During our visit to Naim Audio in Salisbury, Wiltshire, U.K., our hosts put us up at a place that was part pub/part steakhouse/part boutique hotel, the Lazy Cow. We were warned that the building that housed the Lazy Cow was well, somewhat dysfunctional. The building dates back to the 16th century - its stairs slope to one side. Rooms are found down narrow passage ways or up outside steps from a courtyard. There's no air conditioning - which I'll get to later on - and the steam heating units have a hard time keeping up when the weather gets cool. Bathrooms range from splendidly spacious to maddeningly small. Steps between rooms within the rooms spell trouble for those not paying attention - especially in the middle of the night. But other than that, the restaurant/pub is what owner Ross Sanders says is a cross between an American steakhouse and an English Pub. We spent a lot of time in the pub/steakhouse on our visit.
Ross Sanders grew up in pubs. His father Tony owned a number of pubs and the younger Sanders began working for his father at the age of 16. When his father sold off the pubs to a corporate entity in the mid-90's, Ross Sanders went off to study hospitality and catering at Stratford-upon-Avon College.
Pictured right - Ross Sanders
After graduating from college, Sanders first started working as an assistant manager of a local pub in Stratford for a year before joining Luminar Leisure (now the Luminar Group) - a corporate hospitality group that ran the Chicago Rock Cafe chain. Ross Sanders worked as an assistant manager for Chicago Rock Cafe in Maidstone for a year before he was assigned to the group to open more of the restaurant/pubs around the U.K. Becoming the opening specialist for Luminar Leisure, Sanders learned the procedures and systems that would help him with future ventures.
After managing a small number of pubs for a year, Ross Simmons, his father and another partner bought the Greene King Brewery lease on a gastropub by the name of Durham Ox in Shrewley Common, Warwickshire. That part of the country is well known for the excellent gastropubs that are scattered around the region. However, on his first visit, Ross Sanders noticed that there was a tractor in the parking lot - parked next to a Ferrari. He knew he had to somehow keep the locals happy while serving the elite. He kept the pub area of the place seperate from the restaurant, allowing the local regulars a place to feel comfortable while the affluent diners were enjoying dinner in another part of the place.
The Durham Ox was a big hit and the Sanders and their partner sold the business in 2006. Interestingly, Ross Sanders joined an investment firm that owned a number of restaurants and hotels helping manage a hotel for the group. His talents were recognized by upper management and one day an executive approached Sanders with the prospect of buying 16 location chain of pubs called Bar Room Bar that was owned by the investment firm. Sanders didn't have the money, but he put together an aggressive business plan that spelled out success for the chain of bars and shopped his plan around. In 2007, he found a lending institution to put up the money and he bought the Bar Room Bars from the investment firm.
Initially, Sanders business projections were off. They were too low. Business at the 16 locations was much better than Sanders planned. But he continued to need cash for improvements and refurbishments. But the credit crunch hit in 2008 and his bank - and other lenders - zipped up their pocket books. Sanders was forced to put the Bar Room Bars into receivership losing £20 million pounds (a little over $34 million dollars) in the process.
But Ross Sanders licked his wounds and got back up on the saddle. He was approached by an investment firm who had purchased 44 Massive Pub Company locations out of bank receivership which included Tup's Sports Bar, Auburge English Pub, and Thomas and Clark upscale pubs. They made the offer to Sanders to allow him to buy 36 of the locations for a meager price. Forming his new company - Urban and Country Leisure - he was able to work with the investment firm to get control of the pubs.
Within a couple years, Sanders had closed all but nine of the locations - calling those that remained open the "jewels" of the bunch. And it wasn't long before he began to work on his new concept that eventually turned into the Lazy Cow. The first Lazy Cow opened in Warwick in 2010 in what was formerly the Globe Hotel with an attached restaurant that was formerly a Thai Restaurant. The hotel was an immediate hit with travelers seeking boutique accommodations and the restaurant with beef loving Brits.
Looking to expand the Lazy Cow concept, he found that the Kings Arms boutique hotel in Salisbury that was also paired with a leased Greene King Pub was up for sale. He soon bought the place for his second location. Locals didn't want him to change the name of the hotel, but he did so. And he put the Lazy Cow steakhouse in with the Greene King pub. The concept is going over so well that Sanders is looking to change some of his other pubs into Lazy Cow steakhouse locations at some point in the future.
