The column charts the progress of restaurateur Bill Oldfield in his quest to put more eateries on the North-East map.

BILL Oldfield may become the best known gentleman of that name since the former assistant chief constable of West Yorkshire, he who head-hunted the Ripper. "I have a lot of respect for you, George, but Lord. . ." Talk about damning with faint praise; it's important for several reasons that we don't do the same.

The first Oldfields restaurant opened in Barnard Castle, close to where still he lives, in 1997. Another followed in Darlington in December 2000.

Both closed in 2003, the Barney brasserie said "no longer to fit with the new Oldfields' portfolio". By then there was another Oldfields in Durham; an extension to a former telephone exchange in Jesmond, Newcastle, soon followed.

In May 2002 he'd announced plans to have 15 Oldfields restaurants by 2006.

In May 2004 he talked of having restaurants in Leeds, Manchester and Harrogate within three years, increasing staff to 125 and turnover to £3m.

Still there are two. "They're going very well, " he says. "I have been learning my trade, consolidating them. It's a moving target. We're looking for a third this year."

He is also much involved in Teesdale Marketing, which he helped found, its best known, most ambitious and most contentious project to build a huge rope bridge across the river.

Teesdale Marketing reckons it could bring 165,000 new visitors to the town each year, more than the Bowes Museum annually attracts. Others suppose it all a riparian yarn.

A letter in the Teesdale Mercury suggested they let Bill get on with it, on the grounds that if they gave him enough rope he might hang himself.

"The bridge is still moving forward, " he says. Critics suppose it's the sideways movement which worries them more greatly.

We'd been to the Barnard Castle restaurant soon after it opened, the subsequent review critical of front of house carelessness.

Bill wasn't best pleased, protesting that he hadn't been there that night as if absence made the carte go yonder. We still get on OK. Among other interests, he writes a very readable food column in Another Newspaper.

So Durham Oldfields meant pastures new, an early evening dinner before a debut at the Gala Theatre, which is almost next door. It's in Claypath, the building where the Echo once tapped and Tippexed and (it has to be said) altogether more appealingly done out in its present, rather swish, incarnation.

Get the chairs, get the back fittings, get the stained glass in the main restaurant upstairs.

Bill wasn't there that night, either, but front of house was fine - young, largely female, attentive and efficient without being overpowering and prepared to chase through a three course meal before the bell tolled at the Gala.

The "Twilight" menu, also available at lunchtime, offers two courses for £12.95, three for £14.95. Three courses from the monthly changing carte would probably be about £25.

The watchword is local sourcing, almost everything from the North-East - "though you wouldn't expect to get avocados from Whitley Bay".

A dinner menu identified North Shields cod, Duke of Northumberland venison, Mark Gray's mutton and so forth. Peter Forsyth's Northumberland beef fillet - "aged 21 days" - was £22 with blue cheese bon-bons and Madeira jus.

"People are buying more and more processed food without knowing where it's come from, " said Bill later. "We're more concerned with what sort of fuel we put into our cars than what we put into our bodies."

Muscular, crepuscular, we ate from the cheaper menu. Just three others were in, not what you'd call a throng at twilight.

A starter of smoked haddock fettucini was creamy and full flavoured, the goats' cheese salad equally appreciated.

The Boss enjoyed her sole, too, but had it been a shoe it would only have been size four. Most side dishes - chips, root vegetables - are £2.50 extra.

We'd followed with sauteed wild mushrooms with baby beetroot and saffron mash and here, alas, is the problem.

Whatever the mushrooms had been sauteed in simply wasn't very nice. It couldn't accurately be identified, had something fishy about it, could almost have been squid oil.

Last act before the theatre, we ended with a crunchy sweet basil creme brulee and an excellent lemon tart, decent coffee and a dash for the curtain.

It was a good seven out of ten, honest.

Respect.

Oldfields restaurants in Claypath, Durham and Osborne Road, Jesmond serve the same menu and are nonsmoking throughout. The Durham restaurant, said to be particularly popular with students, is open from noon until late, seven days a week.

Telephone: 0191 370 9595