Jane Cook profiles one of Wales’ most talked-about rural restaurants, Michelle and Leum Evans’ Paternoster Farm, as it prepares to shut its doors – with plans to start all over again, just six miles down the road in Pembrokeshire.
Paternoster Farm, the award-winning field-to-fork restaurant and smallholding in the Pembrokeshire village of Hundleton, will close by the end of April. Founders Michelle Evans and her husband Leum are gearing up to relocate their hospitality operation to The Old Point House in nearby Angle: known locally as The Point or The Point House, its current incarnation was reviewed by Buzz last year.
A public Kickstarter campaign, open until Sat 28 Mar, has launched to help fund the move and secure long-term stability for the team.
For anyone who’s eaten in the farm’s dining room – a converted milking parlour – or followed the farm’s rise from lockdown project to national recognition, the news will land with a jolt. Paternoster started as a small farm shop during COVID, and grew, almost by word of mouth, into a destination now famed for warm, unshowy hospitality and a daily-changing set menu shaped by what the farm and kitchen garden could provide.
The model was always deliciously simple. The menu is based around the farm’s own meat (beef, pork, lamb and even water buffalo), honey from the farm’s bees and seasonal vegetables, supported by local seafood and foraged ingredients. This honest approach earned it a place in The Good Food Guide for three consecutive years, praise in the Times, and support from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for its sustainable ethos.
But the team now need security after a year of limbo, following notice that the current farm tenancy would not be extended by Pembrokeshire County Council. Michelle, a divorce lawyer before she became a farmer and chef, admits the uncertainty has taken its toll. “It’s been exhausting and emotionally draining,” she says – not just for her family, but for the Paternoster team too.
She points to a moment last May which felt like a turning point, where a full council meeting unanimously voted to uphold a petition, accepting that the County Farm Policy was not fit for purpose. An urgent policy review was agreed – and then didn’t arrive. “Almost eight months later, that review has not begun,” Michelle says. “It has become apparent we are looking at years, not months.”
Then The Old Point House came up, and something clicked. Ultimately, the deciding factor was the thing hospitality businesses crave most – long-term security for the hospitality side of what they do.
The plan is to translate what people love about Paternoster into a pub setting – still seasonal and produce-led, driven by the same team – rather than attempting to replicate it in a new shell. The Kickstarter campaign aims to quickly fund a cosier interior, improved bar space and seating, and a menu built around bar snacks and handmade classics (think pies and Scotch eggs), alongside an evening menu in the Paternoster style people have come to love.
But there’s a personal side too. “I grew up here,” Michelle says. “I played on the shore opposite the pub as a child. This peninsula is home – and now we want our community to be part of building this next chapter with us.”
The Kickstarter rewards include vouchers, opening-night tickets, behind-the-scenes updates, and limited wedding and celebration packages reflecting Michelle’s background in events catering. And the goal is simple: get the pub ready for the summer months while keeping the welcome and the standard that made Paternoster stand out in the first place.
Reservations for Paternoster Farm are open until Fri 17 Apr, with tickets for a closing party on Sat 18 Apr available via Kickstarter.
Info: Paternoster Farm on Instagram / Kickstarter campaign
words JANE COOK
