The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Heading South

Margene has been battling some sort of creeping crud. While she has her moments when she's forced to lie down and take a break, she's managed to keep going ... and today we had to say goodbye to Maureen and head a couple of hours south into Derbyshire (prounounced DAR-bisher). The big attraction in the area is Chatsworth House, a magnificent country estate still occupied and maintained by the current Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. It's only about half an hour's drive north of the home we'll be staying at in the town of Belper.

Margene really wants to see this house ... and her long-lost cousin who has lived outside of Manchester for the past 30 years or so, also wants to see Chatsworth. Their first plan was to get together in North Wales while I was back in Louisville (it would have been about an hour and a half drive west for Cousin Judith) but she was just getting over the flu and didn't want to infect anyone so that idea was scrapped. Chatsworth is about an hour's drive south for them, so it seemed like the perfect Plan B.

We weren't expected in Derbyshire until 4:30 so we left Millington late and took our time driving south, stopping for a late light lunch at a likely-looking roadside pub once we got off the motorway, then found our way to Belper and made a bee line for the pharmacy for the next try at finding some secret chemical that would make Margene feel semi-human again.

That done, we found our way to the house, made online reservations for Chatsworth (it saves a three pound parking fee!) and settled in for another pleasant visit. But everything started to change shortly after dinner.

Our new home away from home is Sunny Bank House in the old mill town of Belper in Derbyshire. The original house (right side) dates to 1790 and the "new side" was added in 1840! The bones may be old but the interior has been nicely updated. They still wrestle with issues you'd expect from a 225-year old house in an area with strict rules about what you can and can't do to historic buildings. So the windows are still single pane glass (making the place expensive to heat, they still have to park on the street (a garage would be out of character for the period) and similar annoyances. Their gardens were lovely, though, even this late in the season.

Our hosts, John and Judy Grear, took us to Iberico, one of their favorite restaurants in the neighboring town of Derby. Iberico bills itself as a "world tapas" restaurant which allows them to use the tapas (small plates) format with a variety of different influences -- Spanish, Asian, etc. They are known for what they call inside-out chicken wings, frenched wings that are presented rather like small lollipops with a sticky Asian glaze. It's definitely a signature item to consider. You'd have the classiest wing presentation in town as I'm sure none of your competitors would be willing to do the work.

[Itinerary Page]

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