Jolly Farmer's Food Emporium, The

Every so often somebody has a really brilliant idea, and by my reckoning Jon and Paula Briscoe have pulled off a real flanker at their three "dining emporiums", their words

not mine, in Surrey. But the pearl of them all has to be The Jolly Farmer, at Buckland in Surrey.

In the process of opening up their third emporium it occurred to them that since food and eating have a certain affinity, it might just make sense to combine the two under one roof.

Ergo, The Jolly Farmer. Fortunately, both of them were more or less born into the business of food and hospitality in various manifestations, so two plus two made six pretty quickly.

The basis of the place is a restaurant and café/bar, open daily from 9.30 am until 11.00pm, which is a pretty gruelling schedule by anybody's standards. On top of that the deli/farm shop opens at 9.30 am, just in time to pick up the returning school runs, and closes at 10pm, just in time for last orders at the bar, or something like that.

In the pub you may be enjoying a wide range of dishes that are uncommonly tasty, but the even better news is that most likely it will be on sale on the deli, so look for home made sausages from Bridge Farm at Lingfield, Norbury Blue cheese from Dorking, or St Joan's Farm Dairy Ice cream from Leigh.

Each process feeds the other, food is very much in everybody's minds, some dishes make no pretence at being repeated in the deli but nevertheless improve the health and wealth of nations no end. I believe these people are on to something big.