New brunch menu as Washington's popular Forge restaurant expands its offering

Housed in the Grade II-listed old blacksmiths’ forge, which has stood in the shadow of Washington Old Hall for 400 years, The Forge has established itself as one of the area’s top-rated restaurants.

Opened by husband and wife team Wayne and Kelly Kennedy six years ago, they’ve done much to honour the heritage of the building, stripping it back to its natural stone walls, exposing its traditional beams, rebuilding one of its chimney stacks and keeping a fire burning in the original forge hearth.

It operated as a blacksmiths right up until the 1950s, before becoming a cafe, a pottery and The Blacksmith’s Table restaurant before Kelly and Wayne bought the building.

Operating for takeaways during lockdown introduced the restaurant to even more customers, and Kelly says it’s great that that support for local business has continued.

"We noticed that a lot more people started walking through the village in lockdown and it brought us to a new audience,” said Kelly. “The village green has a really nice community feel with a hub of independents and we have regulars who come back time and time again. They book well advance just so they can have their favourite table.”

The Forge is already well-known for its lunch and evening meal offering and now it’s launched a brunch menu, which will be available from December 29-31 and then, after a New Year break, from January 12, from 10.30am to 4pm on Thursdays to Saturdays.

It features options such as Croque Madame (£10.50); Souffle Arnold Bennet (£12.50); Turkish style eggs (£8.50); French toast with spiced winter fruits and creme fraiche (£8) and more.

Speaking about how the restaurant came about, Kelly said: “We’re from Washington and found that we always travelled outside of the area for food, so we wanted to bring something a little different to Washington.

"We have a passion for doing up old buildings and giving them a new lease of life, so when this building became available we jumped at the opportunity. We feel proud to have a building that has so much history and means so much to people."

She added: “Over the centuries, it’s always been a building where people would come and get warm at the fire, and that continues today. We really love bringing people together with good food.”

As well as The Forge, the couple also operate The Green opposite, comprised of a tea room, gift shop and florists, which also hosts regular pop-up food nights.

:: The Forge evening menu is still available as normal from Thursday to Saturday, with Sunday lunch served on Sundays.