Feelgood Family Food - Bill's Produce Store
Look, I'm no food critic, but I love my food and all I've been hearing from my foodie friends over the last few years is...."have you been to Bill's yet?"
At long last, curiosity overcame me and I decided to take my 10 year old for lunch at Bill's in Cliffe High Street, Lewes, a half hour drive from Groombridge. It was packed out when we got there for a late mid week lunch at 2pm and we queued in anticipation with about twenty other people for half an hour. Plenty of time to read the menu, have a look around the store and soak up the atmosphere. There were people of all ages in there, babies and kids with their parents, groups of trendy students, grandparents with their grandchildren and a few office workers on their lunch break.
Soon we were sharing a long table with a lively group of grannies who were lunching together with some of their small grandchildren. I ordered vegetable risotto and it was comforting and scrummy, perfectly seasoned and just right for a September lunch, then I predictably ordered a chocolate brownie and vanilla ice cream.
"I can really feel all that organicness in me"...said Billy with a satisfied grin on his face as we wandered up Cliffe High Street after lunch. I wasn't surprised, as he'd managed to pack in a Bill's Breakfast (sausage, bacon, poached egg on toast, mushrooms and tomato), two large glasses of homemade fruit juice followed by pancakes with syrup.
Bill's food isn't actually all organic, but it is all about great fresh produce, much of it local and all of it cooked and presented imaginatively. Bill's Produce Store is part market stall and part café. It has a Mediterranean feel with its large tins of olive oil, tomatoes and aubergines everywhere and chillies strung from the ceiling, although the tomatoes were grown up the road in Fletching. Back to the organicness, I asked Billy what he meant and he explained that he thought it meant home grown.
We'll definitely go back again to take the rest of the family, as it's a fun and lively place to eat delicious home cooked food served by enthusiastic staff. Is the Bill's brand going to be rolled out all over the UK? Bill's Brighton, which is situated in a converted bus depot is also thriving, so what's next: Bill's Soho, Bill's Oxford, Bill's Bath and even Bill's Tunbridge Wells? It's a possibility, I'm sure, as Bills is definitely a success story. It must be as people are happily queuing for half an hour waiting to be seated in the middle of a recession.
What did it cost?
£32.50 for two, plus service, plus £1.50 to park the car.
Tel: 01273 476918
Article written for Winter 2009 issue by Caroline Smith
