Apples, lamb, cheese, cold-country wine
A board of six dishes that changes with what the growers drop at the dock, and a wine list that barely leaves the district.
Six dishes, rewritten in chalk
Three growers, two dairies and one butcher supply most of what goes out. They come to the dock, not to a loading bay in a warehouse, and what they bring decides the board.
Apples show up from October and stay until the cool store runs out, which is usually August. In a good year that is eleven months of the same fruit cooked eleven different ways and nobody has complained yet.
Everything is cooked to order. On a full Friday a large dish can take twenty-five minutes and we say so when you book rather than let you sit there wondering.
Three small
One always meat-free, one always has apple in it somewhere.
Two large
Lamb, and whatever else the week produced.
One pudding
There is only ever one, and the regulars vote with their forks.
How the tasting downstairs runs
| Stage | Where | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 5pm | Cool store | Doors down the stair, six glasses poured |
| 5:20pm | Cool store | Grower or maker talks for ten minutes |
| 5:45pm | Cool store | Questions, seconds, cheese from the rack |
| 6pm | Grading hall | Everyone comes up, benches open, kitchen on |
What is behind it
Fourteen wines by the glass, at least eleven of them grown within forty minutes.
One cider tap, one lager tap, one rotating tap from a small brewery in the district.
A short spirits list, poured properly, with no interest in anything blue.
Non-drinkers get the same care: house apple soda, cold brew, and something hot in winter.
Service stops for anyone who has plainly had enough, and that decision is not negotiated.