Latest opening: Mýse
What: A stylish and ambitious restaurant with rooms in the North Yorkshire village of Hovingham. Within striking distance of York, Mýse will ‘shine a light on the highest quality produce in the local area and beyond’ offering a £110 tasting menu in the evenings with a shorter lunch menu available on Saturdays and Sundays priced at £80.
Who: Josh and Victoria Overington. The pair - who oversee front and back of house respectively - closed their Le Cochon Aveugle (the blind pig) restaurant in York last summer after eight years saying at the time that they ‘wanted to start a new adventure’. The restaurant held a Michelin star and was a regular fixture on Restaurant’s list of the top 100 places to eat in the UK. The Overingtons say that Mýse will be ‘a reflection on our incredible Yorkshire surroundings’ and pitched at a higher level than Le Cochon Aveugle. “Mýse is an opportunity for us to finally realise our restaurant dream. We loved our time at Le Cochon Aveugle and think back on it fondly, but outgrew the space,” Josh says.
The vibe: Set within a newly-renovated 19th century inn, Mýse comprises a snug area where guests are served cocktails and snacks ahead of their meal and a larger dining room with soaring beams, large windows and an open kitchen. Upstairs are three bedrooms decorated in natural, earthy tones.
The food: Josh is taking inspiration from the local area - he grew up just down the road - to put an ‘elegant spin’ on traditional Yorkshire cooking. Dishes include a light broth of spring herbs and mussel; raw razor clam, forced Yorkshire rhubarb umeboshi and elderflower; duck liver and walnut pie; hand-dived Orkney scallop baked in its shell with sea urchin; Swaledale lamb saddle and belly with farm trimmings and an anchovy garum sauce; and goat’s milk ice cream with caramelised honey, raspberry juice and cicely.
To drink: The wine list at Mýse will be curated by Keeling Andrew & Co, the wine importers from the team behind Noble Rot, working closely with Victoria to create an extensive list of wines that ‘respect the land from which they’re grown’. Josh and Victoria’s favourite Alsatian Rieslings will make an appearance as well as bottles from the Savoie and Jura regions, a nod to the couple’s time living in France, where they met. English sparkling wine, Yorkshire-brewed beer and local gin will be on hand as well as non-alcoholic drinks: shrubs using local seasonal fruits will be made in-house.
And another thing: Mýse (pronounced like mise en place) takes its name from an Anglo-Saxon word that means ‘eating at the table’.
A full interview with the Overingtons will be published next month.
