Driving through the sleepy village of Wall, you wouldn't know that one of Northumberland's biggest success stories of recent years is hidden away there.
Located in the heart of Hadrian's Wall country, it's home to arguably one of the best village welcome signs - a wall covered in flowers bearing the village's name, which can be a bit confusing if you're not from the area. There's also the Hadrian Hotel, but beyond that, not a whole lot else.
However, it's in the that hotel that you'll find Restaurant Hjem, which brought Northumberland its first ever Michelin Star in 2021. It retained the star again this year, with foodies have been making a beeline for the village from all over the UK - and some from even further afield.
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However, residents of Wall say that there is a lot of bad feeling towards those who run the restaurant. Ensconced in a pub that community hub and meeting spot for more than 200 years, according to residents.
A message on the Hadrian Hotel's website does say that the "hotel is not currently serving food," and that "the bar will be open Wednesday to Saturday from 3pm".
But it hasn't always been like this. One resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "The whole way this thing has been handled has created an awful lot of bad feeling in the village by people who feel that have been frozen out. When the new owner and management team came in, they were everybody's new best friend.
"They were going to do this and that, and in the blink of an eye it was entirely focused on getting that Michelin Star, which is an achievement, but everybody else and 200 years of history was just cast aside."
The Hadrian is seen by residents as the last community asset in the village. For years, Wall has been without a village shop, post office, school, and an infrequent bus service means that many locals cannot come and go freely from the village.
In recent months, residents have been going to Humshaugh's Crown Inn and the George Hotel in Chollerford for drinking and socialising instead. When it comes to shopping, it's a two-mile trip to the community shop in Humshaugh or a 10-mile round trip to Hexham, though some don't have the means to get to either.
David Mason has lived in Wall for 69 years and has seen the face of the village change over almost seven decades. When he was younger, there were three shops at one point, and he says that the Hadrian was ran with varying degrees of success - but always a hub and meeting place for the village.
It also provided accommodation and a place to eat for tourists and walkers from all over the world who were doing the Hadrian's Wall Trail. He said: "I'm very disappointed because when they first took it on we heard it was going to be this type of restaurant and my worry was that it would become exactly what it has become.
"It leaves a really bad taste for a lot of us who have been in the village for a number of years. As far as activities go, we no longer have any sort of decent bus service so you need a car so anyone who hasn’t is depending on a poor bus service or someone giving them a lift.
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"When you haven’t got that and you can’t get out of the village, a pub is a nice place to go along to to meet people and have a drink and have a chat."
Another resident, who also wished to remain anonymous, said: "As Restaurant Hjem gained more and more success, they grew less and less interested in the pub. There was a fabulous beer garden looking over the valley but then they put up a fence.
The resident in question said that the following night they asked to sit in the beer garden and despite there being no guests at the restaurant, they were told it was only for Hjem guests. They initially thought that was unusual, but it was during the European Championships last year when the penny finally dropped.
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"When the Euros were on we asked if we could move the tables and social distance to watch the England game," they said. "There were very few people in and we wanted to kickstart it again, but we were told no, the tables might be needed for food.
"England got through to the next round of the Euros and we asked for a second time and got the same response. At that point, the penny dropped that they don't want our money.
"It would have given them a bit of cashflow, enough to pay the staff, but they'd rather have people who will come in and spend a couple of hundred pounds per head."
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Hjem's management have said that they turned away those who wanted to watch the England matches as there were still Covid restrictions in place, limiting the amount of households that could meet in a social setting.
Since Restaurant Hjem changed the opening hours of the Hadrian to be open from Wednesday to Saturday, the pub which the community relied on has stopped doing a pensioners' evening on a Thursday night and serving Sunday lunches. One resident said people travelled miles for the Hadrian's Sunday lunches because they were so good, but the current tenants dropped Sunday service "without batting an eye".
They said: "It's affected the community quite badly. We had a party on the village green for the jubilee and there were two or three people who I hadn't seen for a couple of years and they're really missing the pub generally.
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"For some people, it's alright because they can go to the Crown at Humshaugh in the next village, but that means getting a lift back or having a designated driver. However, some of the older residents just don't get out anymore, at least that's the impression I get, and it's really sad."
Another added: "It is indeed very sad that we have lost our community asset. It really was the heart of the village for the vast majority of us and well used by the surrounding community, let alone the amount of tourists that stayed and ate there.
"It was a great destination and seemed to be going onwards and upwards until they decided to just have fine dining and fine drinking Wednesday to Saturday and turned the public bar into a store room. The walkers very often seemed to enjoy chatting with the locals and I'm sure this enhanced their time in our friendly county.
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"Only today I saw too dejected looking ladies walking with their rucksacks back up Main Street. I expect, like many they thought it was still a nice cosy pub and inn to stop off at. It's strange when people come along, are welcomed with open arms, seemingly want to be part of the community but then dismantle what was a big part of it."
Restaurant Hjem refutes some of the comments made by locals and say that though they have stopped serving food in the Hadrian Hotel's bar, it is still open from 3pm - midnight from Wednesday to Saturday for anyone who wants to come in for a drink.
Ally Thompson, restaurant manager at Hjem said: "When we arrived in Wall in 2019, we were given a warm Northumbrian welcome and felt quickly at home. Since then, we feel we have become part of the village community and have enjoyed making many friends among our neighbours who’ve been incredibly supportive.
"During the first Covid lockdown, we worked tirelessly to try and help the village residents, ordering and delivering produce that the supermarkets didn't have in stock, cooking hot food and generally trying to keep people fed during a difficult time for everyone. We were thrilled to be named Northumberland’s first Michelin Star restaurant last year, but we couldn’t have done it without the fantastic ingredients we source from the surrounding farms and gardens of the county.
"Building positive relationships locally is fundamental to our success. Since we opened Hjem, we’ve taken on and trained an additional 10 members of staff, and we are proud that we’ve been able to keep everyone on despite the challenges we’ve faced recently.
"The pandemic and the ongoing cost of living crisis have hit the hospitality sector incredibly hard, and during the past 12 months we’ve had to make some difficult decisions to secure our survival. Sadly, serving food in The Hadrian became unviable as costs of energy, produce and labour all spiralled.
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"We haven’t forgotten about the pub, we’ve simply shifted its focus to being a drinks-only establishment. The Hadrian bar remains open Wednesday to Saturday from 3pm to midnight and everyone is welcome to come and enjoy a drink.
"As the business has grown, I’m not always behind the bar anymore, but am only ever a phone call away and can also be found walking our two dogs around the village every day and chatting to anyone and everyone I bump into."
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