When the evenings draw in the menu gets richer. The charcoal stays lit, the mussels come back and Lucia starts opening the reds.

Mussels in cream and cider

Rope-grown mussels return in September, fat and clean. We cook them in local cider with cream and a little tarragon and serve them with bread for the broth. They stay on the dinner menu until spring.

Something that is not fish

Autumn is when the one meat dish earns its place. Usually it is venison or a slow-cooked shoulder of lamb, always over the charcoal. Ask the floor team what it is that night.

The cellar list

Lucia adds a dozen fuller wines for the season: reds from the Loire and Sicily, an orange wine or two, and a sherry for the cheese. Twenty are still poured by the glass.