The family-run restaurant
There are plenty of reasons to visit the village of Goathland in the heart of the National Park, not least because this charming village is the starting point for some great walks like the Roman Road across Wheeldale Moor or a stroll to the Mallyan Spout waterfall.
The village is also a stop on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, famous as the Hogsmeade Station in the Harry Potter films and achieved notoriety as the fictional village of Aidensfield in ITV’s ‘Heartbeat’.
Now there is another good reason to visit Goathland – The Homestead. Peter Neville and his wife Cecily have refurbished this former farmhouse and blacksmith’s shop, creating a three-bedroom self-catering cottage managed by Cecily and a restaurant, the Homestead Kitchen, run by Peter working alongside his friend and colleague Peter Hall.
The two Pete’s have put together a short but appealing menu that is a road map of Yorkshire’s outstanding local produce. Botton Dairy quark is the base for a beautifully balanced salad of roast beetroot, salad leaves and candied walnuts. Staithes smoked haddock features in a lasagne with a Jerusalem artichoke velouté. Sirloin steak is supplied by Radford’s in Sleights served with chips, confit carrots and bone marrow sauce and then there’s Scarborough sea bass with Whitby crab sauce.
A beautifully constructed three-course menu comes with extras like billowy gougères, filled with Dale End cheddar and fresh and bouncy bread rolls made with flour from Yorkshire Organic Millers in Appleton le Moor, burnished with a glaze of lamb fat and served with cultured butter that’s been scattered with mint and crispy lamb crumbs.
Continuing this journey across the county, there is Filey Bay whisky, celebrated as Yorkshire’s first single malt and a wine list, while not from Yorkshire, is made up of European wines (with air miles in mind).
Décor is deceptively simple. Muted shades of fawns and greys, wooden tables, linen napkins, matt cutlery and candles lit, even in daytime, create an atmosphere of relaxed informality. Chefs Pete and Pete are just as likely as the waiters to come out of the kitchen to serve your dinner.
Naturally, everything is expertly cooked and beautifully presented, as you might expect from two such starry chefs who met some 13 years ago in the kitchen of the Star Inn at Harome. While Peter Neville went on to work with Claude Bossi at Hibiscus, his friend Peter Hall was working round the corner at the equally highly rated Square in Mayfair. They parted company when Peter Neville became chef and co-owner of the Pheasant Inn, the much-garlanded boutique hotel in Harome. Now the two Pete’s are reunited in a dream team working together at the lovely Homestead Kitchen.