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Dining at Magnolia Cafe Bar, Keswick

Being a guest house owner in Keswick has certain benefits. One is that in the off-season, we tend to get invited by other local businesses to sample their offerings, in the hope that we will recommend them to our guests. And so, earlier this year we were invited for an evening at Magnolia Café Bar in Keswick, to taste their new menu. And a very pleasant evening it turned out to be too, with samples of pretty much everything on their menu served up with plenty of complimentary house wine. We liked the style of the place too, with its industrial light fittings and rough-hewn timber on the walls. Magnolia is certainly trying to do something different (and rather more sophisticated). It is fair to say that we also were impressed with the food. At first glance the menu looked rather normal, if anything rather too similar to those of the various local pubs. But the standard of cooking was not like that of the local pubs. Here, we detected, was a chef whose training went beyond the journey from the freezer to the deep fat fryer. Magnolia, therefore, seemed to be the ideal place to go when we had friends visiting, who, like us, don’t generally want a huge plate of pub food.

It was a dull old afternoon, so plenty of people had already decamped to the nearest hostelry in search of warmth and good cheer. Fortunately for us, a nice large booth table opposite the bar beckoned and we sat down to peruse the extensive beer and wine menu. In addition to its food, Magnolia offers over 50 Belgian and world beers by the bottle, 2 or 3 locally brewed real ales, and the excellent Continental style beers from Mitchell Krause of Workington. And it was the latter that I went for, a delightfully cloudy and flavoursome “Hefe Weiss” wheat beer. Rebecca plumped for a glass of the house Cotes de Gascogne white, a wine with an increasingly good reputation which delivered a lovely fresh, fruity mouthful.

We asked for the menu, and were presented with a 1980s Eurythmics LP. Initial confusion dissipated once we discovered that inside the genuine album sleeve was a menu designed to look like a record. Certainly beats the standard brown, padded, faux-leather folder. Rebecca and I both fancied the duck breast with cherry sauce, whilst our companions went for the sirloin steak and the mussels and chips. Despite appearing a tad overcooked (more pink please, chef!), the duck was well-seasoned, tender and very tasty. There was just the right amount of the sweet cherry sauce, so that it complimented the rich, fatty duck rather than overwhelming it. Possibly the star of the show, however, was the fat potato cake – smooth buttery mash encased in a crisp, golden coating. The char-grilled sirloin steak was ordered medium rare, and just about came like that, whilst the mouth-watering scent of garlic and cream wafted across the table from the mussels. Chips were plump, well cooked and tasty.

Unfortunately, we were too full to have a go at the dessert menu. A shame really, because everything on offer is homemade, and if my memory serves me right, includes a truly first class sticky toffee pudding. And the price? Possibly a little more expensive than the nearby pubs, but definitely worth it. Not only is Magnolia the place to go in Keswick if you are a beer enthusiast, but it offers skilfully cooked food and a great atmosphere in stylish surroundings. It’s the kind of place where the locals eat.