One of Somerset's best restaurants reopens today

All you need to know for Osip's Second Coming

Osip’s open kitchen. If images aren’t displaying properly, view this post at thewfj.co.uk

What’s all this fuss about?

Hadn’t you heard? Osip, the Bruton restaurant consistently ranked as one of – if not the – UK’s best, is reopening in a new location this week.

The move has been highly anticipated by local gastronomes as much as the national press, not because of the change of address, but rather the idea that something already considered near-perfect could be improved upon.

So where’s it gone then?

For five years, Osip was located at Number One Bruton, a Georgian town house with rooms on Bruton’s High Street.  

Officially as of this week however, the restaurant is at 25 Kingsettle Hill, or what used to be The Bull Inn – a pub dating back to the 17th century and previously owned and run by Hauser & Wirth.

But that’s only a few miles out of town

Yes, but a lot’s changed. Most obviously, the size of it. At the last place, Osip could seat 22 diners at any given time. Though there are only about eight more covers at the new restaurant, that is still – looking at it from a business perspective for a moment – a 36% increase in potential happy, well-fed guests.

Adding to that, the new venue allows Osip to be more, in their words, ‘cohesive’ and ‘holistic’ about its hospitality. Where before Osip and the hotel at Number One Bruton were run independently from one another, Osip now has full control of the entire operation, from the canelé and roasted hojicha tea first thing in the morning, to the texture of the lamp switch you flick off when going to bed. 

Starting from scratch, more or less, has for the first time allowed the Osip team to imagine and create a space as they see fit. As well as the bedrooms, there is a bar and welcome lounge with a wood burner, two dining rooms, a very open kitchen, garden space for veg-growing and short leisurely strolls, and an outdoor tea house. 

Ultimately, Osip was originally created as a ‘destination’ restaurant, and the new location allows them to far better realise that ambition, as well as any new ones related to helping guests connect with the land.

I bet that means they get the odd invasion from neighbouring dairy cows

It’s not entirely off the cards. And indeed, Osip can’t claim to be completely free of trade-offs. Most notably there is no longer a straightforward walk from the train station, also making the restaurant feel a little isolated from the town’s food scene that includes At The Chapel, Matt’s Kitchen, and Roth Bar.

If that’s too much an inconvenience, don’t take it up with me but with Osip’s chef-proprietor Merlin Labron-Johnson.

Osip produces fruit and veg from its own gardens and orchards

Merlin… who?

Labron-Johnson. And the restaurant shares his middle name.

Before Merlin set up shop in Somerset, the chef, veg-grower, and now hotelier ran the two successful London restaurants Portland and Clipstone (modern British and modern European respectively). And, before that, he was honing his skills in Switzerland, France, and Belgium. His penchant for food and hospitality goes back to his mid-teens, when he managed to get free meals in exchange for helping out in his Totnes school’s kitchen.

Merlin

His background isn’t all that different to other chefs whose restaurants have earned a Michelin star or two throughout their careers. But he is still quite an anomaly – where most said chefs are eccentric, egocentric, or both (this being a profession that rewards those with a bit of swagger and an affinity for chaos), from personal experience Merlin’s best described calm and affable.

Is his food an ‘anomaly’ too?

In some respects. For one, there is no menu at the restaurant, which allows the chefs to react to the seasons – i.e. what’s good on one particular day may not be good on another due to climate, availability, or slugs. That’s farm-to-table, baby. 

When the right things are in season though, there is a good chance certain dishes – such as the signature beetroot taco – will appear. Other dishes you might encounter include ‘roasted scallop with satay and basil’, and ‘chilled courgette soup with gooseberry and spider crab’.

Left: 'Tempura potato, salted egg yolk, and chives'. Right: 'Chilled courgette soup with gooseberry and spider crab'

As for sourcing, when it’s not veg, herbs, and the occasional fruit from Osip’s own holdings (and any surpluses gifted by local residents) the kitchen will look slightly further, but rarely too far, afield: E.g. milk and cream from Bruton Organic Dairy, cheese and cured meat from Westcombe, fish from an aquaponic trout farm in Evercreech, and meat from either local wild sources or small hyperlocal farms such as Stream Farm.

Simply put, Osip wants the experience – food and everything – to be an expression of the locality. Even down to the candleholders, made by ceramicist Colette Woods down the road. 

All for a pretty penny, or…?

Lunch starts at £95 per person. The full lunch and dinner menu is £125.

And for a room at the inn?

TBD – the restaurant reopens to the public on the 20th August. The four rooms upstairs will be available a bit further down the line – most likely the autumn. 

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