With its village vibes and locally sourced menu, The Black Lamb in Wimbledon is about as rustic as London can get, says Victoria Hull 

Urbanites always dream of country retreats. Plato’s Academy was a garden set up outside Athens so that the city’s philosophers could wander around and pontificate. Industrialised Victorians sentimentalised the country cottage with roses around its door. Two such pastoral aspirants were Peter and Bridget Gladwin, who left London 35 years ago with their small sons and moved to Nutbourne in Sussex to build up a vineyard and farm. Bridget was an artist, Peter a businessman running his own catering and restaurant companies. Their sons now run the family businesses: Gregory on Nutbourne vineyard and farm; Oliver and Richard at Local & Wild, a group of restaurants that bring their wines and local produce back into London. “We use all things wild, foraged and locally grown,” they say. This includes sustainable livestock from the family farm and “by-catch” specials from nearby coastlines. The Black Lamb in Wimbledon Village is a newcomer to the group, its name conjuring the pastoral idyll.

Situated on a hill seven miles from London’s city centre, Wimbledon Village was spotted as an airy country retreat by medieval royalty. Taken from the Church during the Reformation, it was passed to a series of aristocrats (and briefly Thomas Cromwell). In the early 1700s a bridge was built over the Thames linking Fulham to Putney, making Wimbledon easily accessible and encouraging wealthy London merchants to build country houses around the hill. The arrival of the railway in 1838 rapidly expanded the village to a town, but Wimbledon Common was saved from further building and happily this huge countryside space was conserved for everyone to enjoy.

Idler contributor Georgina Williams has suggested we try the Black Lamb for this edition’s Wool Britannia theme and we agree to meet there. I head out on the District Line with ideas of gambolling lambs and quality ingredients from small farms not many food miles away.

Wimbledon Village is a short walk from the station in Wimbledon “town”. On the high street there’s a branch of The Ivy and of Carluccio’s, some fancy boutiques, a big Italian delicatessen, coffee shops and several of those gem-filled charity shops that are so worth checking out in wealthy neighbourhoods. On the common, a family of children and their dog are playing with a ball by the pond. It looks like a scene from an Enid Blyton story.

At the Black Lamb I’m shown to a banquette tucked into a nook in the window by friendly manager Atanis. Sage green walls are covered with Bridget’s paintings. Used vintage wine bottles are lined behind a long pale cotton upholstered bench with small tables opposite a dark wood bar and pale marble counter. Staff wear checked farmer’s shirts with black jeans and aprons. A young barman shakes cocktails loudly up-in-the air. Atanis is enthusing about Adnams brewery, and how it’s aiming at sustainability and collects rainwater for its facilities. Georgina arrives, laughing about a “dog jacket shop” next door. I think it might be a vet’s. “They were selling a sort of dog pashmina!” she says. I admit to feeling a slight bitterness towards the yummy families on the common and the large Georgian and Victorian houses with their huge knocked-through basement kitchens.

Curious about the “West London Burrata” on the menu, I ask Atanis about it.

“It’s from a factory in Ealing which processes Italian buffalo milk,” he says.

We go for the Tasting Menu, which comes with Local & Wild’s signature dish: Mushroom Marmite Éclair, a light mini choux pastry filled with a Marmite tinged, truffle tainted cream. “I’m a hater of Marmite,” says Georgina, “now I’m a convert.” Next a tiny blue cheese cream tart arrives, followed by rich pine-cured chalk-stream trout scattered with miniature cubes of beetroot. The head chefs are allowed to do their own thing with the ingredients delivered by the business, Atanis tell us. “It’s very different from the big chains. At The Ivy you have the same fish cake at every branch. There’s a mother kitchen where it’s all cooked.” Local & Wild have a few signature dishes which don’t change, but otherwise the chefs see what they have and adapt to suit. “It’s hard. Sometimes we change the menu several times a day.”

Crispy roasted Jerusalem artichokes with black garlic aioli are unctuous inside and crispy out – a combination, I know from many failures, that’s tricky to achieve. A huge pile of soft chorizo sausage mince is served with yogurt, a couple of crispy kale leaves and caraway crisp bread, white and transparent like prawn crackers. Georgina tries it and says it’s delicious. I’m already full and it looks overwhelming. Atanis offers to pack it up for me to take home. A fresh chunk of hake is surrounded by creamy sorrel butter. My rump steak is glossy and perfectly cooked medium to almost rare – but also going home with me.

Georgina’s glass of Nutbourne Bacchus wine is zesty and fresh – “full of life, like Bacchus,” she says. My Sussex Reserve is light and tasty. These wines are good. I’m getting over my anti-English wine prejudice. Nutbourne Vineyard is on sandy soil similar to the area of Champagne. This year’s harvest, after the long dry summer, has been especially successful. Atanis says they’ve put down 10,000 litres for its Sussex Reserve.

We finish with a glistening sticky toffee pudding doused with butterscotch sauce cut through with a hint of lime zest.

Looking through a recipe book by Peter Gladwin displayed on a shelf beside us, Georgina is pleased to read that the royalties go to a charity that redistributes waste food for homeless people. Georgina works at West London Welcome which provides meals for refugees, asylum seekers and other local people and is supplied by a similar waste food charity. It’s a grounding thought that stays with us as we depart the charming world of Wimbledon Village for the realities of the city. Back home, I realise with regret that I forgot my doggy bag. That chorizo and steak would have saved some cash on this week’s suppers.

The pastoral idyll has always been something of a fantasy. The reality is much muddier. But up on the airy hill of Wimbledon Village, the Black Lamb offers a little taste of it.

The Black Lamb, Wimbledon Village
67 High Street, London SW19 5EE
theblacklamb-restaurant.com

Dinner for Two
Local & Wild Tasting Menu £52
Artichokes £10
Hake £27
Wine £22.50

This article is from Idler #107.

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