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The Barleycorn Pub, Nutbourne
If you can't cook or hire a good chef or two, opening a restaurant or pub and hoping to bluff your way into this business isn't a smart move.
In fact it's a recipe for a gigantic stack of cash going up in smoke.
A young couple recently took over The Barleycorn pub and had the chutzpah, the intelligence, the savvy to avoid this trap. Not only have they refurbished the pub to a high standard (there's a restaurant, games room and pub proper) but have also gone down the local food sourcing route with total conviction.
A 4.5lb onion was being handed around the bar the evening I went, drinkers handling it as if they'd found a pot of gold. Natalie, co-owner, confided, when giving me the menu, that meat comes from Starr's the Emsworth butchers down the road. Vegetables have an equally short distance to trundle to the pub's back door.
Don't go by the website menu. It's a totally different kettle of fish and is, oddly, not changed from the previous owners'.
Dishes on the menu, and other ones on the Specials board, showed a kitchen keen to show off stove prowess, not your bog-standard food shipped in from the cash 'n carry.
Grilled goats' cheese on mushrooms and courgettes with a herb oil or country pate with crusty bread (4.25), might kick off a meal, mains including swordfish with tomatoes; slow roasted pork belly with crushed garlic potatoes and carrot ribbons (11.50); steak and Guiness pie and mash and honey roast ham, egg and bubble (6.95) are just some dishes cooked by co-owner Hamish. He's giving up his whites in favour of a professional chef.
But if said pro goes awol, Hamish can hack it, as witnessed by the pork belly.
Enough to feed several people, the stack of excellently-cooked meat, with the added bonus of moreish crackling, lay on top of far too many cubed rather than crushed potatoes.
The quantity overwhelmed this potato-lover, whose resistance is low. Carrot ribbons should, however, be ditched in favour of a thicker cut, the waterlogged veg detracting from the overall effect.
'Why don't restaurants or pubs don't make their own desserts?,' Natalie asked, when showing me the dessert list. She added: 'It's so much cheaper!'
My thoughts exactly. And they're better too. Even the custard is homemade, Hamish concocting the bread and butter pudding and the Bailey's brulee. His dad makes the apple pie and the lemon and lime tart.
Well, just how did dad fare? If Hamish and the chef both go missing, dad's your pud man. The warm apple pie with homemade custard was just ace.
The Barleycorn has entered a totally new phase of hospitality thanks to this welcoming couple who don't believe in PLC-speak or actions. And, no, it's not a gastropub, just a local made good. My bill came to 19 including an excellent glass of Oz Merlot. But please, light those fires for warmth.
The Barleycorn pub, Main Road, Nutbourne PO18 8RS 01243 573 172
Open: Noon – 3pm and 6pm – 9pm for food all week (Suns: Noon-6pm)
Food: ****
Service: ****
Atmosphere: ****
Disabled access: Fine.
How to get there: Take the old A27 to Emsworth going east towards Chichester. Nutbourne is just past Emsworth and the pub is on the right. Car park.
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Weather for Portsmouth
Wednesday 23 May 2012
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