Think of a cattle market café and a slightly shabby eatery serving doorstep sandwiches and caustic tea might come to mind – ubiquitous welly-boots and associated manure making for surroundings that are more sterile than welcoming. So the Cattle Market Café in Tavistock is a bit of a welcome surprise.
With local artwork (currently Frances Thomas) covering the walls and an imaginative menu (including the highly-recommended spinach cheesecake with basil), it is easy to forget that the café overlooks pens, which may well have been a stopping-off point for the raw ingredients in the lamb rissoles. Customers, farming and non-farming, are made to feel equally welcome. And the floors, I’m pleased to report, are sparkling clean.
The café, run by Jane Osborne of Food Dreckly, is proud of its ‘Eat local, eat seasonally and when we can’t do that eat/drink Fairtrade’ ethos; a planter full of tasty leaves by the front door café currently provides interest in the salads and the origins of the local ingredients used in CM dishes are proudly displayed on the Food Dreckly website.
Artist displays change regularly, providing an excellent excuse to drop in. There is, however, a restricted menu on Market Days.
Based in Tavistock, but a short walk out from the main drag of shops (and well-placed for a guilt-relieving hike on the moor afterwards), the Cattle Market Café won a silver Taste of the West award in 2008.
• UPDATE: as of late January 2011, the Cattle Market Cafe is under new management. Here’s the new link to their site: www.thecattlemarketcafe.co.uk/
Come and enjoy Devon – book a hotel and get away!
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