Merlin Labron-Johnson to relaunch Osip as restaurant with rooms

Chef Merlin Labron-Johnson is to relaunch his Michelin-starred Somerset restaurant Osip in a larger site with four overnight bedrooms.

The project has secured backing from Johnny Smith and Daniel Willis, part of the team behind London’s Michelin-starred Luca and the Clove Club restaurants.

Osip will run its last service on 30 June before reopening in August after moving a short distance to a 16^th century inn just outside the village of Bruton.

The larger, freehold site will allow Labron-Johnson to build on the foundations of the original Osip, which he launched in 2019 after working as executive chef at the Woodhead Restaurant Group, which included Michelin-starred Portland and Clipstone in London.

Osip won a star in the 2021 Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland and a green star for ‘sustainable gastronomy’ in the 2023 edition.

Almost all the produce used in the menu at the new site will be grown between two nearby farms and orchards.

Dishes will include herb broth served with crudités of farm vegetables and tempura potato, salted egg yolk and chives; gnudi with peas, broad beans and smoked whey sauce; and a potato brioche brushed with lamb fat, whipped butter, and cured lamb heart.

The cheese course will be interpreted as a fruit toast topped with melted Tunworth cheese, finished with honey and truffle, and followed by a melon and cucumber sorbet.

Wines will be sourced from small-scale, sustainable growers while the restaurant will serve the annual Osip Cider, barrel-aged in collaboration with Pilton Cider.

Labron-Johnson said: “Each visit to the new Osip will change – the light, the season, the time of day. We are very proud of what we built at Number One Bruton, and I am excited to expand on our relationships and knowledge to offer our guests the warmest hospitality and dining experience I can.”