‘As the beautiful meal plays out, it all starts to make a Through The Looking Glass kind of sense’
Art is, of course, subjective, but if I were choosing a restaurant on the basis of what was hanging on its walls, I doubt this tiny place would get a look in. Above our heads is what appears to be a child’s ancient, dismembered rabbit jutting out of a frame, like something from Neil Gaiman’s dark imagination. But then, Le Cochon Aveugle is altogether a curiosity, from the squiggle of pink neon in the window to the fusty little antique cabinet filled with intriguing gins.
I tried coming here before, when it was owned by Michael O’Hare of Leeds’ The Man Behind The Curtain (it was his second York outlet after The Blind Swine – geddit?), but it was closed for a private function. Peering in to see decor that could have been the blueprint for a tart’s boudoir – washing lines hung with bras – I took myself off with a sense of relief to The Star Inn The City and bread served in a flat cap. Now the site is co-owned by chef Josh Overington, here since it was O’Hare’s atypically traditional French-style bistro – all bouillabaisse, frogs’ legs and tarte au citron. And, left to his own devices, Overington has come up with something a bit special.
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