FOOD REVIEW - The Rutland Arms, 68 Brown Street, Sheffield.
IT'S a long wait for my liver and mustard fried potatoes but, sitting over my glass of Empire bitter in the Rutland Arms on Brown Street, Sheffield, I wasn't in a mind to complain.
After all, any pub chef who can take the time and effort to make his own baked beans, rather than open a can, gets a Brownie point or two.
And Paul Hil, who may have only one 'L' to his name, has earned several Brownie points from me.
It's a bit slow all round. Some people I know at the next table are pointedly looking at their watches.
There's a poster by the door for a commis chef so perhaps Paul is working single-handed.
The Rutland, with its shiny brown and yellow tiles giving it a faintly Art Deco look, stands on the corner of Brown Street but at the heart of what Sheffield calls its Cultural Industries Quarter.
So it should be heaving with arty types.
On my first lunchtime visit, however, there is just a man in a suit, a couple sharing a plate, and me.
Enough people cared about it to have signed a petition a few years back to save it from redevel-opment.
This was the place where Trevor Wraith earned his spurs before going on to open the award-winning Kelham Island Tavern, which has gained so many stars it is now a constellation.
Back at the Rutland things have been dicey.
It was closed for a time but the new boss is Andy Stephens, former manager at the Wig & Pen on Campo Lane, with Paul its sous chef.
It's a cosy place. The main room has a red carpet, pink-tinged glass chandeliers and lots of lively framed posters for acts such as the Sid Presley Experience and They Must Be Russians.
The bar has a good range of real beers and drinkers can keep up to date with what's for sale on Twitter.
Among the beers jotted in my notebook are the Sheffield Brewery's Blanco Blonde, and Crucible, Hobgoblin and the Brew Company's Petrus.
The Rutland's menu is mainly mains.
There is sometimes a soup (the man behind the bar sounded disinterested when I asked if it was available on my second visit so I went without) and there are cakes, well spoken of by the Twitterati.
It's a thoughtful little menu, so as well as the obligatory burger (topped with peppercorn sauce and red onion marmalade), there is a beer battered hallumi version, bangers and mash and the veggie version, Glamorgan potato cakes, a chilli, coley gratin with celeriac mash, a pie, beef in stout with dumplings and ham hock fritters, all costing between a fiver and just under 7.
Ham hocks are a chef's godsend. Cheap as chips with a decent mark up (think of all those ham hock terrines you see on menus), they lend themselves to a multitude of uses.
The fritters, two of them bigger than a golf ball, are composed entirely of shredded meat, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried. They were very pleasant although do need an extra flavour for relief.
There were herbs but these were somewhat overwhelmed by the meat.
They were served with chunky chips, a couple of runny poached eggs and home made baked beans.Not a bad dish for 6.25.
And what about those baked beans?
Well, the tomato sauce was not as sweet as Heinz, which is no bad thing, and the beans themselves were firmer, with a mealy quality.
My next visit was for the liver, served with spring onion, and wholegrain mustard fried potatoes (5.75).
Now there is an art to cooking liver and that is not to overdo it.
I've had it hard like leather and as a dismal grey sludge.
The Rutland gave me three perfectly judged tasty slices of lambs liver on little cubes of mustardy potato, the whole dish perfectly seasoned.
Super.
With times still hard if people are going to eat out they'll probably be doing it in a pub.
As long as we have food like this at the Rutland, we shall do well.
Food Review
The Rutland Arms
68 Brown Street, Sheffield.
Telephone: 0114 272 9003.
Food served Monday-Saturday 12-8pm and Sunday 12-5pm. Street parking.
My star ratings (out of five):
Food ****
Atmosphere ***
Service ***
Value ****
Pub food category. Do not compare ratings between places of different style or price.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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