William Sitwell is soon to be the focus of his fellow critics when he opens hotel and restaurant Casa Wivey in Somerset, showcasing Italian food – “the most universally loved cuisine” – and a location set to rival foodie favourite Bruton
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Last week, The Telegraph food critic William Sitwell revealed plans to open a hotel and Italian restaurant called Casa Wivey in his local town of Wiveliscombe in Somerset. Although the project is in its early days, he has already received more than £140,000 worth of investment pledges towards the purchase, refurbishment and operation of the site, as well as a flurry of encouraging emails from locals and industry figures alike. There is already talk of a documentary on Casa Wivey, which would follow Sitwell’s transition from seasoned restaurant critic to debut restaurateur.
Strictly speaking, this is not Sitwell’s first venture into running a hospitality business. Since 2021, he has regularly hosted supper clubs for more than 70 people at his family farm in Exmoor, with well-known chefs such as Adam Handling and Atul Kochhar. This time, Sitwell hopes to offer something more permanent to the local community of Wiveliscombe, affectionately called Wivey by residents.
What was the initial reaction to your plans to take over the White Hart hotel in Somerset? Is this something you’ve always wanted to do?
No one knew because I only really had the idea last Saturday [16 August]. I put things together fairly quickly. I have to say, the reaction has been absolutely astonishing. In terms of local financial interest, I would say within four hours of my first email, I had £140,000 worth of pledges of investment through SEIS [Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme], so that was amazing.
I had the most lovely emails from locals. One couple said we were feeling despondent this morning [because of the closure of the White Hart hotel] and you’ve completely made our day. It’s so sad when hospitality starts to die in small towns and villages, because it’s a bedrock of community. My idea of resuscitating this place and making it a lovely, chic hotel, a comfortable and accessible Italian restaurant – for me, the most universally loved form of cuisine – just seems to have gone down really well. Industry press also sort of leapt on it, which is interesting, and I’ve had a lot of very positive comments from thousands of strangers, chefs and restaurateurs saying “Go for it!”.
Have any of your fellow restaurant critic friends reached out following the announcement?
No, I wouldn’t expect them to. I think they are going “What the hell is Sitwell doing?” but I simply don’t know. I think I could be the first [critic to open a restaurant], and there could be a reason for that.
“Will the poor souls who sometimes had the sharp end of my pen be pitching up and hoping I fail?”
As you know, the industry is going through a challenging time, especially post-Budget. What made you want to become a hospitality operator now?
It’s an incredibly difficult time in hospitality, so it takes a certain kind of lunacy to come up with an idea like this, but I see an opportunity to fill a gap in the market. There is no Italian restaurant near us. There’s lots of really good pubs, but very few restaurants, so as someone who has written about hospitality and sort of understands the market, I feel there is absolutely, 100% room for this. Arrogantly, I would go there, and I reckon that other people would quite like it too. I can’t say I’m about to open a restaurant as it’s not mine – the business plan is being produced at the moment. I’m talking to major investors, and it may not happen like all these things, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
How do you see yourself being both a critic and a restaurateur?
As someone who loves hospitality and loves restaurants, it will be interesting for me to add this to the portfolio. Obviously, I’m going to be in this strange Jekyll and Hyde, poacher turned gamekeeper [role], because half the week will I write about restaurants, then some of the other part of the week I’ll hopefully be running one. We’ll see. Will the poor souls who sometimes had the sharp end of my pen be pitching up and hoping I fail?
How involved will you be in the day-to-day operation of the hotel and restaurant once they opens and how will it work for your supper clubs?
With the supper clubs, I basically do everything, from sweeping the floor to turning the lights out, marketing the tickets and hosting tables. Because I understand that operation and I have written about operations, I have a slight inkling of how these things might work, but obviously running a place full-time is a different ball game.
The key thing is I’ll be working with very good operators in the Black Bear Pub Group, who I think are the best operators of pubs around us in west Somerset. They run pubs efficiently and they open them all the time, which is so important. One of the problems in hospitality is the nervousness to open. It’s a catch-22: I can’t afford to open so I won’t open, you don’t open and you don’t get business. So they [Jon Coward and his wife Millie from Black Bear Group] would be my operation partners, whereas I would look after the aesthetics and the concept. I’ll be doing what I know, which is atmosphere and marketing, which is pretty key. I’ll learn the ropes of other stuff.
“I am deadly, deadly serious. I want to do this”
We’ve seen a lot of ‘foodie’ openings lately in Bruton, about an hour and a half’s drive from where you are in Wiveliscombe. How does Wiveliscombe compare to that part of Somerset?
Somerset is a big county. I describe us as really Exmoor, as Bruton is a completely different kettle of fish. We will never be like that, but it will be nice to have something that’s of serious, exciting quality [in Wiveliscombe]. I’m not saying there are no decent places around us – there are plenty of good pubs – but we are kind of entrenched in the culture of the south west. We are within striking distance of the north coast of Bristol, and you have great oysters there to the south. A friend of mine raises longhorn cattle at the Wonky Horn Farm and it’s some of the most delicious beef you’ve ever had. And we have wonderful drinks such as Exmoor Ales and the amazing Sheppy’s Cider.
The other thing I noticed is the cars that park at my supper club – I definitely couldn’t afford them. There’s what you might call a London expat community [coming to Exmoor]. While the country is not in great economic condition, people still need to go out. People still spend, and it’s all about value at the end of the day and making people happy.
Do you have a timeline to open the hotel and restaurant?
I’d like to try and get the funds in as soon as possible so we can buy the place, because you never know – there may be some other bidders out there. But this time of year is quite nice. I always feel like September is more like the new year than New Year. And autumn is the time for the greatest ingredients and game season. September onwards is always a time of great hope and excitement, so I want to capture the excitement that we’ve created with this announcement and try and move quickly.
Did a part of you want to step into the restaurant trade first instead of also going straight into hotels?
I could have almost turned my little supper club into a 20-cover restaurant, but you know, under my own steed, this thing just suddenly popped up into my head and I’ve just started doing it. Sometimes you can’t help a trail of events. My idea that this would be a nice thing to have around us became a reality because the White Hart became available. Financially, it is also really helpful to have 16 rooms if we can have a reasonable rate and good occupancy. I am deadly, deadly serious. I want to do this. If it doesn’t happen, I’m not going to die crying, but it may not be the last attempt.
How much of a tourist destination is Exmoor?
There’s this amazing walk from Minehead all the way to the south coast and Wivey is the first stop-off point before getting onto Exmoor. Exmoor is one of the most beautiful stretches of countryside and it’s wonderfully remote. There is a lot of tourism, so we can play our little part in that. I’ve never sat down dreaming I would be a hotelier, but to have a restaurant with rooms, a bar and crucially a space for people to come and work in a communal working space… there is all this opportunity.
It’s not just a nice idea – people have a physical need to have somewhere like this. I’m keen to help put Wivey on the map for all sorts of reasons as it’s a very special part of the world. The name Casa Wivey literally points to it being Italian and it points to the community. I want it to be felt that it’s there for Wiveliscombe. People love Wivey, so I’m sort of loving Wivey back in my attempt to do something.
Photography: Daffodil PR
Dining and Cooking