The hotel part of the Lazy Cow features 18 or so unique boutique theme rooms that are, well, interesting. Keeping with the cow theme, many of the rooms had cowhide - with real cow hair - covered bed frames, cowhide covered throw pillows, milk bottle chandeliers and big pictures of cattle on the walls.
My room was no exception. Every morning I woke up to see this big bastard staring at me on the wall. And my room was hot - it was just above the kitchen and coupled with the abnormally hot afternoon sun coming into my west-view windows it was easily well over 80 degrees the first night I slept in the room. With no air conditioning and no fan. I was miserable. However, one of my colleagues was in a large room that looked like King Arthur held court in there at one time and he had an extra fan that he let me have for the rest of the stay. My room was actually two rooms with a small living area as you walk in with the bedroom connected via a hallway with the bathroom in between. You had to step down to get from the living area to the hallway, then take another step down when you get into the bedroom area. I jammed my toe on the step up to the hallway to the bathroom a couple times at night. Click on the picture above to check out the milk bottle chandelier.
The Lazy Cow's pub and dining area was also unique and cozy. Cowhide-topped stools sat in the front of the bar. Rows of lights surrounded by milk bottles hung from the ceiling. A small fireplace with a flat panel television - something you don't see in a lot of U.K. pubs - was in the main dining area near the bar.
A small backroom for spillover was where we had breakfast every morning. It featured banquette seating along the wall with cowhide backs. Cowhide squares were on the wall above the banquette seats. There were also a couple of private dining areas in the restaurant.
The Lazy Cow's idea of breakfast was also rather interesting. In addition to a continental breakfast, the breakfast menu consisted of things like a New York City-style scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and spring onions. They had a breakfast sandwich consisting of bacon jam, avocado, fried eggs and what they call "streaky bacon" in the U.K., which is basically, well, bacon. Streaky bacon has streaks of fat and pork belly in the thin slices of bacon. My colleague, Chris, had a helluva time one morning with a somewhat ditzy waitress who kept bringing him scrambled eggs instead of the breakfast sandwich. He was such a good sport about it that he had to laugh after the second time of her bringing him the wrong order.
They also had the Lazy Cow Eggs Benedict which were, well, once again, Eggs Benedict. Only the hollandaise sauce was so salty that it was almost inedible. At least to me. I hardly salt anything and the salty taste of the hollandaise was over the top for my taste buds. But the one thing that I had hoped would be a great breakfast didn't turn out to be so good. On the Saturday we left Salisbury, I ordered the short stack of "fluffy" pancakes topped with blueberries. I got them because of a dessert I had the evening we were there for steaks. The dessert was much better than the pancakes. The blueberries were basically a syrupy compote and the pancakes were like trying to eat an English muffin, only an English muffin would have been better.
But our experience for dinner was much better. Even with the trepidation I went into the experience thinking that there would be no way the steaks in the U.K. could even be on par with any Midwestern steak house that I've been to. To spoil this for you all, I was greatly surprised.
I work for manufacturers based out of the U.K. and France. Each time somebody from Europe comes to the U.S. - especially the Midwest - they want steak. They all say, "We can't get steak in Europe as good as what we get in the U.S." And that's sort of stuck in the back of my head for a long time. I was sort of worried the steaks at the Lazy Cow would be a step above horse meat.
It turns out that the Lazy Cow gets their steaks from all over the world. They have steaks from Argentina, Scotland (Belted Galloway cattle are known for their wonderful marbled beef), Australia, along with good ol' USDA prime beef from the U.S. They also had Wagyu beef raised in the U.K., along with British-raised Longhorn beef (grassy and earthy flavor) and Black Angus beef. The British beef comes from North Yorkshire, one of the most important agricultural areas of England. The Lazy Cow then ages the British beef for 30 days in their walk-in refrigerated aging room.
The Lazy Cow cooks their steaks in what is known as a Josper grill. It's a combination oven/grill where hardwood is usually used to cook the meat. The chef at the Lazy Cow uses a combination of wood and coals to get the heat inside the oven to over 400 degrees C (750 degrees F) to seal in the juices and flavor in the steaks. Originally from Spain, Josper grills are supposedly the new "toy" that American chefs now covet. It cooks the steaks quickly, consumes less charcoal and it reduces flames that keeps the meat from drying out during the cooking process.
