Village choice

It was not so very long ago that the idea of getting breast of partridge on red cabbage glazed with truffled honey as a first course for a British pub lunch would have seemed like the mad dream of a gourmet fantasist. But that is one of the dishes now on offer at Gary Witchalls's Epicurus restaurant at the Leather Bottle pub in the Essex village of Blackmore. It is well-conceived, beautifully cooked and good value at £4.95. It is also a typically accomplished Witchalls dish and demonstrates both the virtues and the problems he faces.

Witchalls's difficulty is that this is Essex, and the Leather Bottle is a working pub, and persuading diners to pay restaurant prices for pub food when they are used to cheaper and less imaginative pub grub is a tough task.

This is particularly so in a village like Blackmore. Just round the corner is the local competition, the Bull, where the food is cheaper and more in the pub tradition, while up the road is the Wheatsheaf, an old venue that has performed the increasingly common transition from pub to restaurant.

Even Blackmore's genial taxi driver can put visitors in the picture. He says: "The Bull is cheaper, but it's still good food; the Wheatsheaf is basically now a restaurant, so people tend to accept the higher prices. And the food at the Leather Bottle is very good, too, so I hear, but some people think it's a bit expensive for eating in a pub."

Witchalls's task now, with recent weekly earnings not even hitting the £4,000 they have averaged so far, is to persuade customers that the quality of food at Epicurus is worth the extra money. "In a way," he says, "I think marketing is a bit tacky, but I'm learning fast that it is necessary."

Apart from advertising in the local and county press, Witchalls is also swallowing some of his gastronomic pride by setting aside haute cuisine for events such as a steak night on Mondays. "It's not what I want to do, but it's commercial reality," he says.

Gloom is by no means ubiquitous, however. While Epicurus may not be making as much money as Witchalls would like, it is still in the black and he has no debts. The restaurant is also getting noticed by the guides. It has already made it into the Good Food Guide, published last week, and Michelin reported back favourably after a recent visit. There seems little doubt that diners who do head for Epicurus will get a treat: persuading them to do so in the first place is the task with which Witchalls must grapple.

He is continuing to look for a second restaurant near by, but says that he will have to put a time limit on how long he is prepared to carry on at the Leather Bottle if covers do not increase. "I will give it another year at least," he says, "but after that, if things have not taken off a bit more, I will have to consider my options."

Next visit to Epicurus: 5 December

Epicurus at the Leather Bottle

The Green, Blackmore, Essex
Tel: 01277 823538
Chef-director: Gary Witchalls
Seats: 55
Average weekly turnover: £4,000

The story so far

Gary Witchalls, whose varied and accomplished career includes spells as chef-director of Butlers Wharf Chef School and group executive chef at Sutcliffe Catering, has decided to set up his own restaurant. He has chosen the Leather Bottle pub in his home village of Blackmore, Essex, where he operates Epicurus alongside the traditional pub business of James and Gwen Wallace. He is just approaching the end of his first full year of trading.