The Olive Branch

A Village Pub With a Serious Drinks Programme

The pub dining scene in rural England operates on a spectrum that runs from pints-and-pies locals to destination kitchens that happen to have a bar. The Olive Branch in Clipsham sits firmly at the latter end of that range, and its drinks programme is part of the reason why. In a county not especially known for bar ambition, this handsome stone hostelry on Main Street has assembled a drinks list that signals genuine intent: top-notch regional ales share the menu with an ever-changing selection of wines, and the presence of Coravin pours communicates something specific about the ownership's priorities. Coravin access means more bottles opened to the glass without oxidation risk, which in practice means a guest can drink at a level that would ordinarily require ordering a full bottle. That's not a standard feature of rural Rutland pub life.

For context on what that kind of commitment looks like in a dedicated bar format, the urban equivalent might be found at Schofield's in Manchester or 69 Colebrooke Row in London, where the drinks programme is the explicit editorial subject. At The Olive Branch, the drinks sit alongside food and accommodation as equal pillars of the offer — which, for a village pub in Lincolnshire's border country, is a notable positioning choice.

The Physical Space and What It Tells You

Approach The Olive Branch from the village road and you get the architectural shorthand of rural English hospitality: limestone walls, the kind of stone that reads ochre in low winter light, a structure that has clearly absorbed a long local history. The building was gifted to the village of Clipsham by a local squire in 1890, and the fabric of it still carries that era's confidence in permanence. What changed in 1999, when three friends stepped in to prevent its closure, was the operating logic inside those walls.

The atmosphere that readers most consistently report is relaxing and homely — not as a euphemism for low standards, but as a genuine descriptor of a pub that has managed to sustain warmth while running a programme demanding considerable kitchen and cellar discipline. Service is described as polite, attentive, and willing to go beyond the transactional minimum. In a category where hospitality is often performed rather than felt, that consistency matters. The pub's community spirit has remained open-minded in the years since its rescue, which in practice has meant absorbing influences , from miso to yuzu to Coravin , without losing the grain of the original building or its village function.

Local Sourcing as Operating Philosophy, Not Marketing

The Olive Branch was an early adopter of local sourcing, and the distinction worth making here is between adopting it as a trend and building it into the infrastructure of how a kitchen operates. The pub actively name-checks its supplier list, which has grown over time, and supplements bought-in produce with ingredients from its own 'pub paddock'. That garden-to-kitchen loop is a production decision with real menu consequences: what grows determines what gets cooked, and menus built around seasonal production cycles behave differently from those written around fixed concepts.

Result is a kitchen that ranges across haddock and chips, courgette and sage tagliatelle, and venison haunch with braised onion, roast beetroot and chocolate tortellini , a spread that reflects both local availability and genuine technical ambition. Starters extend from leek velouté with Westcomb Cheddar dumplings, miso leeks and croûtons to cured salmon with nori, yuzu, pickled tapioca and buttermilk sauce. The range is not arbitrary; it reflects a kitchen that sources first and writes the menu second, then applies technique at whatever level the ingredient warrants. Desserts follow the same logic: tonka-bean panna cotta, mulled poached figs, and an Eccles cake with Barkham Blue cheese are the kind of combinations that emerge from a kitchen with actual larder depth.

Sunday lunch occupies a specific position in the Olive Branch offer. Locally sourced beef sirloin and roast pork loin with a full complement of vegetables and dark gravy is a format that readers rate as delivering on every level , which in British pub terms is the highest form of endorsement, given how rigorously the Sunday roast gets evaluated by its audience.

The Drinks List in Detail

Regional ales occupy the top tier of the beer selection, which aligns with Rutland's position in the East Midlands brewing corridor , a part of England that has maintained a genuine ale culture through periods when national trends moved toward lager and craft. The wine list changes regularly and is positioned as good value relative to its quality level, which is a deliberate editorial stance from an ownership that has clearly thought about how to price access. The Coravin selection is the clearest signal of that intent: it opens premium bottles to individual glass pours, allowing a table of two to drink at different quality levels without waste or commitment to a full bottle.

