Next time you’re in Ilminster wander up the hill to No 57 and you’re in for a lovely big treat, especially if vintage, antiques and salvage, and tasty homemade food are things that make you happy. If you were to discover it for yourself you’d consider it a very serenidipitous find and you’d be champing at the bit to tell all your friends about it. There are quite a few places where you can eat in Ilminster but No 57 is one of the best, and the fact that you can get a good browse of the knick-knacks in whilst you’re here makes it even better.
No 57 is one of those places that’s got heaps of character and a very warm ambience; that ambience seems to filter softly through the window with the sunlight, and gently pervade the entire building. It helps of course that the people who work here are all such lovely folk, they welcome you like old friends and nothing is ever too much trouble, the sort of service that counts for a lot these days. The café is run by Agata; she’s garnered her talents over 23 years in the catering trade in various parts of the country, so she knows a thing or two. Agata uses her imagination and culinary flair to create mouth watering food with the focus always on good quality, wholesome and homemade. As much as possible, ingredients are bought locally; eggs and veg from the farm, meat from the butchers down the road. Walk past on a Tuesday and you’ll get a waft of homemade baking because that’s the day Agata and Jordan make the cakes and my word, they turn out some irresistible creations – lemon & blueberry, sticky date, Moroccan orange, the most heavenly brownies, and a scrummy gluten-free almond & raspberry cake.
Food is served when No 57 is open (10am-4pm Wednesday to Saturday each week); choose what you want from the board and it will be bought to your table. There’s always a good choice – sage & apple sausage rolls, lamb & apricot tagine, salmon & dill fishcakes, leek, broccoli & blue cheese tart, that kind of thing, all insanely delicious. Agata does hot and cold drinks and though the premises aren’t licensed she doesn’t mind if you want to bring a bottle of wine to have with your lunch. What they’ve started doing in recent months is a Supper Club on the second Friday of each month, something that’s proving to be a big hit.
No 57 came about after David, who owns the building had spent years restoring and conserving it; countless man-hours were given over to putting back the character, doors were discovered, fireplaces reinstated, thick stone walls repaired, and it was all done sticking to traditional techniques and using traditional materials. It just so happens that David has a passion for this sort of thing and is a mine of knowledge in this area! He also had a good dig into the history of No 57 and discovered some intriguing stuff; from at least the 1700s to 1880 it was a pub, then in 1883 it was home to a ‘pork butcher and poulterer’ and remained in that line of business for almost a century. In the 70’s, as some local folk may remember, it was a shop that sold gems, crystals and fossils. When the restoration work was finished (is that sort of thing ever finished??) David realised that this was somewhere he could indulge his lifelong love of antiques and so just over two and a half years ago No 57 opened.
Not surprisingly, it’s been a great success so far and long may it continue. There’s so much to delight and surprise here; as you’re browsing around you think ‘oh, there’s another room here!’ and in you go for a poke about. The 8 rooms are on different levels with a step here, a couple of steps there, curious little windows, perfectly framed vistas of the Somerset hills beyond the town, and then at the top there’s a wonderful Georgian room with huge sash windows. There’s so much to look at – furniture, paintings, clocks, candlesticks, glassware and china of course, and there’s a roomful of kitchenalia so you can make and bake like Fanny Craddock, apron included!
The boys’ room is exactly that – boys’ stuff, old comics, magazines, books and toys. There’s usually a gramophone or two and a pile of 78’s, in fact it’s not unknown for David to take a gramophone downstairs and put a record on! Then there’s Marnie’s Vintage, a whole room packed full of delights from the decades. Go and have a good rummage, try things on, have a bit of fun! The chances are you’ll find something you like, whether vintage is part of your everyday style or whether you’re looking for something for a special occasion, like Goodwood Revival or a vintage themed party.
Clamber up the stairs beyond the café area and you’ll find a cornucopia of very tasteful wares; this is Daphne territory – she’s been in the trade for yonks and seems to have a knack for finding the loveliest of things. Half this room is given over to more of Marnie’s Vintage, this time on the homewares side, with a lot of fantastic mid-century bits and bobs.
3 of the rooms at No 57 have tables where you can sit for lunch or a slice of Agata’s cake. In the winter you’ll find the fire lit almost every day, and on warmer days you can sit out the back in the sunny courtyard. If it’s sweltering hot grab the table under the Victorian arches where it’s cool and shady. No 57 is a gem and it quickly becomes one of your favourite places because it’s not often you get that wonderful mix of good food, good browsing and good service in such a gorgeous old building. It’s hard to tell whether that mellow ambience has always existed here or whether the team have brought it in with them, probably a bit of both. But anyhow go along and have a wander round, then order a cup of tea and a big fat cheese scone, find a seat and sit down for a ‘chat amongst the tat’, as they jokingly say here. A couple of hours well spent.
No 57 is open from Weds to Sat each week 10am-4pm. Well behaved dogs are welcome.
T: 01460 54856
David is available for consultancy on the repair of other historic buildings
