Just when you thought eating out in Darlo couldn’t get any better …

… along comes The Gastro, writes Mel Lewis

YOU MIGHT THINK Darlington needs a new restaurant like Amy Housewine needs to get together with Pete Doherty.

She surely doesn’t. But there is method in the apparent culinary overkill specified for one of the North East’s smartest market towns.

Darlo and its adjacent villages boast a number of classy restaurants. Like Sardi’s, Raffles in Croft and The County, Aycliffe Village. But … the about-to-be-launched Gastro (The Gastro) has big selling points that could trounce the opposition.

First, it enjoys a genuine city centre location, a stone’s throw from M & S, with a roof garden that overlooks the recently restored North Lodge Park.

Second, chef Craig Mcmeeken, 34, is a major award winner with sights firmly set on a Michelin Star.

Third, The Gastro’s restaurant will be run as a members only club. The bar part is already up and running, the restaurant is waiting, as I write (end August) to launch.  

“The first 500 clients will become members free of charge,” manageress Rachel Webber tells. “Three hundred people are already signed up. We’ll reassess after 500.”

The pre-publicity talks of ‘premium drinks’ (a promised specialism). Served at premium prices? A wine list to make you weep for joy is promised, but “Bar prices are similar to the nicer bars in Darlington’s West End,” says Rachel, reassuringly.

“Fosters or Kronenberg £2.80 a pint; San Miguel or Kronenberg Blanc, £3. Bottles will be £2.80 each. Spirits from £1.80 to £10 a shot.”

What do you get for a tenner? “Ultimat vodka - we have 60 different vodkas.” Ultimat? Described as “ultra premium” Ultimat Polish vodka costs from £60 a bottle retail …

There’s also a comprehensive cocktail menu to dip into. A dozen knock ‘em dead drinks will each set you back £5.95 and three sorts of Champagne cocktail run to  £7.95 a noggin.

My eye was drawn to £5.95 exotica like Razzmopolitan – raspberry vodka, Cointreau, lime and cranberry. And Sex on the Beach – vodka, Midori, Chambord, pineapple and cranberry, mixed.

Sex on the bar, more like, after a couple of those.

Actually, not. “There will be a very strict door policy and style of dress code,” Rachel says. “No under-25s, no track suit bottoms.” What, no £200 trainers? She reassesses. “Look if someone is dressed smartly, has made an effort, isn’t wearing a baseball cap they’ll be allowed in.” Even members will be subject to the dress code, she says.
And what are these punters being screened for; where will their vetted chic take them?

Ignore the bleak, blockhouse look of this bar-restaurant’s exterior. Inside there’s a deliciously icy edge to the air con. A shed-load of severe dark leather. Huge mirrors framed in reclaimed railway sleepers (it seems). Solid timber floors. Tasty, designery lights and fabrics. Tables low enough for plenty of louche lounging.

At strategic points I spy boulder-size BOSE. Forget the tiny fag pack speakers BOSE are famous for, usually teamed with a woofer the size of a shoe box. These are floor standing monoliths. Think Easter Island statues. Stonehenge.

Music is already on the menu in an embryonic way, on Friday and Saturday nights, with DJ John Shelton, from midnight. And live on Sundays, from mid-afternoon to early evening.

“It’s mellow music, instrumental – bass, sax, percussion, anything up to an eight piece band - from soul to house music. There are four different music zones. You can have different kinds of music playing in each of them.”
 
Downstairs is set up for cosy drinking, intimate dining. The second floor offers more open seating options and is “completely flexible” – fit for larger groups of diners, functions, corporate entertainment: “We already have bookings for weddings, a christening, a corporate dinner …”

Top floor – the roof, reached by a spiral staircase - features a tented smokers’ zone, barbecue area, comfy sofas. “It’s all waitress service,” Rachel explains, “though people can go to the bar if they must …”
   
Who created this seductive, first class airport lounge ambience? Rachel herself. Originally a scouser, she’s made her home in the North East for 15 years. She used to be with design shop Hobgoblins and has created bars and restaurants for many years, mainly for individual clients, rather than chains.

The upper crust ethos of The Gastro is well researched. “Darlington has a lot of people earning £35,000 a year-plus. There are many one-off, classy shops [in what we agree to call Darlo’s Covent Garden quarter, by hair salon Ysatis and auctioneer Thomas Watson]. We talked to their customers. We studied other restaurants, the competition. Often they’re too packed, overpriced. One hasn’t changed its menu in two years.”

And then she hit me with Gastro’s masterstroke, the USP (unique selling proposition) that will endear clients as no other. When you book your table, if you wish that table is yours for the rest of the evening. No series of sittings. No ‘bolt your dessert, please, and take your coffee with you to the lounge when you’ve done’.

“Wow!” I said to chef Craig who had joined Rachel, “People will sit, chill and drink all night.”

“Exactly so!” said Craig. The main money will come from the bar, Rachel reckons, and the food – from 44 covers - will be self-financing. Never the less food is the real focus - or why call yourself The Gastro?

The restaurant is aiming for three or four rosettes and a Michelin star – “It will be a very serious restaurant,” Craig insists. 

Serious how? “I prefer simple things, well executed. Seasonal, locally sourced food. I’m very ambitious. Accolades are a massive thing to me. I have to be better than anyone else. I’m a stickler for detail. I won’t be second fiddle to anyone.”