The British Pub… Self-Indulgent – Sorry, Not Sorry!
A bit of a personal article; Please forgive my self-indulgence and it does tie in professionally… I promise!
It’s been a weekend surrounding pubs and not in a boozy way. Well, not entirely! I’ll explain.
Pubs are a big part of our culture and host some life defining and enhancing moments at times. This is very true for the weekend just gone and it started with my lovely partner Giordana Annibal’s baby shower as she’s started her maternity leave from Brewhouse & Kitchen in advance of baby’s arrival at the amazing Heron On The Lake in Fleet which is run by Giordana’s Mother, Dee Annibal which is part of the McMullen Pub collection.
Family and close friends got together for an amazingly well organised and enjoyable afternoon. The boys disappeared for a pint elsewhere of course before returning to catch up and hear all about it.
In my humble opinion, the British Pub is the perfect and only venue for such an occasion because of the standard led, informal and positive pub environment where everyone is made welcome and made to instantly feel at home.
Bear with me as I indulge a bit farther. A few of the family met the following day for a Sunday lunch before heading off in different direction at The Princess Royal near Farnham. I had a feeling I’d been there before and the penny dropped; I’d interviewed here 10 years ago when my brother and I had a final interview to take on Fullers Pub, The Cricketers in Farncombe, interviewed by the legendary Mike Clist.
It must have gone well because Mike gave us the job and my brother Chris made a big success of the pub for the next couple of years while I continued to run Appetite as my day job before helping out at the pub in the evenings.
That moment of recollection brought back a lot of fond old memories and I remembered a lot of good times.
It’s sometimes all about pubs and people, and in my case this weekend really was while looking forward to exciting times, enjoying the present and remembering amazing times from the past as a complete coincident to arrive somewhere I’ve been once and so long ago with the significance it held for me.
It’s a funny old game!
Pubs have been and continue to be meaningful meeting places to be enjoyed and keep evolving and getting better.
They mean something different to all of us and come on a variety of packages; Long live the British Pub. It’s fair to say that they’re one of the things that expats miss and rightly so!
My prediction for 2020… considerable growth throughout the pub market!!!!
Article by Nick Clover, CEO of Appetite