PERCHED at the top of Crawl Hill with glorious views over the North Shore, the Landfall Restaurant must surely rate as one of the best situated eateries on the island.

Guests can gaze out of the windows of a building that was formerly home to American artist and architect Donald Kirkpatrick, as they tuck into their rockfish dinner, fish cakes or chicken curry.

With its homely atmosphere, old-Bermuda ambience and strong emphasis on island cuisine, the Landfall is especially popular with the locals.

Large groups frequently hire the establishment when there's a big occasion to celebrate and it's also a popular spot for Sunday brunch.

But the restaurant, which is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, also gets its fair share of overseas diners, many of whom stay at the adjoining Clear View Suites and Villas cottage colony.

Clear View and the Landfall are both owned by Ruth and Gerald Paynter, who have spent the best part of three-and-a-half decades diligently building up a small business empire in a scenic corner of Hamilton Parish.

"I was working as a teacher at Francis Patton School and my husband was working for Esso and we built up the business, piece by piece," Mrs. Paynter said.

"We had to do some building and a lot of renovating, and we made many sacrifices over the years. That's what we spent all our money on. A cottage colony was what I imagined here and that's how it's worked out."

The cluster of holiday villas dotted around the land that slopes down towards the cliff edge were private homes that the Paynters acquired, one by one, as they came up for sale from the 1970s onwards.

RENOVATIONS turned the old homes into holiday accommodations and one of the villas was built from scratch. The business has evolved from a one-room rental into a 30-room cottage colony, with two swimming pools and a tennis court.

In the early days, the Paynters bolstered their income to help pay for the development of their business by accommodating tourists in their home, on North Shore Road, directly opposite the Landfall Restaurant.

"That was not an easy thing to do when we had family to take care of, but many Bermudians did the same in those days," Mrs. Paynter said.

Clear View boasts magnificent ocean vistas, but Mrs. Paynter is well aware that it is suited specifically to those seeking peace and quiet.

"We don't advertise much, but when we do we always try to make it very clear that this is a quiet place," Mrs. Paynter said. "Some people like that, some people don't."

Those who relish the peace tend to come back ? many have been returning for years. The environment is also conducive to work and consequently Clear View is becoming increasingly popular as a base for visitors here on business.

As the complex grew, all it lacked was a restaurant and so, when the late Mr. Kirkpatrick's family put Landfall up for sale in the mid-1990s, the Paynters decided to buy it and turn it into an eatery.

"Mr. Kirkpatrick's relatives used to come down here for the summer, but it was obvious that the place was falling down," Mrs. Paynter said. "It needed a lot of work.

"We needed it as a dining room for the Clear View guests. At first, my husband and I did the cooking. After more renovations we turned it into a real restaurant and we kept the name of the house, Landfall.

"It became more and more popular and we hired chefs and waiters. Now we have three chefs and two waiters."

Well-known Bermudian chef Fred Ming lends a hand in the kitchen on a consultation basis and he is backed up by other chefs with international hotel experience, such as Jerome D'Costa, who have added a strong Indian and Bangladeshi element to the menu.

ACCORDING to waiter Gregory Rozario, the favourite dish of Landfall regulars is rockfish, while fish chowder, vegetable chow mein and chicken curry are also very popular.

The Landfall Restaurant is housed in an aesthetically pleasing 1920s structure ? something you would expect for the former home of an architect and artist ? and it's also a listed building. The Paynters have added an extension to the western side which has raised the capacity of the restaurant to around 175.

Some packed bookshelves and a few artefacts, such as an ornate bakerlite telephone, are left over from Mr. Kirkpatrick's time. Artwork by Otto Trott, the Paynters' son-in-law who works out of a studio next door to Clear View, decorates the walls of the eatery.