Fire and Fork
After a typically hectic food festival weekend fuelled by wet weather and debates regarding the morality of organisers, some normality returned to Abergavenny this week.
Abergavenny is a beautiful, and extremely small town. The rumour mill is constantly churning. Therefore, when anything occurs here, everyone is talking.
Doris’ cat got stuck in a tree on Monday evening? Everybody and their uncle will be aware by Wednesday. Joe Bloggs punched John Doe outside The Auberge on Saturday night? The video is circulating in several Whatsapp group chats by Sunday. A new bike lane has been introduced opposite Morrisons? Front page news in the Chronicle and protests on Facebook.
A view of the Blorenge mountain from the Castle Meadows, a 15-minute walk away from Fire and Fork. Who ever told you that nothing rhymes with orange?
Keeping all of that in mind, when a new restaurant opens, the entire town is gabbling.
Which brings us to Fire and Fork, at the site of the former Cantreff Inn. Opened on the 1st of September by local business partners Andrew Groves and Stephen Smith, the kitchen being run by a local lad, Nathan Gething. Nathan has serious pedigree as a chef, working in renowned restaurants including Michelin starred The Walnut Tree in Llanddewi Skirrid, and under the tutelage of Stephen Terry at The Hardwick for 15-years.
The restaurant can seat approximately 40 covers, and has a country feel to it. There is a garden to the rear which contains more seating, and would be a great spot for a drink in the sun, which we’re not likely to see much of in the remainder of 2023 now that the ‘summer’ is over.
Their American BBQ style menu, cooked over fire, is enticing to say the least. There is nothing I can compare it to in the area, or even as far as Cardiff - although I should mention that the independent Smoke House in Pontcanna does offer Texas BBQ smoked meats, and I hear it’s excellent there.
Fire and Fork offer dishes that lure you in. Beef cigars to start provide intrigue to their composition, a beef ragu flatbread, beef fat gravy accompanied with the 10-hour smoked brisket, jalapeño mac and cheese alongside the grilled hot link sausages.
Naturally, I wanted to try a bit of everything. Thankfully, this is more or less catered for in the form of ‘The Works’ which is a sharer dish priced at £60.
We added some Beef Cigars (£8) to the platter, as my curiosity got the better of me.
Where to start? The execution was for the most part, admirable.
As this place was only opened 3-weeks prior, they’re still finding their feet. The two main things I was looking to focus on during my visit was the quality of the meat and the front of house staff. Both passed the test.
All meat is provided by local butchers, Neil Powell. The brisket fell apart, in part thanks to the process of 10-hours in a ProQ smoker.
Fire and Fork smoke/cook their meat over a mixture of oak and cherry wood. Oak provides a medium smoky flavour, whereas cherry produces a mild-medium smoke with a sweet, fruity flavour that works well on pork and beef. The oak and cherry blend well together. The slither of charred hog belly goes through a similar smoking process.
Hot link sausages, a classic inclusion in Southern US cooking, were seasoned, spiced, and grilled.
The star of this platter was the tender beef short rib on a thick wedge of Texan toast, topped with jalapeños and pickles thin as a Rizla. The other slice of Texan toast was layered up with pulled pork.
Those beef cigars I mentioned earlier? Slow cooked beef encased in pastry. Rhys, my dining companion, compared them to large spring rolls, and it made total sense.
Amongst all this was some hot buffalo chicken wings, and to break up the masses of meat, a small pot of smoky pit beans were provided, leaving me wishing for a bigger portion. This along with a dollop of Southern slaw.
The beef fat and chicken gravy was a little loose, and could have done with being thicker. This was a similar story with the Chimichurri, which was punchy with herbs, yet contained too much oil and no red chilli.
The fries I suspect are frozen, but as I aforementioned, the main concern for me was the meat and the staff. The restaurant prides itself on the fire cooked meats. The process which goes into the preparation of this meat is laborious, and I would rather they focus on getting that right.
We somehow managed to find room for a dessert to share, and opted for the deep fried apple pie (£8).
It sounded heavy and sickly, but I was surprised at the lightness. Drizzled with butterscotch sauce and served with a scoop of local company, Shepherd’s ice cream.
Local owners, head chef, and produce. I’m delighted to see it.
The front of house team, led by Kate Morris, are all relatively new and still learning, but they did a super job. Alana even came down to see me, despite it being her day off.
Fire and Fork are currently bubbling in the pan, and with a few slight tweaks, could become a roiling boil.
The towns residents moan about the amount of coffee houses and charity shops. This is a genuinely exciting restaurant. It’s the kind of place that Abergavenny needs, and supporting independent businesses like this, if you are in a position to do so, will shape the future of the food scene in the town.