'It's hit the ground running': Tawny Stores, Marple, reviewed

I have a soft spot for food and drink outlets named after dogs. Not pubs generically called the Dog and Duck, or canine cafes like Cuppapug in Salford. That’s a whole different bag of treats. No, I mean a homage to a pet pooch in the owner’s life. 

Back in the day when Rudy’s Pizza was an indie pioneer in Ancoats, the eponymous Rudy was the cute mongrel companion of founders Jim Morgan and Kate Wilson. Over in Chorlton, rescue dog Tiny is long departed, but his name lives on over the door at Ed Gillibrand’s bottle shop, Tiny’s Tipple.

Ditto the inspiration for Marple newcomer Tawny Stores is the beloved red setter of  founder Beth Hammond’s grandparents. Not, as I foolishly assumed, my favourite style of port or a breed of owl.

Tawny Stores’ exact address is Hawk Green, not the obvious place to launch a smart cafe/deli based upon ambitious sourcing. Once upon a day a greasy spoon on this site might have served scran to cotton workers across the road in Goyt Mill or to the bargees shouldering their way up the Peak Forest Canal below. 

Yet, of course, demographics change. Not on the scale of Ancoats, of course, but on a midweek lunchtime the place was busy and when the anticipated alcohol licence comes through there’ll be a time for Tawny to stretch its wings with evening supper clubs.

Beth is well versed in those and all forms of casual dining with an edge. She’s an alumna of Little Window at Altrincham Market. The Honest Crust side project shut two years ago, spreading its talented young team - Beth among them - out to staff many of the region’s best eating places. Her CV includes Flawd (Ancoats), Isca, Platt Fields Market Garden and Yellowhammer in Stockport, while all the time she built up resources to open Tawny Stores with her fiancé Lawrence and Ashley, an ex-colleague from Alty.

The result is, for the moment, a daytime operation (Thursday-Sunday, 10am-5pm), serving coffee and cake and filled focaccia alongside lunch. But not ‘brunch’. That’s a Beth bête noire. The Tawny Morning Plate with fruit, pickles and eggs is the closest you’ll get.

After our canalside trek up from Marple Bridge, home to Fold – another game changer in these parts – the temptation was to order a cold platter with my alcohol-free version of Track Sonoma (no, I’ll be sticking to 3.8% ABV classic in future). There’s a fridge full of Little Buck blue, Gouda-style Killeen and triple cream Finn, courtesy of the Crafty Cheeseman; alternatively, the charcuterie selection is supplied by local food heroes Littlewoods Butchers, or perhaps London’s acclaimed Cobbled Lane Cured. Each plate is £12 with Yellowhammer sourdough and Winter Tarn Lakes butter for £4 extra.

All this bounty reflects the well-stocked deli shelves around in this compact space, which spills out to a canalside pergola. Our aim is to check what the kitchen makes of fresh seasonal produce from their veg and salad suppliers, Openshaw’s Organic North and Cheshire-based Cinderwood Market Garden. Flawd’s menus are built around the latter, cute assemblages of vegetables with meat and fish as ‘seasonings’ rather than the main deal. It’s similar here. 

Cantabrian anchovies (available on the shelves) and Isle of Wight tomato slices are strewn across a tranche of sourdough with a herb salsa adding some zip. That’s £12; for £2 more you get a more exciting composition – a tangle of white peaches, basil, courgettes and mozzarella. Oddly the courgettes are labelled Italian and the gorgeous fior di latte is crafted by Italian ex-pats outside Bristol. Whatever, summer on a plate, as they now say around Hawk Green.

Italy is an obvious influence. Cinderwood provide those pointy pink onions called Tropea that are native to Calabria. Here they are charred, which concentrates their natural sweetness while making them a sloppy forkful, alongside the crisper grip of mangetout, our own Spenwood cheese, shaved, serving as a (superior) Pecorino substitute (£11).

By the time our final dish of fregola (£18), those starchy Sardinian pasta balls, arrives I am craving a glass of that island’s Vermentino or something minerally similar. Just the thing to handle the mussel and sweet sungold tomato topping with an aioli of almonds that surprises and delights.

Wine’s absence encapsulated a slight sense of frustration. Tawny Stores is exactly the kind of spot you’d want in your neighbourhood for an impulse organic veg/unpasteurised cheese purchase or a cup of ethical Blossom Roastery coffee as you plug in your laptop.

It has hit the ground running in uncharted territory, but I feel there’s a lot more to come. 

Tawny Stores, 1 Upper Hibbert Lane, Hawk Green, Marple, SK6 7JQ