somerton might not be a typical move, but it appears to be a good one.
28 Market Place, Somerton, Somerset
28marketplace.co.uk
