Lark has gained much love in the Suffolk market town of Bury St Edmunds. Here's how chef-owner James Carn grabbed attention with a pivotal pie
"It was unbelievably shit in the beginning," says James Carn, chef-owner of Lark in Bury St Edmunds. "We had 20 covers and 18 sets of cutlery. I borrowed chairs from the One Bull [a nearby pub]. On the soft launch night, we had no benches in the kitchen and not enough pans. But I work best when I'm up against it."
Nine months on from its shaky February opening, Lark is in full song. "It's everything I dreamed of," says Bury-born Carn, 33. He's cooked from the age of 16, including at Tuddenham Mill near Newmarket, the Angel hotel, just a stone's throw from Lark, and twice at Bury's Michelin-starred Pea Porridge, latterly cooking for two formative years alongside chef-owner and friend Justin Sharp.
Lark brings a dash of contemporary cool to the Suffolk market town with its white-walled simplicity, polished concrete floor and plants trailing from cookbook-stacked shelves: the inspiration of places such as Brat, Lyle's and St John. Nathan Outlaw's Fish Kitchen, the couple's favourite restaurant, is also evident. And there's much love for it. A glowing review in The Observer by Jay Rayner in July "sent things mental", says Carn, the 20-seat restaurant doing more than 280 covers across four days in one particularly busy week. That level has since settled, but there's a core of weekly regulars, one party even travelling from Bahrain just for dinner.
A menu of small and less-small plates is tweaked daily with price – from £3 for a rabbit and black pudding croquette – an indication of portion size. Diners are advised to order three to four plates, which are sent out when ready. Sharing is encouraged. Typical food spend is £65 a head, with a Portuguese bottle opening the wine offer at £26 or £7.50 per 175ml pour.
Hot fougasse is £5 or £7 and comes with a shower of Parmesan or anchovies; a plate of rippling coppa is £7. More substantial are the likes of crumbed sardines with beetroot and horseradish (£13), or house-made pasta. Sopressini cacio e pepe with generous shavings of truffle (£19) is a best-seller, and a summertime cuttlefish-ink farfalle with cuttlefish ragù and sea herbs (£16) built a following. Octopus, Carn's favourite ingredient, appears frequently, currently served grilled and paprika-glazed, with suckling pork belly and red pepper and chilli jam (£22).
It's the pie that has grabbed the attention, however. A picture of a golden-pastried muntjac shank pie was the first to grace Instagram on opening day and it was an instant hit. In a two-day process, the legs are poached and the meat pushed up the bone to create a ball. Layered with wild mushroom and black pudding duxelles it's set, then wrapped in cabbage and well-seasoned pastry before being baked and plated with a seasonal purée and Madeira reduction.
The pies became so popular post-Rayner that they're now reserved for the seven-plate Kitchen Selection sharing menu (£65). But Carn believes that "pie 2.0" is even better. On the specials since end-October, a marrow-filled bone surrounded by a pastry skirt is packed with slow-cooked oxtail and topped with braised snails, a flourish of seasoned flat-leaf parsley and surrounded by bright parsley velouté. A fanbase is growing.
Desserts (£12) are "proper", says Carn. "I didn't want ‘bits on a plate' desserts. The tuile on the chocolate mousse is probably the most cheffy thing we do." A classic trifle – currently mango and passion fruit, topped with pieces of caramelised white chocolate – flies out from the short list. There's Pink Lady apple tarte tatin, and always a rum-drenched canelé (£4).
A local supply ethos is strong. Venison is from Lavenham Butchers, hogget and lamb come whole from shepherdess Kits Russell, whose flock grazes land on the edge of Bury. The cannon might be served with wet polenta and pesto (£20), the neck slow-cooked, seared, and plated with chickpea and courgette stew (£17). Sunshine & Green, an organic-certified farm in nearby Cavendish, is a recent discovery for veg, and even the wine is super-local, bought from Bury's indie wine shop, Vino Gusto.
Carn returns to Justin Sharp, clearly a mentor. "Justin showed me that running a restaurant is possible if you work incredibly hard, keep things tight, buy world-class ingredients and cook simply."
Carn's wife Sophia's encouragement has been key too, and her decision to leave her job teaching business studies to run the business alongside raising the couple's four boys has been pivotal. "Lark wouldn't exist without Soph. And if Lark is still being talked about in five years' time, that will be success."
From the menu
- Smoked cod's roe dip £5
- Salsify fritter, Parmesan cream £6
- Suffolk lamb sweetbreads, Café de Paris butter £13
- Whole slip sole, Brancaster mussels, saffron sauce £14
- Muntjac tartare, hash brown, jalapeño, sour cream, chive £13
- Cuttlefish ink risotto, tempura cuttlefish, sea herbs £17
- Suffolk line-caught bass, confit leek, palourde clams £20
- Tosier chocolate, Fontodi olive oil, cocoa nib tuile £12
6A Angel Hill, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 1UZwww.larkrestaurant.co.uk
