My Restaurant – The Hole in the Wall, Little Wilbraham

I cannot believe I am writing this blog post. To make the leap from aspiring food writer to Masterchef finalist was really quite something but this might just top it.

I’ve got a restaurant. Maybe it will help things sink in if that is repeated.

I have my very own restaurant. And what a restaurant it is.

The Hole in the Wall in the delightful village of Little Wilbraham, just outside Cambridge, is about as picture perfect as an old pub can be and I love it.

12 months ago my business partner and I had reached an impasse. Our grand plans to open a place of our own had hit a snag or two and we consoled ourselves with a pub lunch at a beautiful rural free house. As we sat outside, the sunshine and ale soothing our ills, we idled as to why we were having such a hard time finding a home for our cooking and how wonderful it would be if ‘we could just find a place like this’.

A year, and many more impasses later, we have found it. We’ve got a kitchen and a dining room of our very own – a home for the dishes that up until now had only been sketches and drawings and synapses firing through our brains. We’ve got a pub and open fires and wooden beams and a snug (a snug!) and all the things that make you smile when you picture an old English ale house.

Right now there is a minor refurbishment going on, a few licks of paint here and some elbow grease there, before we get into the kitchen and start doing what I’ve been desperate to do since I was 15 years old. But the doors will be open. Soon. The bar – which will be home to hearty and wholesome plates of deliciousness – is opening on July 12th. The restaurant – where I’ll be letting the imagination run wild (blue cheese ice cream might even make it onto the menu!) – will be ready just two days later.

It would be wonderful to have as many blog readers dining with us as possible over the next few weeks and as a thank you to all of you and the support you have shown since I started penning these missives five years ago, if you mention the blog when booking there will be a little treat waiting for you when you take your seat. Maybe something a little cold and fizz – you’ve earned it.

So it is with great pride I now declare booking open. You’ll probably want a telephone number won’t you? 01223 812282. I can’t wait to meet you all. Big hugs and enormous thanks.

Oh, and the name of the pub we sat outside on that frustrating summer afternoon 12 long months ago? Where we mused how wonderful it would be to have a place ‘just like this’? It was called The Hole in the Wall in the quaint Cambridgeshire village of Little Wilbraham. It’s funny how things work out.