There's a guy down the local swears he's Elvis
From Chris Evans to Michael Parkinson, the wave of celebrity interest in buying and running pubs is gaining momentum. Nigel Huddleston reports
It's probably every student's dream to own a pub. And there's a good chance it's the same for most members of the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra). But as one internet blogger recently asked, why on earth would the rich and famous risk a portion of their fortunes on the business tightrope of pub ownership?
It's a consideration that hasn't stopped Corrie stars Beverley Callard and Liz Dawn, ex-Bill star Gary Whelan, DJ Chris Evans, Michael Parkinson and Neil Morrissey from taking the plunge — plus any number of celebrity chefs (see box).
Celebrities owning pubs has even become the basis for a reality TV show involving Morrissey and PubChef writer Richard Fox.
Incidentally, Morrissey has links to another one time celeb pub-owner. Michael Elphick — most famous for playing the title role in ITV's Boon and Harry Slater in EastEnders —owned the White Swan at Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, before his death in 2002.
Twelve years earlier, the pub provided catering and accommodation for actors and during the filming of
I Bought A Vampire Motorcycle. Playing a dispatch rider was a young Neil Morrissey.
And if we count bars in America basking in the exotic delusion that they're actually pubs, even though we know they're not, you can add Clint Eastwood, owner of the Hog's Breath in Carmel, California.
And what about Iceland? Blur lead singer Damon Albarn is part-owner of Kaffibarinn, slap bang in the middle of Reykjavik.
For some, owning pubs has been a love affair lasting about as long as the average soap opera marriage. Beverley Callard (Coronation Street's Liz McDonald) only bought the White Horse in Eccles, Manchester, at the back end of 2005, but has already sold it to concentrate on an upmarket bar-restaurant in Altrincham, Cheshire, called the Gallery.
Morrissey (Neil, that is — not the bloke out of the Smiths) bought Brown's Hotel — a famous haunt of Dylan Thomas — and the New Three Mariners in the Carmarthenshire town of Laugharne with some ceremony in 2004, only to sell them two years later.
Callard's fellow soap star Liz Dawn, who played Vera Duckworth in the Street until bowing out through ill-health last year, has turned the Old Grapes in Manchester city centre into a shrine of Corrie memorabilia during her long tenure as owner.
Gary Whelan, the serial TV cop best known as The Bill's DI Harry Haines, has had a similarly long reign at Brighton's Lion & Lobster.
And six years into a career as a pub entrepreneur, Michael Parkinson is practically as much of a veteran of the licensed trade as a chat-show presenter. Parky went into the trade in 2001 when he bought the Royal Oak at Paley Street in Berkshire with his son, Nick. Having taken on a 10-year lease on the business from Fuller's, the pair have won plaudits from several major newspapers for their food, culminating in the award of a Bib Gourmand from the Michelin organisation at the start of this year.
Nick trained as a chef at the Savoy and has plenty of experience in the international hospitality business. "I'd always wanted to run my own business and also wanted to come back home," he says. "The pub's only two miles from my father's place and two miles from my older brother's house, so it was right for us.
"My father loves restaurants and pubs and always has done, and so he was very enthusiastic about it.
"He's not very hands-on. He's really an investor, but he does have a huge interest in the place. My mother [Mary, herself a former TV presenter] does the flowers, and Dad takes an interest in the artwork in the place. He offers advice and he's been hugely supportive."
Next on the agenda for the Royal Oak is a Michelin star. "It's taken us a while to find him, but we've got the right chef now in Dominic Chapman, who's come from the Hinds Head at Bray and worked with Heston Blumenthal. He's got a good pedigree and background."
So any chance of a word with the great man himself? Your dad, that is — not Heston. "He's got his head down writing his autobiography, I'm afraid. He's only got up to the bit where he's in the army and he has to finish it by June, so he doesn't even come in here any more."
What about a word with Chris Evans then? The DJ-cum-chat show host has bought his second and third pubs in the last few months, adding the freehold of Newbridge Inn in Tredunnock, Monmouthshire, and the Lickfold Inn, in Lickfold, Surrey, to that of the Mulberry at Chiddingfold, also in Surrey.
Lana at Evans' agent, MF Management, can't authorise clearance for Chris to come on the phone for five minutes to talk about why he thinks pubs are so great, but she agrees to pass on an email to his PA.
The executive producer at Evans' Radio 2 Drivetime show likewise channels our electronic communications down the PA route — showbiz shorthand for "fat chance".
Evans did include this cryptic reference to the Newbridge on his Drivetime blog though: "The Newbridge on Usk is indeed something I am involved in. I met two cracking lads when I was at the Celtic Manor
[a famous Newport hotel] — they wanted to go on their own, so I said: 'Well I've been a customer of yours, and a very happy one at that, for several years — let's give it a go'... nothing fancy at first, we're feeling our way in and around — always the best way."
It's not clear whether Camilla Hansen, managing director of Evans' umbrella group Live Once Inns is one of the "cracking lads" referred to, but she is happy to expand on the DJ's role. "Chris has a love of good food, good wine and really appreciates good restaurants he's visited all over the world, and wanted to do something locally he could really get his teeth into," he says.
Both Hansen and head chef Mark Evans (Chris's nephew) have been allowed stakes in the business as an incentive to develop the pubs, and have been given a free hand in their day-to-day running.
"Chris knows how he wants the places to be in terms of the style of food, type of music, ambience and atmosphere, but he doesn't dictate how we do that at all," says Hansen.
"He knows that we know the basics of running pubs and restaurants, which he doesn't — but he does come up with some great creative ideas. Sometimes they're practical and sometimes they're not."
So you sometimes have to rein in him in a bit?
"You could say that, yes."
Although Hansen emphasises that the pubs are top-end and food-led, she points out that they do have a pub ambience, including a commitment to real ales. "It's all about having fun and value for money," she adds. "There's nothing worse than going to a restaurant and having to pay through the nose. We are expensive for a pub, but we are good value."
It seems as if Evans and Parkinson may be in it for the long haul. Perhaps it's a chat show host thing.
But it appears one star who won't be pulling pints any time soon is Madonna, who was reported to have bought the Mayfair pub the Punchbowl, where she and husband Guy Ritchie are known to have supped the odd pint or two.
Madonna's UK publicist Barbara Charone told the Morning Advertiser: "No, she hasn't bought a pub. I'm not sure where these stories came from. It was one of those things that started as a rumour and got out of hand. She definitely hasn't bought a pub."
Not yet maybe, but surely it's just a matter of time.
Culture club
The collision of the two great cultural movements of celebrity chef-dom and the gastropub means examples of the latter owned by the former are 10 a penny.
Jean-Christophe Novelli has recently added the French Horn at Steppingly, Bedfordshire, to the White Horse in Harpenden, Hertfordshire.
Not that far away in north London, Gordon Ramsay's interests include the Warrington Hotel in Maida Vale, while out west he has the Devonshire Arms in Chiswick.
Ready Steady Cook's Phil Vickery was one of the first into the fray with the King of Prussia in Farnham Royal, Berkshire.
Indeed, the multitude of showbiz
