The Trooper, Wall
The dining trade is a notoriously hard market to crack. A third of new restaurants are said to go out of business in their first year, so if one can survive the first few years, chances are it is doing something right.
The dining trade is a notoriously hard market to crack. A third of new restaurants are said to go out of business in their first year, so if one can survive the first few years, chances are it is doing something right.
If longevity is the mark of a good place to eat, The Trooper, off the A5 at Wall, near Lichfield, must be something of a gem.
While 70 per cent of restaurants go out of business in the first five years, The Trooper has been around for more than 1,500 years, dating back to the time of the Roman occupation. It has changed a little bit since, though, and the present building is comparatively recent, having been constructed around the mid-19th Century.
Nobody at The Trooper seemed to know where the pub got its name from, although a member of staff assumed it was something to do with the Roman soldiers who would have frequented it up until the 5th Century when Wall, then known as Letcocetum, was an important staging post along the military road to Wales.
Anyway, the reason for my visit to The Trooper was not to provide a history lesson, but to find out what Express & Star reader Thomas Brookbanks meant when he said it had been transformed since being taken over by its present owners.
"The chef, Barry, is excellent, the food is superb, the portions are generous, the prices are very reasonable." he says. Sounds like he reckons The Trooper is pretty super, then.
The yellow plastic sign over the rear entrance was not the most welcoming first impression, looking like it would be more at outside a Blackpool amusement arcade than an historic country inn. But as any journalist will tell you, it always pays to follow your nose, and the scents emanating from the kitchen were delightful, so we decided to venture inside and find what all the fuss was about.
Homely is probably the best way to describe the interior of The Trooper, and that is meant as a compliment. The cosy bar area at the back makes for a friendly welcome, and the restaurant area, a long, narrow room, with stunning views over the surrounding countryside, has the feel of a quaint country cottage.
Pink curtains with pelmets adorn the windows, and the dark wood beams of the roof are curiously decorated with fairy lights at the end of June. The elegantly inlaid dark wood tables are surrounded with modern chairs neatly upholstered in dark red, a dutch dresser against one of the walls, and an interesting white cast iron chandelier hangs from the season.
One of the chairs provided a brief moment of drama when it collapsed under an unsuspecting diner, a hearty man of mature years who seemed to take it all in good humour.
Given its slightly remote location, the restaurant was surprisingly busy, with family gatherings - middle-aged couples and their twenty-something offspring - seeming to be the dominant group present.
While most of the tables were smartly polished, the lacquer on ours seemed to have faded somewhat, although its spot by the window more than compensated for this.
The neatly bound menus included a brief history of the pub on the opening page, although it was unable to shed any light on the mystery surrounding its name, as well as a personal message from chef Barry introducing us to his team.
The menu provided a pretty good range of dishes, the meats all supplied by a local butcher, and we were about to order when the waitress pointed out there were several more options on the specials board.
My home-made steak and ale pie proved a good choice, and excellent value at £7.95; I raised a few eyebrows by asking for a peppercorn sauce with the pie, which already came with gravy, but I thought it added a bit of an extra "kick" to it. The sauce, was a little pricey at £3.25, but was very good, having plenty of flavour, and the meal came with generous helpings of chips and vegetables. My dining companion seemed to be even more impressed with her meal of duck in cherry sauce. It certainly looked an interesting choice, with several cherries neatly lined up in a sea of sauce on the one side of the plate, and she remarked that she was surprised by how well the combination worked. And she seemed even more excited by the croquet potatoes that arrived with it.
The meal was accompanied by a bottle of shiraz rose wine, reasonably priced at £10.99, which was very full-bodied for a rose, having a strawberry-like colour and fruity flavour.
For afters I went for Barry the chef's speciality Mars bar cheesecake. I have no idea whether it helps you work, rest and play, but it is not actually made from the chocolate bar. In reality, it is a ginger-based cheesecake with a light fondant and caramel topping, and far less sickly than it sounds. My companion, who has become something of a tiramasu connoisseur since we started this column, was less impressed though, saying she felt her dessert was rather bland.
The total bill came in at £44.39, which was not bad at all given that the meals were all home-made, and that a full bottle of wine was included in the price, and it is certainly in a pleasant location.
Maximus value, you might say.
The Trooper Inn, off Watling Street, Wall, near Lichfield, WS14 0AN
Phone: 01543 480413
