Osip hasn’t stood still since it first opened on Bruton’s high street in 2019. An intimate bolthole with a lyrical modern British menu, it quickly built a following for its farm-to-table approach, earning chef and founder Merlin Labron-Johnson a Michelin star in 2021. Now set within a 17th-century coaching inn, once owned by Hauser & Wirth, Osip v.2 continues to evolve with the seasons. The addition of four rooms, alongside a rotating programme of artist residencies, builds on that trajectory. Yet for all the movement, the feeling here remains all about serenity and intention.
Wallpaper* checks in at The Rooms at Osip, Bruton
What’s on your doorstep?
A five-minute drive away, Bruton is a walkable, design-loving village where your day will fill up with ease. You might want to start at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, its gallery set opposite a Piet Oudolf-designed garden, punctuated by a futuristic pavilion by Smiljan Radić, or stop by its on-site farm shop to stock up on local produce. From there, it’s worth heading to Osip’s bistro-like sibling, The Old Pharmacy, back in the village. At weekends, Merlin Labron-Johnson suggests visiting artist Colette Woods’ studio, which opens for a few hours: a chance to see her paintings and intentionally unresolved ceramics where they are created. You might also notice some of her pieces during dinner back at Osip.
Who is behind the design?
For Merlin Labron-Johnson, adding rooms was never an afterthought, but part of a longer plan. ‘I wanted it to feel like being welcomed into someone’s home,’ he tells Wallpaper*, avoiding the formality of a hotel. The Rooms at Osip bring that into focus. Guests are immediately shown upstairs upon arrival, slipping into the rhythm of the restaurant below, and welcomed with fresh canelés, apple juice, cider made on site under the Maison Osip label, alongside tea and coffee.
He adds: ‘We wanted a guesthouse that feels like a home, and a place that is not just for dinner but somewhere you can have a restorative stay. Staying overnight allows guests to fully settle in, to slow down, to feel at home and to connect more deeply with both the food and the environment.’
Under Johnny Smith, the creative director of Smith & Willis (a restaurant group of which Osip is a partner brand), the sleeping quarters don’t overwrite the building’s past; it very much remains in the bones: exposed beams, oak floors, slightly uneven proportions, all pared back and reworked. There are hints of Japan and Scandinavia, yet every space feels grounded in the landscape around it.
‘There’s a strong emphasis on provenance across the design – much of the timber, for example, comes from within a ten-mile radius of Osip,’ says Smith. ‘That sense of locality runs through everything.’
The room to book
The four rooms – Avon, Brue, Somer and Pitt – take their names from nearby rivers. They share a common design language, but aren’t identical. The duplex rooms open out slightly, with freestanding baths set apart from the sleeping space; the others are more snug, with stone-floored showers and unlacquered brass fittings that will wear in over time. Throughout, live-edge headboards and bedside tables are made from locally felled trees.
Detail-oriented touches are everything here. Flowers picked from the nearby farm are replaced daily; apples appear in the room when in season; a hand-drawn map offers local recommendations. Even the leather key pouch, made by Bill Amberg Studio, echoes a material detail from the restaurant below.
Staying for drinks and dinner?
The contemporary English countryside fantasy carries through into the restaurant, where white alcoves meet exposed beams and a deep earthen floor; everything feels centred on the land just beyond it. Around 85 per cent of the menu is grown between Osip’s farms and orchards, shaping a farm-to-table approach that shifts with the seasons. (Labron-Johnson took us behind the scenes of the restaurant for a video made on a previous visit, below.)
There’s no menu as such – instead, a sequence of courses unfolds, guided entirely by the kitchen. You might be met with crudités, picked that morning and served simply, before moving into lighter, vegetal expressions or richer and more layered courses. On one visit, that might include a mushroom tart with wild garlic, beer and yeast sauce, grilled Cornish lobster with sansho pepper, or chalk stream trout with salsify, morel and cider – dishes that change regularly but stay rooted in the same ingredient-led thinking.
As Merlin Labron-Johnson puts it, ‘We try to create an offering that’s an expression of the local landscape at a specific time.’ Drinks follow the same philosophy, with a focus on small-scale producers and house-made elements, alongside cocktails – like an artichoke negroni – that hold their own.
By morning, breakfast draws on the spirit of a French auberge: cardamom buns, granola, yoghurt and honey from Osip’s own bees are set out on arrival, followed by a generous spread of hay-smoked trout, cheeses, boiled eggs and preserves.
If you can’t wait to return, the newly launched table d’hôte (or host’s table) is reason enough, with a three-course menu, snacks and petit fours at a set price. prix fixe.
The verdict
Never wanting to leave is part of the overnight experience at Osip. It’s compelling to see how a locally rooted, mission-driven restaurant has evolved into something globally desired, yet still shaped as much by its surroundings as by the people behind it. The addition of rooms deepens that experience, inviting you to stay longer, settle in, and understand in-depth the rhythm that runs through everything here: from the kitchen to the fields to the beautiful objects in every room.
Osip is located at 25 Kingsettle Hill, Hardway, Bruton BA10 0LN, United Kingdom