Out & About February 2017

Big food from a pub with a big heart The Halfway Inn offers a welcome respite from the winter chill and a feast of warming food. Trish Lee ventured in from the cold to savour the atmosphere and fine food offered by James and Magda Callery.

O n the coldest night of the year so far, crunching across freezing car park gravel, the warm glow of The Halfway inn was most inviting. Stepping inside, the welcome was equally warm, with a blazing log fire, flickering candles, sheepskin-strewn armchairs and chef James Callery there to greet us. And so it must have been centuries ago for the weary travellers who stopped off at the 18th-century oak-beamed coaching inn on the A4 Bath Road, half-way between London and Bristol. However, James and his Polish wife Magda have now created a more contemporary, cosy ambience, with a quirky collection of designer knick-knacks and more than a nod to the past in the upholstered period chairs set around polished wood tables. The restaurant is at the same time spacious and, because of the individual table settings, intimate. The theatrical décor is down to Magda; “she’s the interior designer,” says James. We settled on a window seat in the bar with a glass of sauvignon blanc from the pub’s collection of South African Rickety Bridge wines to peruse the menu. A row of cookery books were propped along the sill – just a selection from 460 in the pub – and in the background, pianist Roger tickled the ivories of the baby grand. A convivial host, 36-year-old James is Inkpen born and bred. The self-taught chef has been in the business since he was 16, but was first bitten by the cooking bug when, as part of his front-of-house training, he had to spend a month in the kitchens, and since moving to The Halfway eight years ago, he’s never looked back. He has just returned to the helm after a two- year sabbatical on another project, with his son Kris starting front-of-house last year. The oldest of the rest of his young team of six is just 23. The Halfway offers hearty English food with a twist and takes pride in creating dishes from scratch, from the Polish sausages made

Wild mushroom risotto balls with a blue cheese sauce

Pan-roasted salmon in mussel and lentil marinara

Lemon posset and custard tart

Slow-cooked lamb

to a recipe of James’ father-in-law – ‘Eddy’s bangers’ – or the salmon and ribs they smoke themselves, to their home-made pastry, James says: “If there’s a long way of doing things, I will do it.” We just missed out on a starter of thyme pan-seared mackerel with warms beets, pearl onions and spinach purée to a large party in the restaurant – obviously a popular dish – but we weren’t disappointed by our wild mushroom risotto balls with a rich blue cheese sauce or the ham hock croquettes with a parsley and mustard dip, both satisfying appetisers for the mains to come. You can’t say I wasn’t warned, as earlier chef had told us The Halfway does “big stuff or small stuff”, “hearty or delicate”.

Under the ‘big stuff’ comes their special slow-cooked lamb in winter or rack of ribs in summer, plus their famous Halfway burger. Wavering between the hearty seared venison with roasted sprouts, butternut squash, onions and spinach purée, versus the lamb, I went with the recommendation of the latter. ‘Big’ was an understatement and we did a double-take at the magnificent half-shoulder that arrived in a fragrant waft of rosemary. It was fit for a feast, glazed in a rich jus and proving as succulent as it looked, the meat just falling from the bone. So it took a while to discover the helping of delicious gratin potatoes under the accompanying sweet potato chips.

28