Thorpeness Golf Club and Hotel rebrands its restaurant as a grill house serving locally sourced steak and more.

East Anglian Daily Times: Ogilvies at Thorpeness Golf Club. Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWNOgilvies at Thorpeness Golf Club. Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWN (Image: Archant)

The new restaurant at the Thorpeness Golf Club and Hotel, Ogilvie’s is aiming to become Suffolk’s prime grill house.

Ogilvie’s specialises in prime cuts of grass-fed beef sourced from Suffolk farms. The local connections extend throughout the menu with the beef and chicken coming from Aldeburgh’s award-winning butchery Salter and King, seasonal vegetables from East Anglian suppliers and bread from the Pump House Bakery, in Orford.

The hotel’s general manager, Brad McLean, says rebranding as a grill house was deliberate – firstly to fill what he sees as a gap in the market in the surrounding area and also to make the most of the food resources of an area the hotel is proud to be a part of.

He says: “We want people to come in from outside to use us as a venue, not just ‘residents’ from the hotel and golf club. We had a look around and there seemed no other place offering this style of food in the area.

East Anglian Daily Times: The team at Ogilvie's, Thorpeness. Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWNThe team at Ogilvie's, Thorpeness. Picture: SARAH LUCY BROWN (Image: Archant)

“The hotel group is locally owned we wanted to stay as Suffolk as possible.”

So, having invested in a new charcoal grill and with chef David Margas brought in from Chamonix, where he was executive chef for eight years at one of the ski resort’s exclusive holiday complexes, the hotel launched Ogilvie’s in September, with little fanfare, to see how hotel and club footfall took to it.

It was an immediate hit with the golfers. The restaurant, which has a dining area overlooking the third tee at the hotel’s golf course, was perfect for members in need of some refuelling after a hard round.

Brad says: “Golfers tend to like protein and carbohydrates so we thought we’d specialise.”

East Anglian Daily Times: Passionfruit cheesecake at Ogilvie's, Thorpeness. Picture: Sarah Lucy BrownPassionfruit cheesecake at Ogilvie's, Thorpeness. Picture: Sarah Lucy Brown (Image: Archant)

You can get your protein hit with five cuts of beef – bavette, rump, sirloin, rib-eye and fillet - as well as chateaubriand for sharing. The sharing theme continues with the huge range of side dishes available to accompany your meat to mix and match your meals. Choose from potatoes chipped, mashed, with skin on or roasted, and then add seasonal vegetables, creamed spinach or purple sprouting broccoli.

There are also two chicken dishes, again sourced form Salter and King.

Brad is delighted to be working with the craft butchers. He says: “Salter and King work very closely with us as they are only two miles away. The owner Gerard King gives us a great cut of beef. He sources his beef locally.”

Chef David also emphasises the importance of the butcher’s role. “It’s all about getting the right meat. Then it’s up to me to get the temperature and technique right to finish it off.”

The Frenchman, he comes from Angers on the edge of the Loire Valley, has added a few Gallic favourites into the menu, including bone marrow on toast.

“I’m used to working with bone marrow in France. It’s very popular there. We make it from scratch here in the kitchen, from locally sourced meat when we can. I also use it to make one of the sauces to accompany the steaks.”

Though the restaurant’s focus is on its steaks, David is also proud of his skills with fish – the restaurant offers grilled seabass and salmon and sea bream fillet – and suggests everyone try his homemade passionfruit cheesecake.

On top of all these culinary delights, another attraction of a meal at Ogilvie’s is the setting. Diners look out across Suffolk Heritage Coast countryside and the holiday village created by architect, barrister, playwright and landowner Glencairn Stuart Ogilve, the man the restaurant’s name pays tribute to and who, Brad says, “is synonymous with the area”.

The hope is to get more people heading to the hotel for an event meal and with the venue’s upcoming Christmas roast dinner already sold out and more promotional events planned for the New Year you can see it happening.