Red Lion's share

When you've won a coveted Michelin star for your restaurant in just three years, you can either set your sights on further heights or expand. The business trio of Ben Jones, Marcus Welford and chef Sean Hope - who put the Olive Branch in Clipsham, Rutland, on the map in this year's Red Guide - have opted to spread their wings.

So, in April this year, they purchased the Red Lion Inn across the county border in Stathern, Leicestershire, and set about expanding their Rutland Inn Company's mini-empire, recruiting Phil Lowe - previously sous chef at Hambleton Hall's sister restaurant, Hart's, in Nottingham - to head the kitchen.

Unlike the Olive Branch, where Hope's innovative vision of pub food has caught the headlines, the daily-changing menu on offer at the Red Lion is a little more down-to-earth. "We're trying to produce simple, home-cooked food - or at least something you might have a go at in your own kitchen," Lowe explains.

Pease pudding, please?

So, the menu might carry dishes such as roast tomato and deep-fried mozzarella salad (£4.95), or fish and chips with mushy peas (£8.50). It's not all about the average grub found in his clientele's own kitchens, however. "We also like pushing things that people wouldn't have seen for a while - like potted ham, pease pudding and home-made piccalilli (£5.75)," Lowe says.

This all ties in with Rutland Inn's business philosophy of revitalising closed-down village pubs and breathing fresh life into the notion of a community hub. The pub has a warm and rustic appeal, with an old skittle alley adapted and renovated with antique wood panelling to make a separate 70-seat dining area. On Friday and Saturday nights, as many as 100 covers can go out, at about £20 per head excluding wine. Unusually for the kitchen of a self-styled village pub, this means that there might as many as six chefs working back of house.

Local produce is central to the mission, as the map detailing the surrounding suppliers on the back of the menu demonstrates. For instance, partridges and pheasants come from the nearby Belvoir estate, while later in the season the estate's gamekeeper might come to the back door with wood pigeons and woodcock.

Sunday lunch is a big pull, tempting people with dishes such as roast loin of fallow buck (£15.95) accompanied by a bottle from the comprehensive and sensibly priced wine list, drawn up by Welford - perhaps the Argentinian Infinitus from Patagonia, a rich, warm, plummy blend of Syrah and Malbec (£12.50).

The likes of black pudding and crispy bacon salad (£4.95/£8.75), wedges of Cropwell Bishop Stilton served with toasted nuts and honey (£4.95), and Mrs King's Melton Mowbray pork pies accompanied by home-made chutney and pickled onions (£5.95) keep the traditional British pub-grub flag flying (the last of these is perfect with half-a-pint of the village-brewed Brewsters VPA).

It's not all traditional British fare, though. Lowe's culinary background means that he is at home with modern brasserie food, and dishes such as asparagus and lemon risotto (£4.95), pan-fried sea bream, spiced couscous and Mediterranean vegetables (£12.50), and spicy chicken kebabs accompanied by cucumber and mint salad to balance the gentle heat (£8.95) are dotted on the menu. However, Lowe reckons: "Most people are just as likely to call kebabs typical British food nowadays."

Red Lion Inn, Red Lion Street, Stathern, Leicestershire LE14 4HS

Tel: 01949 860868 Fax: 01949 861579

A selection from the menu at the Red Lion Inn

Ham hock terrine with home-made chutney, £4.95
Smoked salmon, caper and gherkin roulade, avocado crème fraîche, £5.50
Tempura king prawns, £5.50
Smoked haddock, Welsh rarebit, bubble and squeak, £10.50
Braised shoulder of lamb, cassoulet of beans, morteau sausage, £9.95
8oz rib-eye steak, tomatoes, crispy onions, chips and béarnaise, £12.95
Treacle tart, liquorice ice-cream, £4.75
Chocolate tart, chocolate ice-cream, £4.95
Jam roly-poly, custard, £4.75

Menus of the Quarter

The three winning menus for the May to July 2002 quarter are from Mustard and Punch, Huddersfield, Yorkshire; the Samling hotel, Ambleside, Cumbria; and Zuma, London. All three go through to the shortlist for the 2003 Cateys Menu of the Year award, sponsored by Quorn.