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THE STAR
TAR IS RE-BORN
As regulars at Tempus Fugit, we knew
we were in for a treat when we visited
Lisa Linton and Shaun Fletcher’s new
gastropub The Star Inn in Wick.
Congratulations, you’re the new
owners of The Star Inn?
Yes, Tempus Fugit our Tapas Bar in
Ogmore by Sea has proven to be an
incredible success and is often fully
booked, so we’ve been looking to
take on somewhere else for a while.
The Star has a great location, and is a
really beautiful former pub, but in
need of some ‘tlc’. It used to be ‘the
place’ to go for food years ago!
Taking it on to create a new
gastropub and bring it back to its
former glory was an easy decision,
even though at times it’s been a
little challenging!
Who’ll run Tempus Fugit now?
Shaun and I will continue to actively
work in both places, (though not at
the same time!) and we also have
a great team of people working
with us.
I guess you won’t be seeing much
of your husband then?
How do
you feel about that?
Actually we are closed in the
afternoons at both places, so we do
get to spend SOME time with each
other! It’s nicer, in fact, as we have
things to talk about, when you work
and live together 24/7 there can be
little to say when you get ‘downtime’!
What changes have you made?
When we took over, the pub had
been closed for some time and has
had several short-term owners. It
needed quite a lot of work to bring it
up to modern regulatory standards.
The electricians planned to be
working there for three days but
remained for nearly a month! We’ve
re-decorated throughout and have put
in a brand new kitchen and some
comfortable sofas in front of the real
fire where customers can enjoy a
drink before being seated for their
meal. There is also a new bar area,
again with cosy sofas and subtle
lighting (often just candlelit) so it’s all
comfortable and romantic, a place to
enjoy a nice glass of wine with your
partner rather than a rowdy drink
with the boys (although we do serve
a nice pint of real ale!)
What style of food will you be
serving?
It’s taken a lot of work, but we hope
we’ve created a quality food-led
venue. Our aim is to capture the fine
dining/brasserie market, but we’ve
also created a bar menu to broaden
our appeal.
We are totally quality driven, and for
the calibre of food we serve, we
believe our food is very reasonably
priced. Absolutely everything is
sourced fresh from local suppliers
and the menu changes daily.
Even our ice cream is homemade!
Describe your wine list?
I am probably as passionate about
wine as Shaun, my other half, is about
food and am happy to help customers
choose a wine to suit their tastes,
food and budget! There isn’t a wine
on the list I wouldn’t drink myself,
and we have a few exclusive ‘quirky’
ones, like our Arnim Sauvignon (a
mix of Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet
Sauvignon). We have 40+ wines on
the list at the moment, varying from
just £12.95 right up to a top class
Premier Cru Meursault at £97.50,
with plenty of wines in between. My
personal favourite is a Chilean fine
wine, Le Dix de Los Vascos Cabernet
Sauvignon but as I’m working at the
Star, not just drinking, I’m saving my
own bottle for a special occasion!
What’s important about running
a good country pub or restaurant?
To create something you like yourself
– you can always sell something you
enjoy! Both Tempus Fugit and The
Star are the kind of places Shaun and
I would like to visit. We aim to be
welcoming and friendly and we both
love the food and wines we sell.
If we didn’t love our food, we
couldn’t do it.
What do you think makes
The Star Inn special?
It’s probably not me and Shaun who
can take the credit, that’s for sure –
we’re just the people who knit it
all together!
The staff, our farmers who rear our
welsh black beef, our amazing wine
suppliers, Chris, our helpful gardener
in Merthyr Mawr who supplies our
amazing organically grown salad and
keeps our fresh herb garden growing
for us, the local shooters who supply
our game, the list of people who
make the Star special is endless, they
are all the heroes of welsh food!
Our customers also play a part, they
are so supportive - one even turned
up with his harvest of cooking apples
for us last week, fresh from his
garden to make our apple crumble,
how amazing is that!
How many staff do you employ?
Are they local?
We employ four staff at the moment
and they’re all from the Vale (in fact
most are from the village) but we are
looking to recruit more, ideally from
the local area.
What type of customers visit The
Star Inn? Are they mostly local?
We’ve seen all age groups and
backgrounds and all of them love
food and wine. Some are local and
some come from further afield.
We’ve had a few celebrities visit,
which is always nice but, that said,
we treat everyone exactly the same!
We are seeing new faces, but what is
most reassuring is seeing returning
customers - if people come back we
know we are doing something right!
Where do you live and why did
you choose this area?
We live above the pub, so it’s a crawl
upstairs! I moved to Cardiff six years
ago to be with Shaun, who had lived
there most of his life. My family were
originally from Barry, so moving to
Wales was a bit like coming home.
What are your interests and hobbies?
