RESTAURANT DESTINATION: Sally Lunn's - The Best Bath Tradition in Buns and Local Food

RESTAURANT DESTINATION: Sally Lunn’s—The Best Bath Tradition in Buns and Local Food 

By Jorge Jefferds June 18, 2015

One of the mandatory stops you’d better make in your trip to Bath, Somerset, England is Sally Lunn’s. They are really famous for the confection of the so-called Sally Lunn buns, a type of teacake that have long been baked in this part of the country. They were first mentioned by name in verses printed in the Bath Chronicle, in 1772. At that time they were eaten hot at public breakfasts in Spring Gardens. They can be eaten with sweet or savory toppings and are sometimes confused with Bath buns which are smaller, round, very sweet and very rich.

The Sally Lunn Bun

Sally Lunn’s is much more than a world famous tea and eating house. Their historic building is one of the oldest houses in Bath. The kitchen museum shows the actual kitchen used by the legendary young Huguenot baker Sally Lunn in Georgian Bath to create the first Bath bun.

Sally Lunn’s is open for morning coffee, lunch, afternoon tea, pre-theatre dinner and dinner. Menus offer historic refreshment based on the mentioned recipe.  The restaurant is a truly authentic English eating house serving regional English food – including the popular trencher dinner.

Sally Lunn's House

Trencher dinner is an evening menu that requires a little explanation. Traditionally, a type of bread – known as “Trencher” was used before the invention of plates. Unlike plates (invented around 1500), the Trencher bread gets its flavour from the food and is eaten as part of the meal. The use of Trencher breads remained popular in Georgian England – perhaps the most famous of all being the Sally Lunn Bun, enjoyed at Sally Lunn’s House for over 300 years.

Respect to Sally Lunn`s origins, legend has long been certain that a young Huguenot refugee – Solange Luyon – came to Bath in 1680 after escaping persecution in France. She found work in the kitchen of the bakery in the street known in those days as Lilliput Alley, and originally sold the baker’s wares from a basket in the lanes around Bath Abbey. But Solange – who, due to her colleagues’ unfamiliarity with French pronunciation, became known as Sally Lunn – had arrived in England with a unique skill to share. She began baking a rich, generous brioche bun similar to the French festival breads that she would have been so familiar with before she fled France.

Trencher Dinner

Actually the word bun is an unhelpful description. There is no truly useful common English word to describe a Sally Lunn Bun as it is part bun, part bread, part cake…A large and generous but very light bun; a little like brioche/French festival bread….but traditionally it is a bun so, even if it isn’t really a bun, let’s call it a bun!

Versions of the Sally Lunn bun can be found across the globe – bakers in the UK, Canada, the United States, New Zealand and Australia have all tried to replicate it…but without success. And that’s because the original secret recipe was passed on to the restaurant with the deeds to Sally Lunn’s house.

Recipes claiming to be similar to this unique creations can, however, be found in publications dating back to the early 18th century – but don’t be fooled by the fakes. Elizabeth David, who wrote the definitive book ‘English Bread and Yeast Cookery’ in 1977, suggests from her extensive research that the authentic Sally Lunn bun “differed greatly from a version downgraded by bakers into the amorphous, artificially colored, synthetically flavored and over-sugared confections we know today. The London Bath bun should be clearly distinguished from the Bath Bun of Bath.

Cinnamon Butter Bun

The story of Sally Lunn’s House starts long before the arrival of Sally Lunn in 1680. Excavations in the cellar’s of this timber framed building, firstly in the 1930s and more recently in 1985 have produced many finds dating back through Bath’s history to Roman times. The excavations on display in the north cellar reveal, at the deepest level, the Roman occupation. There, many box flue and other tiles have been found from a hypocaust (underfloor central heating system) together with tesserae from floor mosaics, painted plaster from the walls, roof tiles and pieces of high quality Samian pottery. A particularly exciting discovery was the painted rim of a mortarium (mortar) designed for teasing the flavour from aromatic plants. Without doubt there was a Roman building on this site in which food was prepared and eaten. Located so conveniently close to the Roman baths it could have been a Roman inn for travelers. This would take the tradition of hospitality and refreshment back nearly 1800 years, to the period when the hot springs and the temple of the goddess Sulis Minerva attracted visitors from all over north-west Europe.

The Museum Sign

Sally Lunn’s is open under the following timing: the Kitchen Museum (Monday – Saturday 10am – 6pm and Sundays 11am – 6pm), Daytime Refreshment (Monday – Saturday 10am – 6pm and Sundays 11am – 6pm), and Evening Refreshment by candlelight (Monday – Thursday 5pm – 9.30pm, Fridays and Saturdays 5pm – 10pm and Sundays 5pm – 9pm).