Everyday People, 12 Byard Lane, Nottingham NG1 2GJ (0115 958 2445). Snacks and small plates £3.50-£7.35, ramen £14-£16, desserts £6-£7.50, wines from £31 a bottle, cocktails £9.50
Restaurants don’t always end up where they began. Everyday People in Nottingham is one of them. It was never meant to be a ramen bar. Chef Pete Hewitt, a 2015 MasterChef finalist, found his way to it, much as I imagine the questing find their way to God, and the flexible to Pilates. At first, he was all about Homeboys, a street-food operation knocking out massive flavours in handheld portions: confit duck doughnuts, stacked burgers, and chicken wings glazed with sweet, sticky sauces. In 2019, Homeboys won the European Street Food championship in Sweden with their nuggets of crispy pig’s head, and their prawns with preserved lemon and green chilli kosho. All good dish descriptions are an exercise in come-hither; those flashed more ankle than is strictly necessary.
But throughout all of this, there was also an interest in Japanese flavours, in the thump of soy and miso; the sorts of things that attract the ingredient geek, among whose number Hewitt should be counted. In early 2021, thinking the lockdowns were done with, he took a lease on a long-abandoned utilitarian office space up a shadowed alley in central Nottingham. At which point everything locked down again. It wasn’t until August 2021 that they were able to start trading as Everyday People, in a clean-lined space that suited the name: white walls; polished concrete floors; a broad, open kitchen and a neon image of a rosy red apple hung on the wall. Because everyday people need an apple every day.
At first, they offered the small-plate Americana shtick that had won them a following. Soon there were special events and pop-ups, and it was those offering ramen that sold out quickest. It was, it seemed, what Nottingham wanted. That’s what they’ve now got and the locals seem very happy about it. In this, Everyday People feels very much like a companion piece to James Chant’s Matsudai Ramen in Cardiff. They are both British men indulging a deep interest in the same corner of food culture from elsewhere.
It comes as no surprise to learn, at the end of lunch, that Hewitt and Chant know each other. And that, of course, they both know my Kitchen Cabinet colleague Tim Anderson, the 2011 MasterChef winner who made fully accessorised bowls of noodles his thing at Nanban in Brixton, and who has published a nerdy and comprehensive book on the subject. Ramen really is a place for those hungry to obsess over detail: perfecting the egg so that the yolk sits in that liminal space between jelly and liquid; finding the best way to braise the chashu pork so that it holds together politely until nudged with a chopstick; learning how to create a broth of profound depth and seriousness. Ramen is just a whole bunch of small things done right. But the tight framework means it’s also open to innovation and more importantly to proper fun: as long as there is broth, noodles and toppings it can go in many directions. A quick scroll through their Facebook page reveals experiments with a Germanic-accented ramen loaded with tongue, sauerkraut and mustard, and another made with fried chicken.
Things have now settled down. Though specials are still a part of what they do, the heart of the menu is a traditional five-strong offering, each at around £15 a bowl. The garlic tonkotsu is made with a creamy, collagen rich-stock that speaks of pork bones simmered for many hours and fretted over continuously. The noodles have bite. The egg yolk is indeed jammy. There is a pungent kick from the burnt garlic oil. A vegan tan tan, the deep rusty red of a Martian desert, is topped with a satisfyingly chewy dice of shiitake and chestnut mushrooms and turbo-boosted by the liberal application of Sichuan chilli paste, house chilli oil, and a big old squirt of lime. This is properly crafted, precisely executed ramen.
But what lifts Everyday People to another place are the thoughtful support acts. It starts with their house-pickled shiitake mushrooms and carrots, and the ribbons of bright orange squash, which come intertwined with leaves of seaweed, then sweet-sour dressed and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Both are an invigorating start and a way to cut through the translucent, wobbly fat attached to a slab of soft pork belly, slapped inside a pillowy bao bun, with a mustard-green relish and peanuts. The most complex of these small dishes is a radish cake much like the turnip cake often seen on dim sum menus. It’s fried until crunchy on the outside and creamy within, then partnered with more pickled shiitake, a cured egg yolk and a hefty fall of grated parmesan.
We also have crispy, chewy folds of deep-fried chicken skin, golden, spiced and salted to within an inch of their lives. It’s a bar snack for those working up a thirst in preparation for taking on the liquid offerings. These include a scary cocktail called a Yuzu Meringue Pie, made with vodka, triple sec, yuzu, cherry foam and, er, Yakult. So that’s a cocktail designed to take care of your gut, while also getting you bladdered. It has a neon-pink foam head on it, like it’s straight off the set of Barbie. But if you close your eyes, it tastes OK, once the yuzu has kicked in. If that’s not your thing, try the Hitachino red rice ale or one of the wines. Because it’s 2024, these are all natural and therefore all bloody expensive. One of them is even described as a “little wild” which, in the context of natural wines, is the understated stuff of nightmares. It’s like being told Hannibal Lecter is a bit hungry today.
Among the desserts there is a berry-topped “Thai tea” crème brûlée, the colour of a Galaxy bar and the sweetness of the cuppa you’re given to deal with shock. It’s beautifully made. Or have the rather fresher mango panna cotta. Everyday People, which apparently was not inspired by the legendary Sly and the Family Stone hit, but really should be, was recommended to me by the self-styled Guys Who Dine, two locals who know their way around the city’s restaurants. For that I offer my thanks. It sits alongside the equally Japanese-accented Kushi-Ya, as yet another great reason to eat in Nottingham. Finally, today’s OFM column is all about restaurants and disability access. Accordingly, I should say this one has a ramp to enable wheelchair users to get over the front step and an accessible toilet. After all, it’s called Everyday People, and that should include everyone.
News bites
After many years of street food operations and pub pop-ups Liu Xiaomian, purveyors of ‘addictive’ spicy Sichuan noodles, finally have a permanent site. They have just opened in Kingly Court, just off London’s Carnaby Street. The business was launched in 2017 by Charlene Liu and Liu Quian, both from Chongqing, and currently also has an operation in the basement of the Jackalope Pub in Marylebone. The Kingly Street menu includes both vegan and minced pork Xiaomian, as well as glassnoodle and pig trotter dishes (liu-xiaomian.com).
Bryan and Susan Webb, chef and front-of-house manager respectively of the Tyddyn Llan restaurant-with-rooms in Llandrillo, Wales, have sold up after 22 years. The restaurant held a Michelin star for a decade from 2010 and remains in the guide. Webb, who made his name when he took over from Simon Hopkinson at Hilaire in Fulham in 1990, has said it is simply time to step back. The couple will, however, remain at Tyddyn Llan for the next six months. ‘It would be wonderful to see you before I hang up my apron in July after 48 years cooking at the stove and we move onwards,’ he told industry magazine The Caterer (tyddynllan.co.uk).
A small war has broken out in the chain dining pub sector. Mitchells & Butlers, which has the Miller and Carter steakhouse chain, is about to launch its first Orleans Smokehouse in Solihull, serving American BBQ. It’s just down the road from where rival company Greene King are about to open an outpost of Hickory’s Smokehouse, the BBQ brand they acquired in 2022. ‘They do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and so we’d like to wish M&B all the best with their latest venture,’ a spokesperson for Greene King has said.
Email Jay at jay.rayner@observer.co.uk or follow him on X @jayrayner1
