Sneezing with joy
Kelham Island’s Juke and Loe might be a spoonerism but its delivering tasty food, as Amanda Wragg discovers on a eye-opening return to her old teenage haunts in Sheffield.
GROWING up on the outskirts of Sheffield in the late ’60s there were parts of the city that you forgot to mention if you didn’t want to get into trouble when the parentals found out where you’d been. Kelham Island was one of those places, and we blatantly broke the rules in order to drink in the Fat Cat (was the Alma), a brilliant pub then and now. (Then: a bit edgy with factory and street workers piling in after a shift and epic smoking. Now: real ale, vegan food and a quiz night.)
Kelham’s transformation is remarkable and it’s quietly become one of the most exciting parts of the city. The remains of the cutlery and steel works, factories and workshops is part of what gives the area its charm, though nowadays the monumental buildings house everything from microbreweries to galleries. The River Sheaf – once not much more than an oily slick – now has brown trout. This sort of rejuvenation attracts the kind of folk who like to eat well, and the Milestone Group was formed by local businessman Matt Bigland and based at the Milestone, a handsome Victorian corner pub; it found fame featuring on Ramsay’s Best Restaurant in 2010. Bigland’s erstwhile partner chef Luke French opened the multi-awardwinning Joro in a series of shipping containers just down the road; Kelham's cool credentials were nailed on.
Across town on Ecclesall Road, brothers Luke and Joseph Grayson’s almost eponymous restaurant Juke and Loe was doing quite nicely thank you until a less than helpful landlord wanted not just a hike in rent but a 10-year commitment from them. After casting around for a new place, a bit of fortuitous timing occurred and the Milestone became free; it seemed like a natural fit and they found a new home.
Strolling in on a freezing Wednesday night, it feels as if they’ve been there forever. It’s a moody, dark palette, atmospheric rather than gloomy due to the warmth of the welcome and the groovy soundtrack – music that goes with the room, the food and the customers (think Midlake, the Kinks and Elvis Costello). Striking artworks on the inky walls are by local lass Katherine Maher – I’m compelled to give her a name check because I think you should all know about her.
I’m thrilled to find it’s a 4/4/4 menu with enough variety to keep me happy all night. It’s large printed (thank you. I am fed up of having to fumble to flick my phone light on) on brown paper with just “To Start”, “To Follow” and “To Finish”, a beguilingly straightforward format which disguises the likes of cured salmon, dill cream, caviar, black treacle, crumpet and pork jowl, a sensational starter. It’s fabulously sticky and packed with flavour, with peanut crumb for crunch and an insanely hot, sinus-clearing kimchi which has me sneezing with pleasure.
Celeriac often gets a bad rap – misguidedly in my mind – and here it’s salt baked and sweet, with tiny batons of burnt apple, pickled shimeji mushrooms, a lovely hazelnut tuile and soft hens egg deep fried in golden breadcrumbs; a hugely satisfying plate.
“To Follow” features beef blade, bone marrow butter with rocket and tongue salad – ordinarily there would have been no question I’d have chosen it but for the presence of venison loin, beetroot, red cabbage and stilton polenta. The loin is pink and as tender as you’d hope, and the paper-thin golden beets bring sweetness, along with sticky red cabbage and polenta. But the star of the show is the meatloaf, made up of all the other bits of the deer baht antlers and bursting with herbage.
An impeccably cooked chunk of Cornish cod has a luscious Argentinian red shrimp perched on top, in turn sitting on spinach with sea herbs and a stunning squid ink gnocchi – like a black brandy snap, all brought together with a broth that sings of the ocean, with flavour as deep as one. It’s enormously satisfying. For vegetarians, there’s agnolotti – a sort of ravioli – with mushroom and marscarpone, hen of
the woods, Jerusalem artichoke and truffle; a sophisticated, generous-sounding dish.
“To Finish”, a classic apple tarte tatin, “the best I’ve eaten out of France,” says my chum, who has lived there so knows. It’s a thing of beauty, simple and delicious, with crème fraîche ice cream and cajeta, a sort of thickened caramel usually made of sweetened goat's milk. Chocolate sable tart with buckwheat popcorn, salted caramel and Chantilly cream jumps off the page but not as eagerly as rice pudding brûlée. Anything with stem ginger and forced rhubarb in the description has me at hello. Add rhubarb and custard doughnut, and I’m a quivering wreck. Forget school dinners: this is rich and creamy with a perfect doughnut in the middle, feather-light and spilling custard when it’s cut into; one of the most original, rewarding dishes I’ve had for a long time. All hail to pastry chef Tom Barnepp, whose skills picked up in York at Skosh and Roots are evident.
Both self-taught, Joe went into a kitchen straight from school, and 15 years ago Luke started as a pot-washer in Mish Mash, the restaurant which bizarrely became their own place in 2018, before the move to Kelham. Despite their obvious talents, these brothers don’t brag, but wear their skills lightly in true Sheffield style. They’re fond of a spoonerism but this is serious cooking and fine dining at its most relaxed – there’s no need to whisper or even sit up straight. The best of it is there’s not a gel sphere, foam eruption or tweezered micro herb in sight – the food looks great but what matters most is what they’re really good at; an immense hit of flavour. Juke and Loe; a fabulous Kelham fit.
Juke and Loe, 84 Green Lane, Sheffield S3 8SE, tel 0114 272 0161 www.jukeandloe.com.