Fay Maschler reviews Blackfoot

With their pig-provoked menu, Allegra McEvedy and Tom Ward have introduced to Exmouth Market a cleverly constructed, reasonably priced mix of indulgence and rigour, says Fay Maschler
Fay Maschler8 July 2015

Mourning would be in order. Early last year Clarks in Exmouth Market — one of the dwindling supply of London’s traditional eel, pie and mash shops — closed down when the cost of the lease doubled. My own tears would be less crocodile had I been to the establishment, for which loving notices still haunt the internet, but I was never a fan of the stodge involved, nor green “liquor” seemingly coloured with dried parsley and glossed with cornflour.

Fashions change in how we want to eat, life moves on, malt vinegar loses its pre-eminence as a sharpener, but there is succour to be found in the new venture at this address. Allegra McEvedy and Tom Ward, partners in the observance of the pig that is Blackfoot and both once involved with the Leon chain, have kept some of the look of Clarks — importantly its weathered white tiling for which you would now pay a premium. They have also introduced into a street replete with admirable independent restaurants a cleverly constructed, reasonably priced mix of indulgence and rigour. Happily the chef is James Knight, formerly at the ebullient tapas bar Copita.

My date for a lunch before Christmas books for two in the name of Tamworth. When I get to the restaurant first and give the name there is no merry acknowledgement of Joe’s ineffable wit, but I am shown to one of the booths that were part of the original fixtures on the ground floor and seem to be considered more agreeable places to sit than tables up a flight of stairs in a room painted bright orange.

I have time to study the menu which although pig-provoked is balanced with inventive salads, cherrystone clams (when weather allows), a chicken, chorizo and butterbean casserole, alluring side dishes, perky sauces and on display in a glass cabinet a magnificent porchetta; rolled and roasted loin and belly of pork stuffed with fennel pollen, rosemary, thyme and sage. This is served as a main plate with lentils, in a bread roll and for takeaway, all with a healthy lick of salsa verde. Porchetta is a fine and noble thing, to be sure.

We try air-cured lomo from pigs fed on goats’ whey in Dorset, Spanish Trevélez jamón for just £5, whipped lardo on grainy sourdough toast which is a must with cured meats plus crunch from fennel, almond and orange salad and chilli-bite from a tangle called fired-up, carrot, cucumber and radish, which suggests there is a chef in the kitchen adept at tunes on the mandolin.

A main course of ribs described as braised with lemongrass, ginger and lime leaves, deep-fried and stacked up with crispy garlic, chilli and spring onions doesn’t quite fulfil expectations and I rather wish I had ordered Love Me Tender, a rack “the way Elvis would have wanted” — Southern BBQ-style. The other main dish tried is pork rib-eye, a tender cut here marinated with fennel seeds, garlic and cayenne. “Svelte,” says Joe. For dessert we have a chocolate éclair because I simply cannot resist them and rum and coke baba, which is more fun to say than to eat.

Early in the New Year I go back to Blackfoot for dinner. I have booked in rather a colourless name and we find ourselves upstairs in the orange room. This becomes an advantage as noise ricocheting off the tiles below from crowded benches is deafening. The same affable well-informed waiter is on hand. When Reg tells him that Acker Bilk’s Stranger on the Shore, which is on a pleasurably eclectic soundtrack, was No 1 when he was in the army, the waiter says he did his university degree in war studies. That will be useful in catering, I say.

Vietnamese belly salad is a bit of an auto-rickshaw crash, the pork meat too flabby, the rice a mush, the temperature a few degrees above room. Mega-nut burger does a champion job of looking like a meat-based burger with all the accoutrements such as toasted bun, melted cheese, sliced gherkin, lettuce and tomato in place, but for that very reason doesn’t quite work. Its texture of feeble falafel means it must be eaten with a knife and fork. Best of what we try is gammon from an Oxford Sandy & Black pig served with grilled pineapple or fried egg (Reg has both), a side dish of colcannon mash and a jug of cider onion gravy. Totally satisfactory.

Like a Key Lime Pie is exactly like a Key Lime Pie but with the fruit presumably not from Florida. It is light, tart and lovely and I am pleased to find the recipe in Allegra’s recently published Big Table Busy Kitchen (Quercus), which is a storehouse of sound ideas, fitting sentiments and yelps of enthusiasm — family cooking for when family is all those you love. Note in particular the Equal-Opportunity Gingerbread People, with half the dough shaded with cocoa. Some come from broken homes.

46 Exmouth Market, EC1 (020 7837 4384, blackfootrestaurant.co.uk). Mon-Sat noon-10.30pm. A meal for two with wine, about £80 including 12.5 per cent service.

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