What’s the draw?
If your idea of a good night away is spending three hours dining on a locavore tasting menu in a former 17th-century coaching inn that has been thoughtfully renovated to combine old and new before wobbling upstairs to bed down for the night, then Osip is a slam dunk.
Colloquially referred to as Osip 2.0, Merlin Labron-Johnson’s lauded restaurant upped sticks from Bruton last summer to this new site overlooking the Somerset fields. It’s quintessential British restaurant-with-rooms – a small but cosy and well-stocked bar, a peaceful outdoor space to sip house-made cider before dinner, and rooms designed to lull you to sleep after 13 or so decadent courses.
Much like the menu, the rooms are an exercise in austere luxury. Named after Somerset rivers – Somer, Pitt, Brue and Avon – they don’t shout for attention at first glance, instead, they’re quietly chic and perfectly formed. As this is essentially a room designed for relaxing pre-supper baths and even more relaxing post-supper slumbers, the spaces are unsurprisingly centred around large beds that scoop you up and carry you away to the land of nod (although the six paired wines will undoubtedly help with that). Toiletries are made for Osip with Harvest Skincare, and the room is dotted with food and travel books to browse to the sound of rustling trees and the occasional horse clip-clopping down the lane.
The food and drink
You don’t have to dine at Osip in order to stay in the rooms but if we’re being honest, that’s the primary reason to visit this little countryside bolthole. Chef patron Merlin Labron-Johnson cut his teeth working at Michelin-starred restaurants across Europe before returning to the UK to open Portland restaurant on Great Portland Street and, nine months later, winning a Michelin star at 24. His star has only ascended since then.
Dinner begins in the lounge bar with cocktails and snacks. On our mid-summer visit this was a pure celebration of the unadulterated flavour that can be found in the vegetables grown in the Osip farms nearby – sweet, elegant chunks of cucumber and bright, peppery radishes. For the cocktail-centric, don’t look past the Tomato Martini – it’s a savoury, delicately sweet sipper that will get the appetite roaring – or the Fig Leaf Negroni.
You then migrate into the main dining room for the rest of the meal. Echoing a theatre, tables are angled towards the kitchen and the Somerset greenery beyond, with the kitchen feeling like a stage show as the setting sun slowly dances across the fields. There’s no doubt that Osip would be wonderful throughout all seasons, but summer does make the most of Labron-Johnson’s ethos, with abundant plants from the restaurant’s farms and gardens and beautiful seafood from British waters. Highlights included a violet potato topped with a charred piece of octopus in a brightly acidic squid sauce, and duck cooked three ways with dainty early-season girolles and carrot; a celebration of produce.
Should you manage to find the room for it, breakfast the following morning is an equally decadent affair, with house granola, local cheese, sticky pear and cardamom buns, smoked trout and Tamworth ham.
What else?
Few towns in England have as good a reputation for their food scene as Bruton. Make sure to book into Osip’s sister restaurant, The Old Pharmacy, for a blackboard lunch of European classics accompanied by a natural-leaning wine list. Next door, Briar is headed up by Sam Lomas, former head chef at Devon’s Glebe House. Though it only opened in late summer last year, it’s already built a strong reputation. Across the road, At the Chapel serves up the best flat white outside the M25, and for those craving a crisp pint, The Blue Ball is a near-perfect pub. The famed Hauser and Wirth Gallery sits on the outskirts of town with exceptional modern art, alongside a bar, restaurant and farm shop. Don’t forget to pop into the Godminster cheese shop to grab a wheel of their award-winning vintage cheddar.
If you’re staying at the rooms at Osip, they offer a concierge service with complimentary transfers from transport hubs, alongside assistance nabbing bookings at any local spots you may want to try – of which there are many.
Rooms start at £240 per night; osiprestaurant.com
