DINING OUT Enjoying a dining

The Cross Keys at GRASBY

It’s the pub restaurant with spectacular views of the Cathedral in the distance and a wonderful team in the kitchen. Offering a warm welcome, creative food and a great atmosphere, enjoy The Cross Keys at Grasby this winter...

Words & Images: Rob Davis.

High up on an escarpment between Caistor and Brigg, The south west-facing dining room of the Cross Keys’ has huge views of the Lincolnshire countryside, falling away from the restaurant right down to Lincoln Cathedral which is some 30 miles in the distance, but still clearly visible.

During our visit the sunshine was pouring in through the windows, lighting up the whole room, but it wasn’t half as dazzling as what was on my plate, thanks to the skills and creativity of chef patron Steph Barker, Malika Garwell and their kitchen team.

2020 was a pretty rotten year for hospitality generally, but just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Steph’s new puppy decided to trip her up on a dog walk, and during our visit, she was hobbling around with a medical boot strapped to her ankle. Second chef Tom Soulby then emerged from the kitchen with his arm in a sling too; an accident unrelated to work but equally inconvenient for a kitchen team now short of both an arm and a leg!

THE CROSS KEYS HAS GONE FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH, FOUNDED ON GOOD FOOD, LOCAL INGREDIENTS AND A REALLY WARM WELCOME...

Safe to say the whole team will be glad to be shot of 2020, and yet, despite a rubbish year generally, The Cross Keys has gone from strength to strength. Little surprise, for it’s founded on some pretty fundamental aims; good food with local ingredients and a warm welcome. Sounds to us like a recipe for an enjoyable winter dining experience.

Steph was born and raised in Lincoln and moved to Brigg five years ago, taking on The Cross Keys in 2018. The couple have refurbished the dining room which now boasts pretty rural colours, dining chairs in wool plaid and of course those stunning views of the county.

Ordinarily The Cross Keys provides just under 40 covers but that’s been cut back temporarily for obvious – if tedious – reasons. Happily though the restaurant allows you to dine in the restaurant, bar, lounge and on the terrace during the warmer months. >>

meet the CHEF

STEPH BARKER HEAD CHEF

Food History: Raised in Lincolnshire, worked at Lincoln’s White Hart, Doubletree by Hilton, and The Horse & Groom before opening The Cross Keys. Food Wisdom: “I think the best thing a chef can do in this part of the world is to ‘keep it Lincolnshire... we’ve great ingredients right here on our doorstep!” Food Heaven: “I like my food to have great texture. Flavour wise I love local game.” Food Hell: “Dishes that have been rushed.” n

Roasted duck breast, hibiscus and raspberry gel, wilted spinach, parsnip purée, salt baked beetroot, and buttered corn.

Pan seared scallops, caramelised shallot purée, buttered peas and pancetta and tarragon oil . Charcoal tempura soft shell crab, puffed rice and mild spiced Bombay, mango purée.

>> And you should... just as soon as lockdown is lifted – or before that, if you’re able to comply with the rules – because Steph and the team are phenomenally talented and work really hard to ensure that food leaves the kitchen looking and tasting superlative.

“We’re coming into my favourite season right now,” says Steph. “At this time more than any other we’ve so much choice in terms of local ingredients; ones that not only taste great but look really good on the plate too. I love winter veg with bright orange butternut squash, heritage carrots, purple beetroot and so on.”

OPEN FOR FOOD

Monday to Friday: 12 noon - 8pm. Saturday: 12 noon - 8.30pm. Sunday: 12 noon - 6.30pm.

Tempered chocolate and pistachio dome, raspberry bavarois, pistachio sponge.

“The usually generous local keepers give us game but there have been so few shoots this year. We’re still offered produce from our locals though. Our drinking trade has also supported us through lockdown but we’re really lucky that we’re equally popular with our local trade as well as diners who visit us from further away to dine here.” Currently Steph and the team are running a single menu rather than the usual à la carte, pub classics and bar menus. The menus has seven main courses, which is actually refreshingly simply and allows the team to concentrate on fewer dishes and produce them with flair and creativity. Local suppliers include Brigg Farm Shop which supplies fruit and veg; Ashby’s Ash Taylor Butchers and a local fish supplier which provides daily deliveries of seafood landed fresh at Grimsby’s fish docks. Bread, desserts, sauces, sorbets and ice creams are all created in house and villagers provide eggs, honey and so on. “We’re really lucky that all of our customers share a similar philosophy when it comes to food,” says Steph. “You can produce food that’s good looking and well-presented, but it also has to be delicious, and the way to ensure that is to use fresh ingredients and to produce unfussy dishes which will prove satisfying.”

