The call of the coast
The award-winning White Horse at Parsons Green and its equally famous boss Mark Dorber are internationally synonymous with great beer and fine food.
Now Mark and his wife, chef Sophie Dorber, have found themselves a new set of white horses pounding the beach below the Anchor at Walberswick on the Suffolk coast.
The two pubs are run in tandem - and could scarcely be more different. In Parsons Green, London SW6, the White Horse is at the fashionable cutting edge, attracting a cosmopolitan clientele and favourable reviews in all the publications that matter, including being named in an industry insiders' poll as the Morning Advertiser's Top Pub in September 2005.
Its seaside cousin is firmly rooted in the community, with its own allotment and an abundance of local produce from land and sea in what Sophie terms "the great larder of Suffolk."
The Mark Dorber who runs along the beach with his son Harry, six, and daughter Rose, almost three, is a different one to the suave, besuited one found at the White Horse, a cellarman of international repute who lectures on beer in New York and organises tastings for Euro MPs in Brussels.
"We saw the Anchor advertised in the Morning Advertiser. It didn't give the location but I recognised it at once," says Mark, a devotee of Adnams beers brewed within walking distance at Southwold on the opposite side of the estuary.
"Sophie had wanted to be nearer her parents (they live just down the coast in Aldeburgh) and it made sense for her to have her own project. We also felt it was a better place for the children to grow up than Stockwell."
Getting on well with Adnams
An Adnams tied house, the Anchor's lease was reassigned to the Dorbers at the end of 2004. "They have been lovely and granted me a list of 12 interesting bottled beers from around the world.
"We're talking about new ideas for retailing, some of which may be applicable to their own pubs, and continue in a spirit of co-operation," adds Mark.
He has proven himself to be an extraordinary retailer in the 25 years he's been connected with the phenomenon that is the White Horse.
Its turnover is about five times that of the Anchor. But here Sophie is in charge and she's doubled food trade in a tricky first year, with Mark back at Parsons Green during the week.
"For the first five months, I did every breakfast, lunch and dinner myself," she says. "There was a dreadful moment on a Sunday night when Mark went back to London and the orders were coming in and I just felt comatose."
Though staff are not easy to hook on the Suffolk coast, she now has a great team including head chef Chris Johnson, formerly of Tatler's in Norwich.
"Being here was a bit like being on an island, but now I have another chef to bounce ideas off and that makes such a difference - at the moment he's in the kitchen working on a spiced pear and saffron chutney."
Sophie describes Anchor meals as nearer to "warming, comfort food" than the kind of food that diners look for at the White Horse; but it is comfort food with sparkle, reflecting the innovation she showed developing beer cuisine at the White Horse, which regularly hosts beer meals and Beer Academy events.
The menu changes daily, serving starters such as seared scallops with crisp Parma ham or arancini (Italian risotto rice balls) stuffed with mozzarella and winter vegetables.
Their haddock in beer batter with hand-cut chips and homemade pease pudding is already fabled, among main dishes such as griddled mackerel on stir-fry vegetables, ham bubble and squeak with free-range poached eggs and mustard cream or duck confit on root mash with braised red cabbage.
Food and drink pairings to enjoy
As at the White Horse, it is Mark who includes a beer suggestion as well as a wine recommendation against each dish. So a sumptuous ham and foie gras terrine benefits from a refreshingly sour Cantillon Gueuze, while a beautifully executed pheasant and partridge torte in burnished pastry is just right with a half of Adnams Broadside.
Clearly a menu their local "luvvies" will not despise. For the Anchor may be in a backwater when compared to the White Horse, but famous neighbours include actor Richard Morrissey, Emma Freud and her husband Richard Curtis who directed Notting Hill.
"What I love about food is it hits all five senses," says Sophie. "From a chef's point of view it generally starts with the raw ingredients, but for me it goes back further than that, right to the seeds."
In this case, literally. A talking point in the pub last summer was the unusual "pea beans" she has grown from seed on the organic allotment she is gradually cultivating, the seeds donated by a local woman. In December it was still producing curly kale and beetroot.
She even goes round the village pressing into service the empty greenhouses of weekenders. She's also put up a sign saying: "WANTED - fabulous, fresh garden produce, great rewards offered!"
Mark says that when he's driving locally, he always tries different routes because they could take him past potential new suppliers in an area full of organic farms with superb grazing for beef and lamb, the great tradition of Suffolk pork, an abundance of local fruit and vegetables.
"We are absolutely produce and seasonally-led here," says Sophie. Right on cue a dozen wild mallards with a few pheasants and partridges arrive from a local shoot. Twenty two rabbits are due on Monday.
The game was welcome because a fierce winter storm had hit the weekend's fishing. Otherwise they might get sea bass, the odd lobster, Branscombe mussels, skate and Dover sole.
"On Sunday mornings, a group of locals go out and lay nets for herrings and sell us a few stone - it's great theatre," says Mark.
The Anchor already boasts two en-suite rooms and six chalets. Come March, they have big plans.
There will be a raised terrace with sea views, both the bar and dining room will be extended and revamped, a big new cellar will be built ("to bring the beer in from what was once the gents' latrine") and a kitchen "the size of a shed" will be replaced with a large, modern unit.
It will be a massive financial investment and not without risk for the Dorbers. "It is a marginal business, this, and it takes sheer drive, determination and bloody hard work to breathe life into these village pubs," confides Mark.
"You can't tell people to support their local pub, they have to be attracted to it. But I think this has huge potential in terms of food and accommodation and we hope to be here a long time and create a great landmark pub."On the menu
Starters
Ham hock and seared foie gras terrine £6.75
Roast pear, Roquefort and walnut salad £6.75
Mains
Beer battered local haddock with jalapeno tartare sauce and pease pudding £9.25
Pheasant and partridge torte with curly kale and braised chestnuts £9.75
Desserts
all £4.25:
Steamed marmalade sponge, cream and tapioca pudding with poached apricots, lavender crème brûlée
SW6 versus SUFFOLK
The White Horse can seat almost 300 people including 100 under cover outside, the Anchor around 80 in the bar, family room and restaurant.
Liquor GP is 73.5% at the White Horse "reflecting Mitchells and Butlers huge purchasing might," and currently 53% at the Anchor.
Breakdown is split 75:25 in favour of liquor at the White Horse, 55:45 in favour of food at the Anchor.
Food GP is around 66% at the White Horse and currently 60% at the Anchor serving 250 to 300 meals a week - "because we are dealing with best quality produce we are not buying at lowest market prices, we hope volume throughout will be our profit-maker in the future," says Mark.
