40
FOOD & DRINK
ISSUE 50
By Rich Lee
THE STEPHAN LANGTON INN, FRIDAY STREET Surrey’s most tuckedaway pub might also be one of its best when it comes to no-nonsense, hearty British food… If you live in a place for long enough, you might eventually get the feeling that surprises begin to get thinner on the ground. Though hardly short on buzzing towns, serene villages and gorgeous countryside, having lived in Surrey for over 30 years, I find myself questioning whether I’ve exhausted all the bucolic boltholes and hidden secrets the county has to offer. Maybe, I wonder foolishly, it’s time I cut back on my food miles in my constant search for the new. But then I hear, for the first time, of a hidden hamlet called Friday Street ensconced in the darkest heart of the Surrey Hills and adventure beckons anew. And if that adventure happens to have a meal at the beginning, middle or end, then so much the better, especially when that meal can be found
at an award-winning pub restaurant with a fierce devotion to local produce and honest British dishes. Such is the Stephan Langton inn’s reputation; a pub given a bold new lease of life in 2015 thanks to two locals, Anneliese Cameron and fiancé Lee Nicholls, founder of the celebrated Tillingbourne Brewery nearby, who saw the pub’s potential and set about bringing it back to relevance once again. To find the Stephan Langton, though, you must first find Friday Street, which means taking a right past Abinger and into deep Wotton country and the knotted, coiling tree tunnels that make up the backroads and bowels of the Surrey Hills. A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it left turn sends you rattling along a wooded track that appears to be leading you into Narnia or Middle Earth, until you finally emerge in Friday Street and the tranquil vista of a glassy lake fringed by forest ablaze with autumnal colours. With only a tiny cluster of homesteads amid all this seclusion, it’s remarkable that an inn even exists here at all. The Stephan Langton Inn, named after an Archbishop of Canterbury (1207 –
1228), perches over the lane, beckoning travellers inside as it has for generations. Simple, unaffected décor throughout, warm greys trimmed with timber, and a preponderance of happy dogs lounging by the bar makes it feel like the homely, rustic escape it truly is. Although there’s hardly a gastropub around that doesn’t bark its fondness for local produce, it’s evident that the Stephan Langton’s owners and Head Chef Gerry Dee recognise their unique position in the bosom of the Surrey Hills and absolutely pack their menus with the best producers around: Bread from Chalk Hills Bakery in Reigate, meat from Rawlings of Cranleigh, game from Wotton Estate, smoked fish from Tillingbourne Trout Farm and preserves from Pond Cottage just a few yards away being just a few. Being the hopeless gluttons that we are, we padded our starters with a little something from the bar menu: namely, three rusty-red scotched quail eggs, wrapped in chorizo, black pudding and ‘Hog Troll’ beer-infused sausage – each was irresistible, especially when swiped through a pot of mustard mayo. There