Without sponsors or investments beyond their modest savings, Pine couple has achieved unimaginable milestones. Their story.
The story
If you arrive at Pine for dinner in the dead of winter, you might find yourself checking Google Maps multiple times. But in the end, it'll be hard to miss: after leaving Newcastle, you go straight and then left toward what is undeniably a farm, where corrugated metal barns and outbuildings loom overhead. Check your phone again. There you go, you're in the right place.
"Sometimes, when people arrive here, you can tell they're wondering what on earth they're doing in a place like this," laughs Cal Byerley, owner and pastry chef of Pine, to SquareMeal. "When I was a kid, my dad was already teaching me to drive through these wind-beaten fields that you can now admire outside our restaurant. These fields have belonged to me and my family for over 200 years. So my dad showed me the value of work: one day we went to the pub nearby and he said, 'From today, you work here.' It wasn't a choice I made of my own free will! I drove him through the fields and he had a couple of beers, while I went off to wash the dishes."
Choice or not, cooking has been a passion that Cal has never abandoned. He gravitated towards pastry from a young age - "I've always loved putting in the effort, so I didn't mind being one of the last to leave the premises," he says today. His pastry skills led him to increasingly prestigious kitchens, including Rogan & Co and then The Forest Side in the Lake District. Cal had worked with The Forest Side's head chef, Kevin Tickle, at Rogan & Co and followed him to Grasmere to become the restaurant's pastry chef. Pine's head chef, Ian Waller, and sommelier, Vanessa Stoltz, would join later.
A few years after all three had left The Forest Side, Cal and his wife Sian stumbled upon a barn at Vallum Farm for sale: the couple was looking for a site for their own gourmet project, but had struggled to find something that reflected their vision. "I lied to Sian and told her we were opening an easy café bar," Cal laughs. "Then I told Ian I wanted to have the best restaurant in the country!" The barn at Vallum Farm was an ideal space - a pre-installed kitchen on the lower floor, two rooms for a dining area and a bar. The couple had no backers or investments beyond their own savings, but the project seemed intriguing, and they both dove headfirst into it.
And so, Pine had its team: Sian managing the restaurant, Vanessa curating the cellar, and Cal and Ian in the kitchen, preparing sweet and savory dishes respectively. Much has changed at Pine since its opening in 2021, but these four elements are still the beating heart of the restaurant. Every guest who visits will encounter all four during the meal, and the bonds of their friendship filter through every aspect of the experience. "I always say Pine is 40% food and drink and 60% everything else," Cal says. "Many people just love the atmosphere of the restaurant." There's a constant exchange of tastes and ideas at Pine. You might therefore find plenty of local berries, fruits, and even rhubarb among the savory dishes, while the dessert menu includes parsnip with verbena caramel, sea buckthorn, and chicory root with pineapple.
This boundless creativity makes it difficult to label Pine as a restaurant to pigeon hole. The ingredients are mostly local and seasonal, but the kitchen employs techniques from around the world to shape those ingredients into a range of distinctive dishes. Ian, in particular, is a fan of international fine dining, which he often adapts to local uses. "The thing we realized when we opened the restaurant is that we have no one telling us not to do it," Ian says. Consequently, there are no rules at Pine, except one. "If it's a delicious dish, it goes on the menu."
In two and a half years, Pine has scooped a long list of awards, including a Michelin star and the title of Best Restaurant in the UK for 2024 by SquareMeal. Thousands of people have made the pilgrimage from nearby Newcastle, taking that same road to Vallum Farm to discover a gourmet barn nestled in the English countryside.
