300-year-old Shepherd Neame pub serves food for first time

The seafront pub underwent five months’ of refurbishment work, which included new painting inside and out, refurbishment of its wooden floors, new furniture, toilets and a new kitchen.

Food will be served from 12pm to 3pm and 6pm until 9pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the hope of making it available all day in the longer term.

The offer is called Rosie’s Kitchen after the daughter of licensee Chris Pearce, who has been at the pub for more than two years.

Wild boar sausage​

Dishes will include venison burgers, wild boar sausages, fresh calamari, vegetarian stews and curries.

Pearce said: “I previously worked as a college lecturer in English and maths, but have always loved cooking and used to sell my dishes at music festivals in my spare time.

“It is one of the reasons I took on the pub, as I wanted to have an outlet for my food.”

Pearce, who was born in Hastings, said he was proud to be running the historic pub and has already had positive feedback from customers about the food offer and refurbishment.

He added: “The refurbishment work made a huge difference to the place and it is really exciting to finally launch our official food offer.”

Jonathan Neame awarded​

Shepherd Neame’s Jonathan Neame took home the award for Outstanding Industry Contribution​ at the 25^th​ anniversary of the Publican Awards in March.

The brewer and operator was also shortlisted as a finalist for the Best Food Offer (51+ sites), which was won by​ London-based Young’s.

The pub group announced managed like-for-like (LFL) sales up 6.5% for the first half year​ to 26 December, with tenanted LFL up 2.7%.

At the time chairman Miles Templeman said: “The UK beer market has seen significant changes in recent years as the growing demand for local products with wider taste and flavour profiles has led to a rapid expansion in the number of micro and craft brewers entering the market, even though overall beer consumption is flat.”