“You also need to have good front of house team to make sure the experience meets the same high standard as the food. We’ve a great team, and that’s something that’s difficult to achieve but helps enormously when you’re trying to run a busy dining room, so I’m really grateful for them, and for the way we all work so well together!” says Steph.

“This has been an unprecedented year for anyone in the hospitality profession, but for us, survival has been easier than other pubs and restaurants because of the relationship we have with our customers, because of how loyal they are and because we’ve great people both in the kitchen and to the front of house. We’ve every cause to be optimistic for maintaining the high standards and happy atmosphere into 2021... hopefully it’ll be a more stable year for everyone!” n

on the MENU

FROM THE CROSS KEYS AT GRASBY’S À LA CARTE MENU

Starters Pan seared scallops, caramelised shallot purée, buttered peas and pancetta with tarragon oil.

Charcoal tempura soft shell crab, puffed rice and mild spiced Bombay, mango purée.

Main Courses Roasted duck breast, hibiscus and raspberry gel, wilted spinach, parsnip purée, salt baked beetroot, buttered corn.

Duo of lamb; lamb steak, 12 hour braised lamb shoulder bon bon, dauphinois potatoes, pancetta and spring cabbage, rosemary jus.

Corn fed chicken, burnt leek purée, sautéed asparagus, wild mushrooms, black garlic.

Cauliflower steak, wilted spinach, roasted chickpea and hazelnut, thyme oil.

Dessert Tempered chocolate and pistachio dome, raspberry bavarois, pistachio sponge.

Caramelised banana sticky toffee pudding, banana ice-cream.

NB: featured dishes are subject to change.

n The Cross Keys, Brigg Road, Grasby, DN38 6AQ. Call 01652 628247 or see www.crosskeysinngrasby.co.uk.

THE BIG CHEESE

With such diversity, such popularity and such ubiquity in our diet, cheese is not so much food as a lifestyle, and one Lincolnshire business dedicated to dairy is Thorpe St Peter’s Lymn Bank Farm. Now selling to Lincolnshire households via Yummy – the website which brings fresh local food right to your door – we catch up with Gemma Sisson and her team...

Words & Images: Rob Davis.

“ARE YOU THE PHOTOGRAPHER or the engineer?” I’m asked. I’m running late having taken the wrong turn at the blue house and ended up at the roadworks at the B1195. Some terribly nice but awfully butch chaps fixing the road allow me to turn around and I eventually find Lymn Bank Farm’s two-acre site at Thorpe St Peter, having made a phone call en route to apologise for my tardiness.

“I’m definitely the photographer.” Look at these hands; neither the hands of an engineer or a road fixer, but we all have that one thing we’re good at.

The engineer turns up at the same time as me and quickly diagnoses the problem with the bit of machinery in production which is playing up. ‘It’s either going to be six bolts or six grand,’ the team are warned. Thankfully, it isn’t as bad as first feared. With a spare part and (probably) a spanner he’s soon fixed the problem which means production can resume the next morning.

It’s a relief for the dairy, which has a number of customers keen to ensure they get their delivery, especially as Christmas is coming up and a whopping 80% of your average cheesemaker’s output is between the months of September and January.

Ask a Lincolnshire resident to name our local cheesemakers and two candidates in particular come to mind. Ulceby Cross’s Poacher is perhaps the most well-known Lincolnshire cheese, produced near Alford by Simon & Tim Jones since 1992, along with Michael & Mary Davenport’s Cote Hill products which originated circa 2005.

Just a mile or so from Wainfleet, Lymn Bank Farm has also been making cheese since 2004. But with half of the dairy’s output being contract cheese – that is, produced for their customers and so wearing someone else’s label – and with just 30% of Lymn Bank’s produce being sold within the county, the dairy’s own brand cheese hasn’t always had the same profile here as others in the company’s home county.

Happily that’s now changing and more people are becoming aware of Lymn Bank’s Nibble Nose, Just Jane, and its flavoured cheese barrels. >>