Will Devlin to open Birchwood restaurant in East Sussex next month

The Small Holding and The Curlew chef-patron will launch Birchwood in mixed use sustainable woodland development Filmwell Park in Ticehurst on 6 October

Sitting on the edge of 46-acres of forest, Birchwood is set in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the birder of East Sussex and Kent and will serve an all-day menu for breakfast and lunch with the venue closing at 4pm each day.

Much like Devlin’s other two restaurants, Birchwood will be guided by the nearby landscape and will have a focus on self-sufficiency. It will source seasonal ingredients locally as well as grow its own fruit and vegetables and forage for them. The menu will champion artisan suppliers of Kent and Sussex and feature local cheeses, dairy, wines, spirits, and beer, while many ingredients, such as mushrooms, brambles, elderberries, wood sorrel and birch sap sourced from the woods.

Vegetables, fruit and herbs will come from the one-acre farm at The Small Holding, less than five miles away in Kilndown, along with eggs, pork, lamb, hogget and mutton from free-range chickens, Berkshire pigs and Romney sheep, that live on site and at a nearby farm.

Sample dishes will include breakfast items of smoked trout, duck egg, sourdough crumpet; smoked kippers, brown bread and eggs; and waffles with fruit compote and woodruff cream while lunchtime dishes will be crispy sweetbreads with wild garlic mayonnaise; skate on the bone, new season potatoes, Perry vinegar dressing; and Paley Farm lamb chops with parsley dressing.

The restaurant will also have a focus on environmental, social, and economic sustainability with all timber sustainably sourced and weathering steel used for the window bay cladding. It also features solar panels on the roof and six Tesla charging points and two more for other electric car brands. The day’s menu will be projected on to the wall to avoid printing paper waste.