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“I always had a dream of owning a restaurant in the countryside,” says Merlin Labron-Johnson, the 33-year-old Devon-born chef behind the farm-to-table establishments. The old pharmacy and Osip In Somerset. After four years, Osip has outgrown its intimate 22-seat space on the ground floor of the Number One Bruton hotel and will reopen in a standalone venue this month.
The restaurant has earned a reputation for its daily evolving menus that highlight locally grown, seasonal ingredients and the signature pithivier dish, called “wonder cake” By food critic Marina O’Loughlin. Osip’s regulars include photojournalist Don McCullin, actress Haley Bennett and, when he can tear himself away from his own kitchen at Heckfield Place, culinary director Skye Gyngell.
The new restaurant building, an 18th century building, is located close to the original, in an idyllic location on the edge of a pine forest near North Brewham. The building was owned by the team of Hauser and Wirthwhich is omnipresent in the area. “It was unlisted, by some miracle,” Labron-Johnson says of securing the property, which required extensive renovations, partly funded via Kickstarter. Bruton-based architecture studio Bindloss Dawes was tasked, alongside designers Ruby Kean and Lisa Hyatt-Jones of Atelier LK, with creating a modern setting while maintaining the historic integrity of the existing structure. Most of the original team will relocate to the new site, which is planning a soft launch in early August – bookings are open from 20 August.
Labron-Johnson is no stranger to new beginnings, having opened five restaurants including Portland in Fitzrovia, London, which was awarded a Michelin star when he was just 24. He says the aim of the new Osip is to create a remote “destination” with land, rooms and space to encompass a “more cohesive and holistic hospitality experience”. A residency programme for chefs and artists will be launched next year.
“We wanted it to feel like someone’s home,” say the designers of the new Osip, who have designed an open-plan central kitchen and lounge, with elements made by local craftsmen, such as a hand-carved bar and worktop by carpenter Max Bainbridge of Somerset-based Forest + Found, and lighting by artist couple Andrew Pierce Scott and Natalia Triantafylli. From next month, there will be four large, luxurious rooms in the restaurant, each with its own colour palette, high ceilings and decorative charm.
“Cooking is my passion, but design and this whole process has been really inspiring,” Labron-Johnson says of his journey from chef to restaurateur and, now, quasi-hotelier. “When you’re a chef, you care most about the food, how it tastes, how it looks; as a restaurateur, in the same way, you start to care about every little detail: from the guest journey, to when they go online and look at the website, to how the doorknob feels when they walk into the space, and of course, the welcome.” He’s still mulling over what will define the new Osip’s, but the curtains in the entryway, courtesy of leather designer Bill Amberg, offer an immediate sense of ceremony.
And what about the opening menu? Labron-Johnson says it’s still in development, but diners can expect vibrant herb broths, crudités of farm vegetables, beet tacos (another Osip specialty) and the return of his infamous cheese plate featuring house-made fruit bread and truffle slices. “Simple, minimalist, focused on quality in the details,” he says. “That’s what we’re known for.”