The Engineer, Primrose Hill, London
One of London's top food pubs, the Engineer in Primrose Hill, takes the meaning of the term 'gastro pub' one step beyond.
The term 'gastro' pub will always be open to debate. Some people reserve the term for all pubs offering a particularly high standard of cuisine which sell more food than drink. Personally, I associate the term with a certain breed of London food pub epitomised by outlets such as the Eagle in Farringdon.
The Engineer goes some way towards breaking, or redefining, the mould. The bare floor boards and blackboards have gone, the 'under-graduate casual' clientele remains but the place has an air of bohemia about it. Climbing the stairs to reach the pub's washroom on a Sunday lunchtime I was reminded of the odd occasions when I visited friends with 'way out' parents who lived in large, lofty Victorian houses in South London.
There is something 'arty' about the Engineer. Its owners, Abigail Osborne and Tamsin Olivier, were photographer and actress respectively; the pub's general manager Claire Liardet is into pottery and English literature, and the woman who helps compile the pub's excellent wine list is a trapeze artist. Add a liberal sprinkling of celebrity customers, including Liam Gallagher and Michael Palin, and you have a trendy but homely London pub.
Everyone seriously involved with the Engineer enjoys foreign travel and eating out. As Clare Liardet explained, "there is a real love of food and an international awareness" among the key staff. Tamsin spends a lot of time in France, Clare is often in Spain or Portugal and everyone comes back with ideas.
Ultimately, it is head chef Mark O'Brien who puts the menu together but everyone has an input. The food on offer is predominantly 'modern British' and the menu changes every two weeks and offers a 'whole mixture of things' thanks to the wide and varied skills of the chefs - there can be as many as half a dozen chefs working a busy shift, according to Clare.
Fish dishes are the Engineer's speciality. "It's a real seller," said Clare. The pub won the AA and Seafish Best Seafood Pub award for the London area in 1998 and receives daily deliveries of fish. Meat is always organic or free range and everything is cooked to order.
Typical food on offer might include onion soup with parmesan crouton served with fresh bread (£3.75); cream of mushroom soup served with fresh bread (£3.75); bowl of steamed mussels in rich tomato and garlic sauce with pesto (£5.50); salmon fishcakes with coriander, chilli and ginger served with roast garlic aioli and salad (£9); roast duck with Savoy cabbage, rum apples and a chesnut jus (£14.35); and pork & sage sausages with Umbrian lentils, salsa, verde and rocket (£10.35).
The Engineer is 'more restauranty' and larger than other well known London gastro pubs. In addition to the restaurant area downstairs there are two function rooms upstairs plus a garden out the back which is popular with both eaters and drinkers.
Surprisingly for a gastro pub, the Engineer takes credit cards, which is a relief. The aim is to reach a wide spectrum of customers with differing eating out budgets. It is open seven days a week and has always offered what Clare describes as 'good food in a relaxed atmosphere'. It would, however, be unfair to call it a restaurant with a pub atmosphere. In my view, if a customer can order a pint of beer and not feel in any way intimidated into eating, then the term 'pub' still applies.
There is a website for anyone interested in the Engineer and what it has to offer. Simply key in www.the-engineer.com and the pub's many services will flash on to your screen. There are regular wine tastings and wine dinners; menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as a function menu; the works of contemporary artists hanging from the walls; and a brief history of the pub itself which is a listed building, possibly built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, hence the name, the Engineer.
The Engineer is a highly acclaimed pub with plenty of top reviews in mainstream London media. Offering extremely good food, freshly cooked to order and served in pleasant and informal surroundings, this is definitely one from the premier league of pubs.