Across the UK, the most technically ambitious bar programmes tend to concentrate in urban centres. Bramble in Edinburgh, Merchant Hotel in Belfast, and Mojo Leeds in Leeds each represent different expressions of serious bar culture in British cities. What The Olive Branch demonstrates is that the underlying ambition , access to good product, served attentively, with genuine knowledge behind the selection , doesn't require an urban postcode. It requires ownership that treats the drinks list as a considered programme rather than an afterthought to the food menu. Comparable regional examples worth noting for their own distinct approaches include Avon Gorge by Hotel du Vin in Bristol and L'Atelier Du Vin in Brighton, both of which operate wine programmes with similar seriousness at different price points.

Accommodation and the Extended Stay Question

Accommodation is available at Beech House, a property across the road from the pub. The existence of overnight rooms changes the calculus for visitors travelling from outside Rutland: the question of whether to make a round trip becomes the question of whether to stay. For guests arriving from distance , and a pub with this reputation does draw visitors from beyond county borders , that option makes the drinks programme more relevant. You can drink properly when you don't have to drive home.

That overnight option also places The Olive Branch in a peer set that includes destination pub-hotels with serious food-and-drink programmes, a format that has become more prominent in rural England over the past two decades. For guests wanting to explore comparably committed rural bar and hospitality formats further afield, Digby Chick in the Western Isles and Harbour View and Fraggle Rock Bar in Bryher offer a sense of how far from urban centres a serious drinks offer can travel when the ownership is committed. And for those curious what that commitment looks like taken to an international extreme, Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu makes an instructive comparison. Also worth considering alongside the Horseshoe Bar's community-pub model is Horseshoe Bar in Glasgow, which maintains its own version of the serious-yet-accessible drinks format.

Planning Your Visit

The Olive Branch sits on Main Street in Clipsham, Rutland (LE15 7SH), a village leading reached by car given limited public transport connections to the area. Rutland is England's smallest county, which means distances within it are short, but the county sits between the A1 and the A47 in a stretch of countryside that requires intentional navigation rather than passing-through logic. Anyone planning a visit from London or the Midlands should treat it as a destination trip rather than an en-route stop. Given the pub's reputation for Sunday lunch and its drinks programme, weekend visits tend to be in highest demand , advance booking is advisable for both meals and Beech House accommodation. For a broader picture of dining in the area, see our full Clipsham restaurants guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I expect atmosphere-wise at The Olive Branch?

The atmosphere is relaxed and genuinely warm rather than formally composed. The building is a stone village pub with 1890 bones, and the interior reads accordingly: homely, unpretentious, and community-oriented. Service is attentive without being stiff. If you're visiting from a city and expecting the controlled cool of an urban dining room, recalibrate: this is a pub that takes its food and drink seriously without treating that seriousness as a reason to strip out comfort.

What drink is The Olive Branch famous for?

Pub has built its drinks reputation on two fronts: top-notch regional ales that reflect Rutland's ale-culture heritage, and a wine list that has enough depth and Coravin-backed access to suggest the ownership treats wine as a genuine programme rather than a secondary offering. The Coravin selection is the most distinctive feature of the drinks offer and the clearest signal of the pub's positioning relative to its rural peer set.

What's the main draw of The Olive Branch?

Combination of a locally sourced, technically ambitious kitchen, a drinks list that takes both ale and wine seriously, and a genuine pub atmosphere in a beautifully preserved rural building. Readers consistently point to Sunday lunch as a high point, and the Beech House accommodation option makes it a viable destination for visitors from outside Rutland. The pub was rescued from closure in 1999 and has since become a recognised name on the regional dining scene , a trajectory that reflects sustained quality rather than a single moment of attention.

What's the leading way to book The Olive Branch?

Contact details are not listed in our current database record, so we recommend searching directly for The Olive Branch Clipsham to find current booking options via their website or a booking platform. Given the pub's reputation and the volume of readers who rate it highly for weekend dining and Sunday lunch, securing a reservation in advance rather than arriving without one is the sensible approach, particularly on Sundays and over busy seasonal periods.