Merlin Labron-Johnson to open Osip in November

More details have been revealed of chef Merlin Labron-Johnson’s farm to table restaurant in Somerset and the boutique hotel set to open at the same site.

The chef, formerly executive chef of the Woodhead Restaurant Group which included the Michelin-starred Portland and Clipstone in London, has revealed he will open a restaurant called Osip in the Somerset town of Bruton.

Labron-Johnson grew up in Devon, and Osip is his middle name, after Russian poet Osip Mandelstam.

The building, which was previously a hardware store, private home and old forge, will also be home to a new 12-bedroom boutique hotel called No 1 Bruton, operated by first-time hoteliers Aled Rees and Claudia Waddams.

Osip and No 1 Bruton will be the latest addition to Somerset’s hospitality scene. The luxury Newt hotel opened nearby at the end of August, and ex-Soho House director Ben Crofton is set to open 28 Market Place in Somerton with former Fenchurch head chef Dan Fletcher at the helm later this year.