The Village Pub Hotel

Barnsley

The Calcot Collection runs a cool little string of boutique hotels in the Cotswolds, offering innovative, open-necked luxury aimed at recharging urban creatives. Of them, The Village Pub feels like the group’s pied-à-terre: it’s conceptually simple and unfussy, and all the better for it. The six reasonably priced rooms are quietly stylish and cosy, but let’s cut to the chase: what you really need to experience here is dinner. Part of the pub’s raison d’etre is to act as a dining alternative for guests at the group’s more Downton-esque Barnsley House hotel over the road, whose restaurant, The Potager, specialises in well-selected seasonal ingredients. While you can tell there’s common DNA, the pub swaps a little elegance for indulgence. Bar food classics like fish and chips, fish cakes, and a burger garnished with ‘bacon jam’ rule, but we opt for duck breast on red cabbage with parsnip purée. The blend of fatty and acidic flavours lives long in the memory. Our favourite item? A cheese soufflé – a basic, classic dish that is a tricky one to replicate at home. A perfect balance of fluffiness and astringence, its precise recipe is probably locked in a vault. If you know where, please get in touch. Doubles from £114.