A couple who defied the odds and survived after opening their restaurant just before Covid struck are expanding with an Airbnb rental.
Talented chef Rob Dowell-Brown and his wife, Vicky, who run the Nant y Felin, in Llanrhaeadr YC, between Ruthin and Denbigh, were not eligible for financial support from the Government when the world went into lockdown.
But the resourceful duo used the difficulty and weathered the storm by turning their hand to providing greatly appreciated take away meals for the community.
Now Vicky has also taken on a two-bedroom apartment, Min y Maes, behind the property, effectively turning Nant y Felin into a restaurant with rooms.
Rob, born in Elgin in North East Scotland, has a distinguished CV after working in AA Rosette restaurants in the West Country where he was brought up, the Home Counties, Scotland, the Scilly Isles.
More locally, he has also tantalised taste buds at the Kinmel Manor in Abergele and the White Horse, Hendrerewydd, in the Vale of Clwyd.
He has cooked for celebrities like John Cleese, Nigel Mansell, Frankie Howerd, Alan Titchmarsh and Maureen Lipman and as a trainee YTS chef was featured on GMTV’s breakfast show in the 1990s.
He said: “John Cleese is from Weston Super Mare and Frankie Howerd also lived in Somerset when I was working there – Cleese would often do odd things like wear one sock.
“I had wanted to be a music teacher but didn’t get the grades and when I left school at 16 I started to train as a chef on the Youth Training Scheme (YTS) getting £29.50 a week – my mum took £15.
“It was a harsh environment but it made me realistic about work – 29 of us started the YTS course and I was one of just three who finished it.”
He met Vicky, from Ruthin, while working at the White Horse when she went along with her dad Bryn Dowell, there for an open mic folk music night and the couple – who both play guitar – now have a seven-year-old son, Billy.
Things were particularly tough for them when the pandemic happened just over a year after they took over the Nant y Felin in 2018 and before they had the chance to build up the financial records needed to claim Government help.
Rob said: “We didn’t really have any option other than to try and make a go of it by offering pizzas made in our proper pizza oven – the garden was overgrown and included three 40-foot leylandii spruce which provided fuel for the oven.
“We made sure all of our takeaway meals were served hot and to restaurant standard – allowing customers to enjoy a real treat at home when the UK was in lockdown”
“They proved very popular and on Father’s Day we served 116 meals and at weekends it would be 70 a night and even in the week we were doing 30 or 40 a day and it’s something we have continued ever since.
“We are always keen to try new ideas. We run our own open mic music nights on the third Wednesday of every month and I have been a forager for 20 years, finding edible plants and fungi and have done foraging walks.
“I did one in Denbigh for chef Chris Roberts, the Flamebaster chef on S4C and BBC Wales, and managed to find seven or eight ingredients to go with his open-fire cooking.”
Nant y Felin fan Mario Kreft MBE, from Denbigh, and his wife Gill, have a regular order for a takeaway Sunday lunch.
He said: “We discovered Rob’s cooking during Covid when we were so busy but couldn’t go anywhere and it was such a godsend to be able to enjoy his fantastic food at home on a Sunday after a difficult week.
“They literally stepped up to the plate, becoming honorary Covid warriors and providing an important community service.
“Rob and Vicky are a brilliant partnership. Their food is wonderful and we’ve also become regulars at the restaurant.”
Vicky added: “People found out about us in Covid and that got our names out there and that’s something we’ve continued.
“So we are always looking at ways of increasing our offer so when our landlord, Huw Howatson, said that the two-bedroomed self-catering flat adjoining the restaurant was available Vicky decided to take the plunge and do it up.
“It’s now on Airbnb and has hosted its first guest, someone from Canada who has relatives in the area, and we’re hoping it will become a destination in its own right perhaps for people who want to go foraging.
“It’s dog-friendly and so is the restaurant because it’s all about being adaptable to people’s needs to make the business more versatile.”
Rob said: “Since taking over at Nant y Felin, we have had to turn our hands to all sorts of things, from plumbing to joinery – I’ve made a lot of the furniture here and even our latest venture, turning an old fridge into a smoker.
“At the same time we’re creating our own eco-system, putting food waste back into the garden whenever possible.
“We’ve also opened up the bar to customers who just want to come in and have a drink and we’re employing 12 people here in the restaurant and most of us speak Welsh.
“Our menu changes virtually daily depending on what our suppliers have for us whether that’s Vicky’s uncle, Clwyd Dowell, at CLD Meats or the Vale Grocer, both in Denbigh, able to tell us exactly where their produce comes from or our fishmonger in Fleetwood .
“If they’ve got something special then we adapt the menu accordingly so we believe in using local produce even if we like to give it a twist.
“The idea is to go back to nature but using my skills as a fine dining chef to create something special.”
That’s true of Rob’s signature dessert with tender young nettle leaves grown in the garden and harvested at the cost of a few stings before being transformed into a trio of nettle cheesecake, topped with a red nettle jelly and accompanied by deep pink nettle sorbet and garnished with ox-eye daisy and blue cornflowers.
Vicky added: “The Nant y Felin really has become something very special to us.We are able to provide a service by cooking lovely produce for the local and wider community.
“We’re a friendly place for people to just pop in and have a drink in the bar, it’s a place where friends come to see us and most importantly, it’s home for us, our son, Billy and our two lovely spaniels.
“Building all of this up over the last seven years is an achievement we’re proud of and are looking forward to the future of the Nant y Felin”
