The first ceps come in muddy
Our forager brings them wrapped in paper and we leave the soil on until the last minute. They go on the rack above the embers whole, then into foaming butter.
Live fire,cold country
The kitchen
We cook on one long hearth of oak and birch. No gas line, no grill station: only a fire lit before the bread is mixed and banked down after the last plate goes out.
The room is kept cool and dim so the plates can carry the warmth. Every dish passes over the same fire, from the oysters warmed in their shells to the quince that sits in the falling heat overnight.
The menu is short and changes through the week. What comes in from the boat, the gardens and the forager decides what goes on the coals.
The hearth
The fire, read left to right
The hearth runs the length of the kitchen, from open flame at one end to a bed of warm ash at the other. Every dish is cooked in the part of the fire that suits it.
Meet the fireSeconds
Flame
The open end, fed with split oak. Hot enough to blister bread and mark a steak in under a minute.
- Flatbread, wild garlic, curd
- Aged sirloin, bone marrow
Minutes
Embers
Coals raked under the iron grate. Fish, shellfish and chops cook here, close and steady.
- Whole bream over birch
- Scallops in the shell
Hours
Smoke
Racks hung over the hearth catch the smoke and the rising heat, for anything that wants time.
- Mushrooms on the rack
- Trout cured, then smoked
Overnight
Ash
Roots and fruit are buried in the grey ash at the far end and left there until morning.
- Carrots roasted in the ash
- Quince for dessert
Oak for heat, birch for a clean flame, apple wood for the smoke
This week
A short menu, written weekly
Six dishes from this week's bill of fare. The full menu runs to around twenty, with a six-course fire menu for the whole table.
Oysters warmed in the shell
$4 each
Seaweed butter, a squeeze of charred lemon.
Charred leeks V
$11
Hazelnut, brown butter and a spoon of soft curd.
Whole bream over birch coals
$34
Lemon, lovage and the juices from the grate. For one, or two to share.
Lamb chop on the embers
$36
Rosemary, anchovy and smoked potato.
Carrots from the ash V
$14
Whipped curd, toasted seeds, honey from the hill.
Quince by the fire V
$12
Poached overnight in the falling heat, dark chocolate.
Sample dishes and prices. V marks a dish that is vegetarian.
Plates of the season
Three plates, one fire
No. 1 Flame
Sirloin from the open end
Aged on the bone, seared over split oak, rested by the ash and sliced at the pass.
No. 2 Embers
Scallop on the shell
Two minutes over birch coals, finished with seaweed butter and crushed potato.
No. 3 Smoke
Lamb chop, rosemary
Marked on the grate, then rested on the rack above the hearth to take the smoke.
The plates change with the weeks. These three have stayed since the first frost.
See what is on this week
The cellar
The cellar runs cold
A short list from small growers, kept in a cool stone room below the kitchen. Ask for a glass to match the part of the fire your dish came from.
i.
Wine by the glass
Six pours, changed with the menu. Cool-climate whites, light reds served a little chilled.
from $11
ii.
Cocktails
Built on smoke, citrus peel burnt at the hearth and a few bottles from small distillers.
from $13
iii.
Without alcohol
Charred citrus soda, spruce tonic and a cold tea brewed with toasted hay.
from $7
iv.
Cider and beer
Dry cider from the orchard on the hill and two beers brewed nearby.
from $8
Fire pairing
Five glasses poured to the six-course fire menu, with one alcohol-free route on request.
$55
The larder
Who fills the larder
Six suppliers bring nearly everything we cook. We name them on the menu by what they do, and we buy whole: the whole fish, the whole crate, the windfalls too.
Who
What they bring
How far
When
A day boat off the north point
Bream, mackerel, scallops, crab
40 minutes
All year, weather allowing
Two market gardens up the valley
Leeks, roots, brassicas, salad
Under an hour
Spring to first frost
A forager we have known for years
Ceps, wild garlic, sea herbs
Where she walks
Spring and autumn
A small dairy by the river
Butter, curd, cream
30 minutes
All year
An orchard on the hill
Apples, quince, cider
The next valley
Late summer, autumn
A coppice and a sawmill
Oak, birch, apple wood
20 minutes
Seasoned for two years
Private dining
The Long Room
One oak table for up to eighteen, behind a glass wall that looks onto the hearth. Your own menu, a cook at the table for the carving, and the room for as long as the fire lasts.
Seats 10 to 18 at one table. Lunch or dinner. From $95 a guest.
Notes from the kitchen
Written at the pass, after service
Short notes from the cooks on what came in, what went on the fire and what we got wrong before we got it right.
All kitchen notes
Bread in the falling heat
The oven at the end of the hearth is swept at nine and the dough goes in as the flames die back. By service the crust has cracked and the crumb is still warm.
Figs, one minute too long
We tried grilling figs straight over the coals and lost a crate. Now they sit on the iron at the edge of the embers, cut side down, and come off when the honey bubbles.
Visit
Find the fire
14 Saltmarket Row, Old Harbour. The green door by the fish steps, two minutes from the harbour bus stop.
Opening hours
Monday
The fire rests
Tuesday
The fire rests
Wednesday
Dinner 6 to 10.30
Thursday
Dinner 6 to 10.30
Friday
Dinner 6 to 10.30
Saturday
Lunch 12 to 2.30, dinner 6 to 11
Sunday
Lunch 12 to 4, supper 6 to 9
Last orders 45 minutes before close. The hearth counter opens at half past five for walk-ins.
