The Sunday Times 12th December 2010
The Sunday Times 12th December 2010
The Bildeston Crown, Suffolk
Bolt Holes: Transformed from spooky coaching-inn to Anne Boleyn meets Belle du Jour in a stylish spruce-up, it’s well worth stopping by
Vincent Crump Published: 8 December 2010
The Bildeston Crown fuses the tipsy Tudor timbering with saucy claret carpets and gold ruche (PR) Time was, this centuries-old coaching inn was best known for its cobwebby corners and many ghosts. Then a sudden spruce-up, when gentleman farmer James Buckle bought it and installed Chris Lee to cook up a storm using his red poll beef and garden-grown veggies.
Today there are 13 rather louche guest rooms, fusing the tipsy Tudor timbering of yore with saucy claret carpets and gold ruche. Sounds ill-conceived, works marvellously – Anne Boleyn meets Belle de Jour.
First though, a drink in the bar – a space both cosy and crisp, featuring nude pine and an inglenook wide enough to park your Honda Goldwing. Then into the restaurant, a deep-red oblong manned by super-eager young women, who point their pinkies to describe each bonsai element of your dish. Don’t be deceived by the Crown’s minimalist dinner menu, which lists dishes such as “mackerel, vanilla, fennel, peas”. There are complex things going on here.
It’s the kind of cooking that requires footnotes. I had watercress veloute and it came garnished with two titchy frogs’ legs, half a quail’s egg and a trickle of garlic. Then “pork head to toe”, comprising assorted piggy nuggets: a braised trotter, a thin wand of crackling, even some crispy ears in a tiny tankard, ready for dipping. I could have eaten dinner here every night till Christmas.
