Rutland Pride

Food & Drink

Restaurants in Rutland: The Olive Branch

As 2024 draws to a close, so too does the 25th anniversary year of The Olive Branch at Clipsham, a pub restaurant that combines quality dining with a relaxed and convivial environment… perfect for winter!

Should old acquaintances be forgot, and never brought to mind? Certainly not. So at this time of year as we bid farewell to 2024, we implore you to pay a visit to see one old friend in particular, Clipsham’s Olive Branch.

The dining pub has celebrated its 25th anniversary over the past 12 months and it has, in its lifetime, gained a justifiable reputation as one of our favourite places to dine thanks to its approach of offering first class dining, but in a relaxed and cosy setting.

Three other auld acquaintances were the founders of the place; Sean Hope, Ben Jones and Marcus Welford, who rescued the village pub in 1999 and spent six weeks doing the place up with sufficient sympathy as to preserve both its look and feel, but also its role as a place for locals to pop in for a pint or a glass of wine.

From the very start the idea was to offer really good dining, but nobody could have predicted just how well The Olive Branch would fulfil its ambition of offering smart dining, but in a proper pub.

Today, co-owner Ben Jones leads a team alongside General Manager Louise Williams and Andy Devine at front of house. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Ben Fisher heads up the team.

Dining is by way of an individually-priced lunch menu, a Lunch for Even Less deal, offering two courses for £27.50 (third course for £6.50), from mid-January to March, or a dedicated Sunday lunch menu. The latter includes a 28-day roast sirloin or roast pork loin, both served with all of the trimmings. Last month The Olive Branch was listed in the Good Hotel Guide’s list of the 50 best Sunday Lunches in Britain, underwriting the quality of its offering.

Dine in the evening and there’s a choice of an individually priced à la carte menu with seven starters, nine main courses and seven desserts plus a few savoury treats. Alternatively, a seasonal tasting menu is available for £95/head with an optional flight of wine and seven courses plus a couple of amuse bouches and palette cleansers. 

Menus don’t tend to change in one go, but rather evolve throughout the seasons to allow Ben and the brigade to utilise the best seasonal produce.

Suppliers local to the restaurant are favoured wherever quality and consistency permits, and on the reverse side of the menu is a map that serves as a kind of who’s who in the area, identifying suppliers like The Olive Branch’s Stretton-based producer of hogget, Launde Farm which supplies lamb, Price & Fretwell butchers and the Essendine farm from which Ben and the team source their venison.

Meat is butchered in-house by the team, and there’s a very productive kitchen garden which (seasonality and favourable weather permitting) allows the chefs to grow their own herbs and specialist fruit and veg on a plot opposite the pub adjacent to Beech House (that’s the pub’s very lovely six-bedroom boutique B&B).

Bread is supplied by Hambleton Bakery – because, why wouldn’t you? – but preserves, pickles, petit fours, ice creams and sorbets are all made in house.

Forget a cup of kindness yet, and instead enjoy perusing the wine menu, with over 100 wines plus real ales and ciders, house cocktails and mocktails, with local drinks suppliers such as Belvoir Farm, Mallard Point, Multum Gin Parvo and Grainstore Brewery all present and correct. The pub even launched its Olive Branch 25 Hazy Session IPA in 2024 having teamed up with Melton Mowbray’s Round Corner Brewery.

In the warmer months the pub’s garden is full of people enjoying dining outdoors, but it’s in the winter months that The Olive Branch’s setting is a really cosy place to hunker down, with open fires, terracotta floors and chunky farmhouse furniture all inviting you to settle in for the night and take the time to enjoy good food, good drink and good company.

Given that it’s the festive season, you really ought to plan a visit The Olive Branch’s Pub Shop which is stocked with wine, cheese, pickles, preserves and other treats as used or produced by the kitchen team. There’s also an online shop too, for your convenience.

Speaking of Christmas, The Olive Branch is open on Christmas Eve for lunch and dinner, although making a booking ASAP is strongly recommended. Ditto Boxing Day lunch, New Year’s Eve lunch and New Year’s Day lunch too… if you can’t face another round of dishwasher loading and kitchen clearing.

And finally, if your New Year’s resolution is to sharpen your kitchen skills, look out for cookery demonstrations, masterclasses (bread, butchery, fish) and wine dinners throughout 2025, dates for which are on the pub’s website. Just a thought, but a voucher for one of these would also make a thoughtful last minute Christmas gift, too!

For images of this month’s features restaurant and current menus, see https://www.pridemagazines.co.uk/rutland/view-magazines?magazine=January-2025

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