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Benvenuti a Framlingham
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Ruth Watson and Rob Walpole bring the delights of freshly cooked pasta twinned with authentic Italian flavours to the table at their newly opened restaurant in Framlingham. We make a reservation to see what’s specials are on the menu.
The restaurant, aptly named, Watson & Walpole, sits just up from Framlingham’s bustling Market Hill, and in its large picture windows you can see reflections of the church and its leafy churchyard. Many local to the area will be familiar with the spot as it has been a café and restaurant in different guises for many years but, stepping through the doors, I am delighted by this most recent transformation. Central back-to-back banquette seating gives it a fun, relaxed feel, black and white photographs of Italian street scenes add a little glamour, and the dramatic wallpaper gives the whole place a 1970s cocktail bar vibe. It feels sophisticated but not pretentious, the sort of place where you would come for a long lunch with friends or to just enjoy a comforting bowl of pasta and a glass of wine after a long day.
Ruth and Rob have worked together for many years, Rob starting his career as a teenager in the kitchens of The Crown & Castle in Orford, which Ruth owned and ran as a successful restaurant for over eighteen years. As Rob worked his way up from bottle washer to head chef, their paths continued to cross and over various kitchen tables they made a promise to one day
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open a restaurant together. In 2018, Rob helped his friend Oliver Boon set up Benoli, running the kitchen of this exciting new Italian restaurant in Norwich, and this experience proved to him that he was hungry to put a stamp on his own menu. As a location, Framlingham was top of the list, and so when the opportunity arose to buy 3 Church Street, there was no hesitation.
At the heart of Watson & Walpole is the desire to cook authentic, regional dishes using only the freshest handmade pasta and ingredients that are respectful of origin, seasonality and quality. The menu certainly delivers, offering diners dishes such as Laverstoke Park buffalo mozzarella, wood-roasted squash and pistachio pesto; followed by wood-roasted beef brisket with olive oil & parmesan purée and cavolo nero or fettucine with girolles, mushrooms, garlic and olive oil; and to finish, a scoop of home-made gelati and shot of espresso. Local ingredients are sourced wherever possible: Pump Street chocolate, Havensfield Eggs, St Jude soft cheeses, Dover Sole from the fishermen at Orford, vegetable boxes from Accent Fresh in Norfolk, and mouth-wateringly fresh scallops from Loch Fyne. Above the restaurant there is a private dining room that Ruth and Rob are hopeful will be allowed to open soon as it is a fabulous space that deserves to be filled with the chatter and chink of groups of friends sharing fine food together.
Key to some of Rob’s dishes is the woodfired oven they have built in the courtyard to the rear of the kitchen. Able to reach temperatures of 350-400°F, Rob used his
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time during lockdown to perfect the cooking technique, relishing this new craft and delighting in the robust flavours of the slow cooked beef brisket and the subtle freshness of the langoustines that just need a few minutes and a squeeze of lemon before they are ready. More familiar to Rob is his pasta room upstairs. Twice a day he happily rolls out thin sheets of egg pasta to make his sensational ricotta stuffed tortelloni or the pretty parcels of agnolotti filled with St Jude cheese curd. He then adds scoops of the finest Italian semolina and some water to a pasta maker which pushes out golden coils of bucatini, pappardelle or fettuccine. Watching him at work there is a wonderful rhythm to his work, and his expert handling of the pasta is both reassuring and quite mesmerising. As an established hotelier – Hintlesham Hall, The Fox & Goose, The Crown & Castle – Ruth clearly has a handle on what works and what doesn’t, and combined with Rob’s take on some of Italy’s finest traditional dishes, Watson & Walpole has all the key ingredients needed to be a huge success. I have eaten there twice now – the deep-fried gnocchi sprinkled with parmesan and served with creamy buffalo mozzarella and a piquant salsa rosso was so exceptional I had it both times – and after watching Rob at work I feel I now need to return to try some more!
