What: A large, rustically-styled Italian restaurant within art gallery Hauser & Wirth Somerset, which is located just outside Bruton on Durslade Farm. Occupying the space that was until last year Roth Bar & Grill, Da Costa blends ‘quintessential Englishness with Italian culinary flair’ and utilises ingredients from the farm. The restaurant is part of Artfarm, which owns The Groucho Club and a number of other high-profile hospitality ventures including Mount St. and The Audley in London and Fish Shop and Fife Arms hotel in the Scottish Highlands.
Who: Da Costa is named after and inspired by Artfarm and Hauser & Wirth co-founder Iwan Wirth’s maternal grandfather, who was born in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. The restaurant is overseen by general manager Chris Genner, whose CV includes Fallow and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. The menu has been penned by recently hired Artfarm executive chef Ben Orpwood, who was previously behind the stove at Creative Restaurant Group’s notably short-lived 20 Berkeley in Mayfair.
The food: Orpwood’s menu in general steers clear of obvious, crowd-pleasing Italian dishes and is all the better for it. Split into snacks, antipasti, pasta and risotto and wood-fired grill, the selection includes folpetti (Venician-style octopus with smoked potatoes and peppers); grilled sweet-and-sour Treviso; spaghetti alla busara with freshwater crayfish; estate-shot venison with polenta; and wood-roasted apple strudel with vanilla cream. Presented alongside the main menu is a hand-written daily specials board that features dishes made with produce from Durslade Farm. Da Costa also offers a two or three course set lunch menu prices at £22 and £28 respectively.
To drink: Da Costa offers a serious, largely Italian wine list of around 100 listings that features some of the country’s most famed producers including Gravner, Gaja, Emedio Pepe, Bartolo Mascarello and Biondi Santi. A tight list of cocktails is also offered including Amber Negroni (grappa, Cocci Di Torino, Montenegro, orange bitters); Da Costa Spritz(lemon and Farm Shop Gin infusion, prosecco, soda); and Grappa Cobbler (grappa, peach cordial, peach liqueur, Scarpa Extra Dry Vermouth di Torino).
The vibe: The 74-cover restaurant has been designed by Piet Oudolf and architectural practice Laplace. Design details within the L-shaped space include exposed rafters, white tablecloths, vintage drinks signs and fresh vegetable displays.
And another thing: Taking pride of place in Da Costa’s fully-open kitchen is a cast iron wood-fired stove and barbecue made by local artisan Richard Dresher. It’s a beautiful piece of bespoke kit that doubtless cost an absolute bomb, especially given that the build and complex installation is understood to have delayed the project by several months.
Durslade, Dropping Lane, Bruton BA10 0NL