If you ever find yourself in Yorkshire (North of England) I would suggest a little place called Mezze in Holmfirth.
Yesterday I travelled to Yorkshire for a day and night out in Holmfirth, Yorkshire with my old London work buddies, who I had not seen for a few years. How sad is that? We needed to make up for lost time and only had one evening to do it. Abby came from Edinburgh and I came from Manchester to descend upon Melforth, Yorkshire to stay with Helen, her husband, Marcus and their three, yes three young boys! She is amazing.
As soon as Marcus got in from work, we hugged him, put some lip gloss on and ran out the door. Our destination was Mezze in Holmfirth. Mezze is a tiny little Mediterranean and Middle Eastern inspired tapas restaurant nestled in the center of this rural as it gets town.
The walls are whitewashed and it has a very minimalist and clean look. It truly is cozy and seats about 20 people at the most downstairs, where we were seated and about the same upstairs. They have some cool clock creations on the walls made from old frying pans and other kitchen utensils… so amusing, and they were for sale at a pricey £195 each!
The evening started with a wonderfully sharp and crisp bottle of Montebuena Rioja, Blanco Rioja, Alavesa Spain, which Helen and I thoroughly enjoyed. We also enjoyed the second bottle – woops.
The menu was a long list of tapas dishes – a bit like a list you get at a sushi restaurant where you put the numbers next to what you want. We ticked off quite a lot of dishes before realizing it was probably too much food. Oh well, they were all small plates.
Everything comes as it is made so you don’t know what you are going to get first. We got about four dishes all at once and soon realized our table was far too small for everything, which just made it more fun.
For our eating pleasure, we ordered the following… Bread with Olive Oil and Balsamic, Marinated Olives, Halloumi Saganaki, Kleftiko (Oven Baked Lamb with Lemon & Oregano), Lightly Battered Calamari with Aioli, Bekri Mezes/Drunkards Delight (pork with red wine & tabasco), Crunchy Potato, Chilli & Tomato and finally Chicken Izgara (Chargrilled & Marinated in Yoghurt & Cumin).
I have to say everything was delightful. My favorite was the Baked Lamb. It came in a wax paper parcel that you open up to a surprise of tender lamb and cumin aromas – delicious. The Drunkards Delight was nice but the pork was a little overdone – only a touch and not so much that I didn’t want more. The sauce however was superb. We dipped everything in it from bread to the Crunchy Potato to the Calamari. It was incredibly flavorful and tasty. The Calamari was fresh, soft and perfectly, lightly fried. We were extremely happy with our choices and enjoyed all the taste sensations of each plate. Such good food to enjoy while catching up with friends.
The manager was a very quirky, funny guy. Absolutely, the quintessential English man in the way he talked and behaved. He said the funniest thing that I felt I needed to share. Abby is not drinking as baby number two is on the way so he made a comment about her having a conscience or something like that. I can’t really remember but then he said to us “I keep my conscience in a little box under the stairs; it may need its own house.” I have no idea why I found this hysterical, but I did. I asked him to take a photo of us and he said “would you like me to do anything else, I would happily bathe you”… why again, I have no idea, but he was a source of amusement for us throughout the evening.
What a wonderful night and day in the countryside with my two old friends who I miss so much. Lots of reminiscing about old times in London as well as a number of vacations we have all taken together in our younger years. A lot of making fun of me, which is fine as most of the time I do make for funny stories.
I love the fact that whatever path your life takes you on and no matter how many years go by, you can always revisit the wonderful and sometimes hysterically funny past with friends that you may not see as much as you like, but are always there if you need them – for the fun times and the sad. I feel very blessed with the friends I have made throughout my life. I miss you Abs and Helen!!
