Magic fine-dining without the pretension is a rarity, but this country pub-restaurant does it fabulously
Several restaurants that have recently popped up in rural locations do not merely cook you dinner, they also sell you a dream. The Small Holding in Kilndown, Kent, is one of these. It boasts the type of thriving, working kitchen garden with added pigs, geese and chickens for which addled city dwellers yearn.
Chef Will Devlin opened the doors a mere 18 months ago, and already this former pub’s single acre heaves with courgettes, kale, fennel, peas, beans and approximately 200 other varieties of veg, fruit and herbs. It’s all very seductive to those of us who have been choking on car fumes, though the reality is that country life is for hardy folk who deal well with heartbreak. Your spuds may drown. Slugs will munch your fennel. No one will eat your Berkshire pig – in fact, it will become a cherished family member.
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