They have about 6 steak dinners on the menu at the Lazy Cow. The USDA Prime New York strip was the most expensive thing on the menu at £26.50 (about $44.50 in U.S. dollars). They also had a dry-rubbed Black Angus rump steak, which we call top sirloin in the States, an aged Black Angus strip loin, a 10 oz. wet-aged Argentinian ribeye, an Australian strip loin that they had on special that evening, as well as a garlic and herb encrusted beef tenderloin filet, and a roasted Black Angus strip loin. For the non-beef eaters out there, the Lazy Cow also featured a roasted sea bass, pork sausage, honey and orange glazed 1/2 chicken, and a grilled swordfish steak.
We had to order up some appetizers to munch on before we had our dinner. It had been a long day and a long time since lunch. Each night we were there, we retired to the pub and got some of the very good appetizers that the Lazy Cow featured including the great onion rings with a thick beer batter on the outside and their very good chicken wings that we'd order hot. They were very tough to beat compared to similar appetizers I get in the U.S.
It was time to order up dinner and I pretty much made up my mind that if I was going to get a steak in the U.K. and USDA prime beef was on the menu, that's what I'd get. Call me provincial, but I remember what the guys from Europe tell me - you can't get beef in the U.K. or France as good as what you get in the U.S. I got my steak rare. Everyone ordered up steaks and sides to go along with them.
For starters, a couple of the guys got what was called the West Coast salad - chopped lettuce greens topped with sauteed tiger prawns, chopped avocado, feta cheese, a mix of spinach and coriander (cilantro), grated carrots, chopped candied pecans and finished with a honey/lime dressing. A fresh strawberry dotted the top of the salad. Those who had it said it was very good.
The steaks came out not long after the salads were finished and my New York strip came with a roasted half tomato, a small piece of corn on the cob and roasted garlic. I found out that they had a green peppercorn sauce and asked our server for a side of that, as well. The steak looked like it was over-cooked in the Josper oven. But when I cut into it, it was exactly as I like a good New York strip - red and cool in the middle. It was extremely juicy and flavorful. I immediately fell in love with the concept of cooking in a Josper oven.
Our host, Doug, got the Black Angus rump steak that was rubbed beforehand in a concoction of salt and spices. It was a little football shaped piece of meat with the Union Jack proudly flying on top of the piece of meat. All steaks came with the same roasted half tomato, roasted garlic and a small piece of sweet corn.
The Australian strip loin didn't really look like a strip steak. My colleague who got it told me, "Australian steak is very underrated. This is very good."
One other colleague got the roasted beef loin for dinner. The North Yorkshire Black Angus beef loin was cut into pieces and came out a perfect medium rare. One other thing I forgot to mention were the French fries - or "chip", as they call them in the U.K. The fries at the Lazy Cow were the big, billowy steak fries that I like so much. I don't know what they did to the fries at the Lazy Cow, but they were excellent. So good that I had to order a side for myself after a colleague gave me a couple to try with my dinner. Dipped into the wonderful green peppercorn sauce, these fries were to die for. And I usually don't eat fries all that much.
For dessert, this is where I got the inspiration to have the pancakes on Saturday morning. The little tall square container next to the cup of espresso was filled with small squares of pancakes drizzled with a caramel syrup and topped with smoked pecans. It was absolutely delicious. I only wish the pancakes I had a couple days later stood out the way this dessert did. And getting an espresso - actually a DOUBLE espresso - was the wrong thing for me. I don't drink much caffeine and it really winds me up when I do. I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep that night, even after a couple Scotch's at the bar for a nightcap.
The notion that there is no good beef in the U.K. was pretty much squashed that night. You just have to know where to find it. If you ever find yourself in Salisbury and looking for a good cut of beef, it's going to be tough to beat the Lazy Cow. Coming from a good ol' Midwestern beef-fed guy, the steak I had at the Lazy Cow was as good as I could find at many good steakhouses in the U.S. The plus was that it was served in a true English pub with a lot of character.
(Update - I was informed by one of the guys at Naim Audio that The Lazy Cow closed in November of 2014 and was replaced by The Chapter House.)
It's always amazing to me to learn about the various type of accommodations around the world. I love the pictures in this post. Your inclusion of the food is great as well, because food can make or break a stay at any location! I definitely want to visit a location like this some day!
Posted by: Veronica Marks | September 11, 2015 at 05:12 PM