Drawn by the scent of garlic wafting down the street, Katherine MacAlister returns to try out Jericho’s refurbished Rickety Press

You could smell the Rickety Press before you saw it, a heady scent of pungent garlic wafting down Cranham Street, greeting you as you approached.

It wasn’t the usual smell of stews and roasting meat, but a pungent combination of garlic and tomatoes and a distinctive waft of dough.

But then all is not as it seems at The Rickety Press, one of Oxford’s most pioneering independent restaurants and pubs.

Always ahead of the game, the Jericho stalwart recently closed for a full refurbishment and ditched its ‘gastro’ tag along the way.

And what a transformation! It’s so cool it’s smokin’. You can imagine idling away the rest of your life there, drinking coffee, enjoying brunch, tapping away at your laptop, reading books, meeting friends, chatting to the lovely staff (on Friday lunchtime the charming Ben), and eating like a king.

Long trestle tables where the dining room used to be, leather banquettes, comfy chairs, cool lighting and lots of wood, give it an American cabin feel. Baloo the bear would be right at home.

The menu is similarly transformed. Gone is the waitress service and Chateaubriand beef (Mr Greedy is still weeping in sorrow).

Instead proper burgers, pizzas, salads, brunch, snacks, puds and cocktails adorn the brown paper menu, which is all well and good, but if you’re going to specialise you have to do it properly.

And with the pizza business in Oxford massively raising its game recently, would The Rickety Press be able to play with the big boys?

Thanks to a big Bertha of an Italian stone baked pizza oven being shipped over from Naples, the home of pizza itself, and the authentic ingredients and techniques employed by the chef, the answer is yes.

My Italian friends agreed. Perhaps it was a bit mean inviting them along within the first week of The Rickety re-opening, but they were even more complimentary than me as the slick margheritas (£8) slid on to the table.

Being something of an aficionado, and having just returned from three weeks in Naples, perhaps she was a harsh critic, but The Italian was impressed. She said the sauce was perfect, and uncooked as its supposed to be, before being baked.

She said the fresh basil should be added before not after, but that was pure nitpicking, plus she raved about the dough. The mozzarella shouldn’t be browned either apparently, but this is Jericho, and maybe we like it that way. To be honest it was hard to keep her out of the kitchen.

The rest of us ignored her ruminations as we munched delightedly at our thin crusted, beautifully flavoured, gentle, rustic, piping hot pizzas, which are half price every Tues-Friday lunchtime miraculously.

Buona, the children chanted, tomato sauce smeared around their lips, as they finished.

The Virgin Mary pizza (£8), (roast garlic, capers, black olives, rocket) which came without cheese, was suitably spicy and allowed us to properly taste the piquancy of the sauce which was sweet and garlicky.

We also tried the cheese n truffle chips (£4.50) because they sounded divine and tasted better, and a small buffalo salad with tomatoes, mozzarella, rocket, basil pesto and house dressing (£5.50) for similar motives.

Racing off to the theatre afterwards, we lamented the fact that we hadn’t managed pudding, even though we’d gulped down the Rickety’s delicious coffee before running out of the door, garlic wafting after us.

I resolved there and then to go back, maybe not to live, but certainly to try the burger menu, which is half price all day Monday by the way.

Shucks, I’ve only just begun.

THE RICKETY PRESS
67 Cranham Street, Jericho, Oxford OX2 6DE
thericketypress.com 01865 424581