Babble, Hove
Rearing up on the Hove seafront and shaped like a passing luxury liner, this brand new addition to the Sussex hospitality scene has not just hit the ground running as sprinted past the finish line.
Babble, the brainchild of a collective of hospitality operators, including Vicarious Pubs, and established Brighton operators the Craft Collective, is approaching a year old and has already surpassed its owners’ expectations.
With exceptional views out across the English Channel, this elevated operation is part of a major development of the Hove se front, and it is providing a superb mix of great drinks, beers and entertainment for the local residents and visitors to the seaside.
A strong emphasis on community and local sourcing, both in the building design, but also in suppliers for its food and drink offering, has quickly established this business as a fixture in the local scene.
The Mitre, Glastonbury
Rescued from potential permanent closure, this failing former pub has been not just revitalised but magnificently transformed by entrepreneur Bruce Ashworth.
Taking the bare bones of the place, Ashworth and his team have stripped the pub back down and rebuilt from the ground up, spending a significant sum of money to create a pub that is now the jewel in the crown of Glastonbury.
The use of steels has enabled the operators to open up the pub interior to create an open and airy space that feeds out onto a courtyard garden which is going to prove to be a massive draw in the summer season.
An impressive emphasis on local suppliers helps to support the pubs aim to be a zero-waste kitchen, with chefs only buying what is available and building the menu from there. A strong steak offer from a local farm is supported with an impressive range of sides, all grown by small local growers, and not a single ingredient is wasted, with the kitchen even performing its own nose to tail butchery.
The business is finished off by a small addition of boutique hotel rooms, supplemented by a couple of small, self-contained, mews cottages next door.
Hoxton Hound, Hoxton
This site, a former traditional Brewhouse & Kitchen (B&K) operation represents a clever pivot from the company to reposition and create a new concept that is hitting all the right notes.
The Craft House style of operation from B&K is a new addition to the company’s portfolio and while retaining some of the same notes of its bigger brother, this delivers a different experience for a different audience.
The Hoxton Hound, nestling under the railway arches by Hoxton station, has been carefully curated to focus its offer around craft beer and cocktails, along with a simplified menu that heroes the smash burger and Korean fried chicken.
And it’s proving a popular draw in the Hoxton area, thanks to its strong offer and clever marketing by the B&K team.
While they’ve retained elements of the company offer – it still stocks a strong range of B&K beers brewed in the nearby flagship Highbury site, they’ve moved out of their comfort zone to introduce a small but strong range of hand crafted cocktails and invested heavily in staff training to deliver a first rate product and experience.
Molly Mc’s, Southwark
A blend of live music, karaoke, Irish heritage with a hint of Thai sets this venue apart in the London pub scene.
Rising from the ashes of a former site run by the same operators, Windmill Taverns, the operators have taken a struggling business, gutted it and reinvented it as a pub that would be the envy of many.
Molly Mc’s - described as an Irish singing house - is the brainchild of the McElhinney family and pays homage to the current generation’s grandmother, Molly.
With a bar that has been constructed from entirely recycled materials, and an interior that features Thai style shacks for karaoke booths, each decorated out in the style of a 1960s period Irish cottage, this is a site that has to be seen to be believed.
A clever marketing campaign has established the operation as the number one place to sample the Irish delicacy of the spice bag, or as Molly Mc’s has branded theirs ‘That Spice Bag’, and it’s got the punters flocking for a bag of grub, alongside some of the best live Irish music in the capital.
The bottomless brunch offer has been a success off the scale with the events booked out months in advance, and customers are lining up to sing their hearts out in Granny’s parlour!
The Station House, Cheadle Hulme
Working in partnership with Manchester brewers, Joseph Holt, Almond Family Pubs has jointly invested significant sums to create something of a cracker of a pub in Cheadle Hulme.
The Station House, sitting just over 100 yards from the town’s railway station, pays homage to the heyday of railway travel with an opulent interior that is rarely encountered in the average station pub.
With art deco hints throughout, this is a site that takes your breath away on entry and has been superbly designed and created to ensure it caters for the needs of all customers, from commuters to destination visitors.
Zoning has ensured that dining is nicely separated off from the bar, and space is dedicated for those looking for a simple pub experience, while live entertainment is also adding to the mix on a daily basis.
This is a site that has been clearly very well thought through, providing space to suit all moods and customers, in a luxurious setting wherever you sit inside the venue.
Marketing has been cleverly conducted to ensure the pub was hitting all the right notes, and its already carving out a strong reputation for itself in the local community and even further afield.
The White Horse and Bower, Westminster
Part of the Shepherd Neame empire, this is a pub that’s looking to set standards within an already impressive and well invested estate.
Taking a closed site, one that had been shut for more than two years, Shepherd Neame has invested significant sums to create the kind of pub that would happily be anyone’s favourite local.
And it’s working, this beautiful pub has quickly established itself as a firm favourite in the Pimlico landscape, both with local residents and workers looking for a cheeky bolthole from the office.
A strong emphasis on heritage and history has seen the pub restored to its former glory, including the decision to restore and maintain the original tiled façade that the renovations uncovered during construction.
Excellent use of recycled wood materials gives this pub a traditional feel on entry, but it’s a modern venue and has been built to stand the test for many generations to come.
Remodelling of the interior has helped to maximise the use of space in a tight venue, and hand painted wallpaper in the back of the pub brings a real sense of individuality and attention to detail which helps to set this little gem of a pub apart.
