Rising from the ashes of Chadwick’s

DURING this recession, many restaurants will, inevitably, go to the wall. Some will deserve to, others may not.

Whatever the reputation of an establishment, it’s hard doing business at present.

Just after Christmas, word got out that Chadwick’s in Yarm had ceased trading. This was a shock to many, given the café/restaurant’s reputation as one of the region’s finest. It was a sign of just how bad things had got. If a place with the standing of Chadwick’s in a prime spot in Yarm couldn’t make a go of it, it didn’t augur well for anyone else.

Perhaps Chadwick’s had been living on that reputation too much. It is a long time since the former Northallerton Grammar schoolboy Daryl Chadwick created it and set the tone for Yarm’s development into the trendy hotspot of the Tees Valley. Mr Chadwick moved on to, among other things Mediterranean yacht chartering and, more latterly, the estimable Cafe Lilli at Norton.

But rising from the ashes of Chadwick’s is a new café/restaurant. It’s in the Chadwick’s mould but it has new owner, new manager and new name – Everly’s.

From the outside it still looks rather like Chadwick’s, but inside it is clear it has had a complete makeover, with a mix of bench and standalone seating, new flooring and lighting. The look is still contemporary, slightly more formal and intimate, especially after dark.

Welcoming us on a quiet-ish Monday evening was a familiar face. Peter Huggins, Everly’s manager, is formerly of Emardi and McQuays of Yarm. For a long time he has been setting the standard in Yarm for understated service excellence and his new team are of a similar ilk.

The evening menu is split between seven dishes on the carte and a daily changing fish board. What’s on the board depends on what the fish merchants – including our old friends Hodgsons of Hartlepool – can bring to the door. Diners can choose how it is cooked – grilled, panfried or poached – and the sauce it is served with.

But it was the starters that captured our imagination first. White bean and bay leaf soup with roasted red pepper and smoked paprika, Yorkshire blue cheese with fresh fig, honey spiced bread and thyme, and risotto of asparagus with crisp air-dried ham and roast hazelnut risotto, indicated that something special might be happening in the kitchen.

Our choices did not disappoint.

Sylvia’s twice-baked gruyere cheese soufflé with baby spinach and sweet pickled shallots (£6) managed to be as light as the proverbial feather and powerfully flavoursome – a sort of iron fist in a velvet glove.

My smoked haddock ravioli with quail eggs, flat-leaf parsley and scallions (£7) was a similar contrast, of soft textures and strong fish flavour, the ravioli being beautifully constructed to boot.

Sylvia chose from the board for her main course – two fillets of turbot, fried in a lemon and herb sauce (£16) salad and home-made chips.

It’s fair to say this made her very happy, possibly even ecstatic.

The best fish she had tasted since The Woodman Inn at Burneston, she declared, which I know was only two or three weeks ago, but I sampled it and it was just as she described. The freshest fish, cooked to a tee.

Job done, as Mr Ramsey would say.

My garlic roasted rabbit wrapped in bacon with a creamy mustard sauce (£11) was almost as good. Gamey, tender and very lean, it could only have been improved by little more of the mustard sauce. Vegetables included some lovely kale, a much underestimated green.

We finished by sharing A Taste of Yorkshire – four uses of forced rhubarb; a creme brulee, a crumble, a rhubarb ripple ice cream and a millefeuille.

Beautifully assembled, it tasted every bit as good as it looked.

After a very, very good meal, enquiries were made about the creative force in the kitchen. Head chef is Louie Miller who learnt his trade at the Michelin-starred Star at Harome. Enough said.

The bill came to £57.70. That included three glasses of house wine. A good deal.

Chadwick’s is dead. Long Live Everly’s – and thanks to Geoff and Gloria Townsend of Darlington for the recommendation.