The Scottish Mail on Sunday - You
EATING OUT
It may be raining in the South Downs, but Tom is warmed by an unfussy Italian place with heart
To Lewes, East Sussex, on this most damp and drab of late-autumnal days. But sunshine awaits, albeit in the form of Olly Smith, wine master, friend and formerly of this parish. ‘I must get you down to Squisito,’ he had said a few months back. ‘Italian. Small, but perfectly formed. You do the food. I’ll do the wine.’ Now there’s an offer that I really couldn’t refuse.
So here we are, in a small, bustling room, an open kitchen at its heart, hidden away (it did take me a while to find) in The Needlemakers, a sort of shopping centre for pretty handmade things. Pure Lewes. As is the restaurant itself, very much a family affair. Chefs and co-owners Chris Chater and Harry Fields man the stoves, while Sally Murphy, in charge of wine and front of house, is married to Harry. There’s a warmth here, an unfussy charm that’s impossible to resist.
A house negroni to start (£5, in the same Pyrex glass, and at the same price, as those pioneered by the late, great Russell Norman), bracingly bitter. Then a plumply fatty home-made Italian sausage, gently spiced. And fat arancini, crisp and well fried, filled with nduja and oozing mozzarella. God, this is civilised. As the rain pours down outside,
A plumply fatty Italian sausage is gently spiced
we delve deep into Olly’s ‘bottle burrow’, with an Austrian Riesling, FX Pichler; Ried Steinertal to be precise. A heavenly scented, very grown-up wine. And one that adores the carbonara as much as we do. The sauce clings, concupiscently, to the pert fresh linguine, each strand slicked in rich, eggy emulsion. Pecorino adds that essential sharp edge.
Then a bottle of 1995 Château
La Fleur-pétrus (another gem from Olly’s cellar), smooth, handsome and elegant – the Roger Moore of Pomerols. And one that not just complements but downright seduces the gnocchi – light as a sigh – bathed in a Texel lamb ragù. Rich, mellow and gently ovine, it’s the sort of dish into which one can disappear, food as salve to the soul. One more bottle of red (well, it is a Friday), this time Greek, Mouxtapo. We linger over
that, well into the afternoon. Because Squisito is the sort of neighbourhood restaurant that we all wish we had. Prices are eminently reasonable, and the place has real heart. It may describe itself as ‘unauthentically Italian’. But really, it’s just authentically good.
About £25 per head. Squisito, The Needlemakers, Lewes, East Sussex; squisito.co.uk