The same... only better
MOVE OVER NOMA: At the Bridge Cottage Café Bar, Amanda Wragg finds perfection on a plate. Pictures by Kathryn Bulmer.
HAT could be better than a great little bistro right next to the sea serving up fish dishes fresh as you like? Nothing, in my book, so all hail Alex Perkins and his posse at Bridge Cottage café in Sandsend.
Not that it is a new idea – he’s been in this long, low, smartly whitewashed pantiled cottage for six summers but it/he had a bit of an identity crisis (something to do with the boutique hotel a bit further up the lane having the same old name, Woodlands) so it’s been re-named and had a bit of a refurb, and the menu’s been rebooted. The blurb reads: ‘Woodlands Café Bar is changing its name. But don’t worry, everything else is the same ..’ well, sort of. It looks different and the food is several notches better than I remember.
On a warm summer night with the seagulls wheeling and that iridescent pink sky over the turquoise sea that coaxed David Hockney back from California to paint, there’s no finer place than the Yorkshire Coast.
Inside, a light, airy space with contemporary design – this is properly stylish, with Verner Panton chairs, walls made up of distressed mirror tiles and stags antlers lights. Tables are beaten metal and the floor is Iroko wood – the ‘shop’ end at the front is a really attractive space too, with white marble counters, hung glasses and white rectangular tiles.
During the day it’s a café – there’s a very pleasant patio garden out front with sturdy furniture and parasols, and your canine chum is welcome. Tuck into a Reuben sandwich or chicken liver brulee; the baking is effortlessly artisan, with the likes of cardamom, rose water and polenta cake. There are views up to the leafy Mulgrave Estate (keep your eyes peeled for Kate Moss, apparently a regular visitor) and down to the sea – Whitby shimmers in the distance.
Despite his youthful boy-band looks, Perkins has been round the block a time or two. I remember him shuffling round his parent’s pub, the White Horse & Griffin in Whitby. He had a short spell running an out-of-the-way place near Pickering (the food was fine; the location was just too remote). He’s done some serious stripe-earning at the Blue Bicycle in York, but the coast called and he’s come home in every sense.
His mission statement “Our close relationship with local fishermen and farmers ensures that the freshest and most sustainable produce is on your plate” isn’t just a bit of fluffy public relations-speak but appears to be absolutely on the money.
Whilst the plates that end up on the table are as simple as they sound, don’t for a minute imagine that the making and presentation is without skill and