I had lunch with Monsieur Pomme the other day. He takes living quite seriously, which is why we were sitting in the dining area of the Swan at Southrop. Monsieur Pomme has a house not far from Southrop, and he had spoken in glowing terms of the Swan's pedigree, panache and the style of its food. It had got, he intimated, the balance between pubbery and gastronomy just about right. He even claimed that it had a skittle alley that was in regular use. And so there was.
Southrop is as Georgian-rectory-rooks-in-the-elm-trees-stonewalled-and-cottage-gardened a Cotswold village as you could wish to find, and the Swan stands on the village green. It looks too handsome to have ever been simply a heavyweight boozer, but it carries the character of many years of quiet but steady use. The inside is unadorned, almost sober, but comfortable, solid, well set up. It's the kind of place you can settle into with a sense of repose mixed with expectation. As well as the skittle alley, there's a bar proper for proper drinkers and a dining room for proper eaters.
The expectation is heightened by the knowledge that it is now owned and run by Graham Williams, formerly the charming, smiling master of the front of house at Bibendum in London, and that he has installed "Bob" Parkinson, also a graduate of Bibendum, in the kitchen. This is a guarantee of a certain style of cooking and a certain easy level of professionalism in the way the place is run.
Indeed, looking at the menu, there is that clever mixture of British and European classics - artichoke à la barigoule; potted shrimps; grilled entrecôte with béarnaise sauce; escargots de Bourgogne; treacle tart - alongside dishes of broader horizons: Thai scallop and pork salad with sour fruits; fillet of monkfish with arrocina beans, grilled squid and soft herbs; steamed sea bass with Asian celery, ginger, spring onions and coriander; panna cotta with raisins in armagnac and biscotti. Although I was tempted by baked eggs with cream and cheese and steak baguette with red onion, rocket and aïoli off the bar menu, I was brought firmly into line by Monsieur Pomme and went instead for potted shrimps followed by osso bucco with risotto primavera. He, being a well-travelled, well-eaten man, chose the Thai salad and then roast wood pigeon with potatoes, salsify, lardons and thyme cream sauce.
As I would expect from any chef with a season in Bibendum behind him, the basics were carefully done, the details punctiliously attended to, the whole satisfying at every level. This wasn't showy cooking, but it was fine cooking. The shrimps had just the right levels of butter and mace. The scallops in the Thai salad were fat and sweet, the pork melted genially on the tongue, and the sprightly combination of fruits, shallots, chilli, mint and coriander refreshed all corners of the tasting system. The pigeon was fat, cooked on the pink side, its robust flavours, fleshed out, as it were, by the bacon bits and the thyme gravy. And to get a thick slab of osso bucco that fell softly from the bone with a risotto of perfect pitch between firm and sloppy was a rare treat.
The treacle tart was good, too, but not as good as my mother's - then again, none ever is. My one serious criticism was that the cream that came with it was a pale shadow of the thick, unpasteurised cream from a Jersey or Guernsey cow that such a pudding calls for.
On the subject of price, the Swan seems sweet reason compared with much of the overpriced, mediocre stuff these days. The potted shrimps were £7, the scallop and pork salad £8, the pigeon hit £12.50 and the osso bucco, at £14, was an act of charity, as well as of grace. There was wine - and very good wine at that - in honour of Monsieur Pomme, but I have only the vaguest idea of how much it cost. However, the wine list is easier on the purse, and more interesting, than many, and you can always drink the elegant Hook Norton bitter instead.
By the end of lunch I was in such a state of cheery, well-fed euphoria - quite different from being drunk - that I wandered into the ladies in search of a pee, and noticed only when I came out. That tells you a lot about the Swan.
· Open: Lunch, all week, 12 noon-2.30pm (3pm, Sat & Sun); dinner, all week, 7-10pm.
