A dream based on solid foundations.

ON a grey, grey day, low clouds were scudding the tops of North York Moors and Great Ayton was shrouded in a misty drizzle. On High Green, the statue of Captain Cook appeared lost at sea.

But across the road, just a few doors down from Petch’s incomparable pie shop, the lights shone out from the first floor windows above an empty shop.

Casey’s Brasserie looked inviting and, after taking the few steps upstairs, the welcome was warm too.

Waitress Jill, a bustling, cheery soul, checked we had booked and invited us to pick a table and, despite the greyness outside, we chose a spot with a view over the Green.

From here, next to a warming radiator, the Captain definitely looked like he was longing for a spell in the South Seas.

The brasserie, which used to be the Cook’s Room, is done out almost entirely in white and cream, apart from a dark wood floor and green tablecloths.

In the evening, it must be cosy and, on a sunny day, very light and airy. On our visit, it felt a tad clinical, but the fresh flowers and decent quality cutlery and glassware were noted.

Above the hatch into a kitchen a motif about dreams coming true hints at a story and, certainly, owner Jenny Veale has one.

Widowed at a very young age with a baby son (Danny – who now works alongside her in the kitchen), she worked her way through university only to decide law was not for her and began working in a kitchen in Bristol, dreaming of one day owning her own restaurant. A number of jobs later, including a stint with Gary Rhodes in London, she found herself in Stokesley where she ran the tearoom above the Yorkshire Store, before opportunity beckoned in Great Ayton.

Open for almost a year now, the dream is still alive and on the strength of our lunch we would suggest it is founded on solid foundations of simple food cooked well and priced to sell. While on the Saturday we called Casey’s was not overly busy, it does a strong weekday lunch trade and weekend evenings are clearly busy too. It was fully booked for the evening of our visit.

From a lunchtime menu featuring sandwiches, panninis, quiches, omelettes, and egg Benedict, we chose the two specials, a Wensleydale cheese, smoked bacon and roast tomato quiche with new potatoes, coleslaw and salad (£6.75), and pork and stilton meatballs served on linguine with a tomato sauce (£9.95) and a mixed leaf, roasted tomato and Parmesan salad (£2.50).

Sylvia, who reckons she’s a pretty mean pastry cook, thought the shortcrust base on her quiche was the lightest she had come across in a long while. The filling was also light and fluffy and the combination of bacon and cheese meant it packed a mighty savoury punch. The new potatoes had been lightly sauteed in butter and parsley.

I had three large meatballs sitting on a bed of nicely al dente linguine and a simple tomato sauce, quite garlicky, but also with lots of herbs.

The stilton flavour in the meatballs was quite muted, but there was also something spicy in there as well.

The salad was good too, although the mixed leaves seemed to have wilted a bit too much in the dressing.

Deserts were limited to carrot cake, ice creams and a very tempting “pudding of the day” which turned out to be a sublime apple frangipane (£3.75). Again, a beautifully light touch was evident in the sponge. There was lots of almond flavour, and almonds, and the cooked apple was not too sweet. Neither was the vanilla custard, handily served in a separate little jug.

With a medium glass of a slightly spicy Argentinean Chenin and a soft drink, the bill was £31.20.

It was a fine lunch and a glance at the dinner menu suggests the simple philosophy extends to the evening.

Slow-cooked blade of lamb, pan fried sea bass (both £13.95) and a spinach, tomato and Yorkshire Fine Fettle cheese risotto (£6.70) were among the selections that evening.

Jenni Veale may be “living the dream”, but it’s a dream founded on sound principles and techniques, using high quality, locally-sourced ingredients (meat from Petch’s butchers next door) – and a most welcome ability to put the apostrophe in the right place in “Casey’s.