The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton
There is a special feel about cafés and restaurants at galleries. Apart from a few "locals in the know" about the food, your fellow diners are to some extent like-minded lovers of the arts.
It is a classless elitism. From Brighton to Bilbao to St Ives I have yet to have a bad meal in an art gallery.
The slight drawback with the bistro at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park is you have to pay 4 to park. Be reasonable. The idea is that it supports the upkeep of the indoor and outdoor exhibits, which have no entry charge.
The caf, restaurant, whatever one calls it, is on floor one of a magnificent modern building which has the usual offices, a shop and visiting exhibitions. It is pretty cool, in the idiom. The entry walkway is a metal plate, fretted with the names of artists. In the wider park there is work by Yorkshire's own – Hepworth and Moore. Bird life is rampant, too. Nice to see the Nuthatch scrambling for insects in the bark of the ancient trees.
The food is mostly self-service, apart from some hot dishes plated by the staff and brought to your table. The room is narrow, with glass walls looking over the park, and leading to a long balcony with a dozen or so more tables. It is an inspiring view.
Diners are mostly couples in stout trekking shoes for the park terrain, plus clutches of that endearing artform, Ladies At Lunch # 5. They probably eat at Harvey Nichols, too.
Art is in the beholder's eye and the Park, per se, has tantalising and heavy bronzes by Wakefield's Dame Barbara Hepworth, plus whatever the season brings: exploded, ten-ton bits from an artist's toy box. It all elevates the mood, even if you haven't a clue what the artist was thinking.
This restaurant is first rate in its field, serving honest food which at its best as good as I can remember having. The individual tureens of, say, beef pie, are teeming with flavour. The meat is tender and well-trimmed under the integrated pastry lid. It is all of a piece and tastes exactly like real home cooking – which is what is happening behind the scenes, modestly. There's no swagger of the chef with attitude. Occasionally a woman in cook's clothes will check all is well at the hot counter.
Shepherds' Pie was not minced meat but mouth-sized pieces of lamb, which tasted like lamb. Deliciously perfect, in fact. The potatoes and other vegetables (seasonal stuff such as calabrese and peas) are similarly spot-on in texture, appearance and flavour. It wasn't any old lamb, but the county's finest shoulder, braised for five hours. Mary would love it, I'm sure. Michael might have "plumped" for the potted salt Highlander beef, shredded with a horseradish, apple and mustard dressing, with rocket and other green leaves and cherry tomatoes and hefty slices of toasted rustic loaf.
A regular vegetarian main course is Yorkshire feta and spinach tart with salad and trimmings. You'll find fish pie; a platter of Yorkshire smoked mackerel, trout and oaky salmon with real piccalilli, bread and salad, at 8.15. The shepherds' pie and the tart are 7.95, the potted beef just 6.95. Venison and horseradish burger (8.95) also explores the uses of the hot root.
You also have a choice from baked potatoes, sandwiches and soup – field mushroom or squash and oregano on this visit (3.90). Half portions of the soup and baked spuds, with fruit and a drink is billed for the kids, at 3.90 but I don't suppose they'd object to it being ordered by an adult with a child's capacity.
Puddings are typically tarts: treacle, Bakewell, rhubarb and apple. Finish off with a terrific coffee and then go stare at the sculptures and listen to birds.
The estate dates from 1720 when the hall was designed and built by Sir William Wentworth, passing to the Beaumont family at the end of that century. The holding was broken up in the 1940s and from 1949 to 2007 the hall was a college, a splendid country adjunct to Leeds University. There are plans to make the hall into a hotel and spa and have a research centre for the arts and environment.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, Wakefield, WF4 4LG. Its restaurant is licensed and uses "fairtrade" products. It is open from 10am until 5pm. Contact: West Bretton. Tel: 01924 832631. Car parking: 4 a visit plus free disabled bays. The Sculpture Park is self-funded and a registered charity.
Verdict: Worth a detour for an out of town experience.
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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