Now here's an interesting question, because my hobbies are so varied! Of course, at least one of my hobbies has to be work-related, and mine is a passion for wine, I'm about to study for my Advanced Wine Certificate which will allow me to do the WSET diploma. I doubt I'll get chance to reach the dizzy heights of Wine Master, but I'll enjoy trying! I also love spirituality and complementary therapies and am an enthusiastic follower of natural methods of healing, I am fascinated by those arts such as herbalism, reiki, homeopathy and hands on healing that somehow got lost as society 'progressed' and are now being rediscovered. I am qualified to practise and teach several therapies, although I no longer do, I'm always too busy! I do still study and keep up with current methods, its helps to ground me because I'm often stressed! My other way of dealing with stress is to do boxing training twice a week with Darren, my personal trainer, it's a great stressbuster and its great fun, I'd recommend it to anyone even if it s somewhat at odds with my peaceful healing interests!
What are your future plans?
Long term, we aim to have a series of restaurants, but nothing like the normal 'chain' style! Every venue will have its own unique character and menu, they'll all use fresh food and have a homely feel, that's where we'd like to be ten years from now. Personally, we'd love to get a home abroad, but I guess these are all dreams!
For now, we're busy, relatively contented and we've come a long way since we started doing pizzas from our own kitchen with just a £50 investment. We couldn't have dreamed in just five years we'd have two successful restaurants, so who can say where we'll be in ten years time? It's an amazing adventure and we're looking forward to finding out what life has planned for us next!
WICK
The Star Inn
Dinner
We knew we were in for an
enjoyable evening when we
booked a meal at The Star Inn
in Wick.
As regulars to Tempus Fugit in
Southerndown, we were always
made very welcome by owner Lisa
Linton and my husband enjoys a
happy banter with her partner Sion
Fletcher on all matters relating to
boxing. Mind you, Lisa often joins in
as she’s partial to a good work out
herself! And we haven’t even got on
to the food, which is always superb.
They boast the best pizzas in the
world, and I have to say I agree!
We met with a couple of friends at
The Star Inn and were very
impressed with the look of the
newly decorated pub. The bar area,
cosy sofas, subtle lighting and real
fire crackling in the background all
added to the ambience of the place.
We sampled the menus while Lisa
brought us our drinks and we could
see that a lot of thought had gone
into them. We are well aware of
Lisa and Shaun’s ethos of using only
the freshest and highest quality
locally sourced produce and
everything is cooked from scratch.
We each chose a different starter so
that we could have a try of each
(luckily we know our friends well
enough to do this!) The homemade
tomato and basil soup with crusty
roll was a winner. Rich and creamy
and bursting with flavour. The roast
wood pigeon with braised red
cabbage and smoked bacon with a
roast gravy was sublime. The
combined tastes of the ingredients
worked very well together. I chose
the lightly pan friend Chorizo
sausage, tiger prawns and potato
served with fresh organic salad
leaves. This dish was deliciously
light and full of flavour. As we were
making appreciative murmurings
about our starters, Lisa whisked our
plates away and topped up our
glasses. Unfortunately I was driving
but I was allowed to try the wine
especially chosen for us by our host.
This was a Parcela No 7 a Chilean
blend. Our mains followed not long
after. Again we all tried something
different. Our friends chose the
baked filet of cod with slow roasted
vine ripened tomatoes and a light
chilli and herb dressing and Welsh
rib-eye steak, pan friend to his liking
with dauphinnoise potatoes, tomato
confit, mushroom duxelle and a rich
red wine reduction. The cod was
moist and juicy and the tomatoes
and dressing added that special little
kick which complimented the fish
perfectly. The steak was cooked as
ordered with the desired amount of
pinkness and the little trickle of
blood that should come with a rare
to medium cooked piece of meat. I
opted for the pan fried breast of
free range chicken with a fresh wild
mushroom and Madeira sauce. I
don’t normally choose chicken as I
find it can be a bit chewy and
tasteless. Not so here and not a
scrap was left on my plate.
Again we left our choice of wine to
Lisa and she enthused over a Macon
as rightly she should. It was a
perfect choice and our friends noted
it down on a piece of paper for a
future shopping trip. The steak eater
of the group had a Rioja which
complemented his dish perfectly.
Two scrummy home made bread
and butter puddings served with
fresh clotted cream, two homemade
crème brulee’s and piping hot, good
quality coffees later, we sat back
and all agreed that another visit to
The Star in Wick was called for
very soon.
Lisa and Shaun have got a very
temping midweek dining offer on
until February 2008. Customers
spending £7.95 per person on food
mid week at Tempus Fugit or The
Star Inn in wick will receive a free
175ml glass of house wine each (or
one bottle for four or more people).
If you haven’t already got a voucher,
call in to The Star or Tempus Fugit
to pick up yours - while stocks last! |
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