But despite now overseeing the Cadogan Arms, the George and the Hound, Jacobs still traces everything back to Epernay, a champagne and cocktail bar in Leeds where he says hospitality “immediately felt like home”.
“I’ve always been a huge believer that if you do something you’re passionate about, you’ll succeed,” he says.
That realisation came while Jacobs was balancing shifts at Epernay with a placement working on Who Do You Think You Are? in London.
“I just found that whole time that I dreaded going down to London on Monday,” he says. “And I was excited and looked forward to going up [to Leeds], even though it was going to be incredibly hard work over the weekend.”
It was an early sign that hospitality, rather than television, was where he belonged.
Early inspiration
Food and drink had always played a major role in Jacobs’ upbringing. While neither of his parents worked in hospitality, meals were treated almost ceremonially at home.
“My mum was a phenomenal cook,” he says. “My dad was kind of a professional restaurant eater.”
“There was always time made for meals, long meals, and it was a big part of growing up,” he says. “My dad treated dining a bit like a ritual.”
While studying at university in Leeds, Jacobs took a job as a bar back at Epernay after meeting the team on a night out. “I immediately found my home,” he says.
Jacobs quickly progressed from bar back to bartender and then into management while still completing his degree but despite initially planning a career in television production, hospitality increasingly became the focus.
“I knew from then,” he says. “Some people even now who are my age are still not sure what they want to do. But I knew from then.”
After university, Jacobs moved to London and joined Harvey Nichols as bar manager, before later becoming bars director at Sketch.
“It wasn’t just a different way of working,” he says of hospitality. “I realised very quickly how serious and professional the industry could be.”
‘I took that leap of faith’
In 2013, aged just 24, Jacobs co-founded the Running Horse in Mayfair.
“Naivety is very important,” he says. “If you consider everything too much, you probably wouldn’t do it.”
At the time, he says the risks felt manageable.
I wasn’t married, I didn’t have children, so the decisions and the risks you can take are very different.
The site became a formative experience. “I learned an enormous amount there,” he says.
Later, while viewing the Cadogan Arms in late 2018, Jacobs met JKS Restaurants founders Jyo and Karam Sethi, alongside Sunaina Sethi, with the partnership eventually leading to the launch of JKS Pubs in 2021.
Following a four-year partnership, Jacobs acquired the pub division from JKS Restaurants in late 2025, relaunching the business as Ardent Pub Group. Earlier this year, the group won Best Premium Food Offer at the 2026 Publican Awards.
“This was a hugely proud moment for me and for the Ardent team,” Jacobs said. “We simply wouldn’t be here without them.”
“And, as they say, the rest is history.”
Highs, lows and perspective
Asked about career highlights, Jacobs initially jokes about meeting all five members of Spice Girls during his time at Harvey Nichols.
“I designed some cocktails for them,” he says.
But professionally, opening the Running Horse stands out. “Opening it with my dear friend James was such a huge feat, and something I will always be proud of,” he says.
Another memorable moment came at the George, when Ronnie Wood attended his son’s wedding at the pub. “I’m a huge Rolling Stones fan,” Jacobs says. “Having one of them in my pub felt like a very special moment.”
Like many operators, Jacobs describes Covid as the lowest point of his career. At the time, he had a successful business in the Running Horse and leases secured on future projects including the Cadogan Arms and the George.
“In two or three weeks, [I] went from that to those opportunities disappearing,” he says.
The following years brought further personal challenges, including the death of his father in 2021 and the loss of a close friend to suicide in 2022.
“The stacking of those three things… I suppose the trauma of what a lot of business owners faced going into Covid and two things which were personal to me was just too much,” he says.
“I recognised that I was not myself and I was unable to be the person I needed to be to those around me, my family, my colleagues and my friends. I reached out for support and was told I was suffering from PTSD. I thought this was something was reserved for soldiers, but the stacking of multiple traumatic experiences had impacted me in this way.”
The experience has shaped Jacobs’ view of leadership, responsibility and the role pubs can play in helping people connect.
“It’s important for leaders in businesses to talk about that sort of thing. Resilience is an important trait, but knowing your limits is equally important too. This is particularly important to speak openly about in a world where young men are finding destructive guidance within the ‘manosphere’.
I’m certainly a passionate believer that time spent in the pub and speaking and talking, particularly for men, can be a great environment for that.
This period also informed Ardent’s wider focus on mental health support and community engagement.
“I think it is important for everyone to take responsibility for their mental health as seriously as they do with physical health. If you pull a muscle, you get physio. Your mind is the same, you need to take the same approach to it, but there is too much stigma there.”
Family and leadership
Jacobs now balances running the business with family life alongside his wife Jess and their two daughters.
“My girls have both grown up with the pubs as part of their life,” he says. “Particularly the Hound… they sort of think it’s an extension of our house.”
He also believes hospitality can offer flexibility for parents. “I don’t think it has to be in conflict with family life,” he says.
Still, boundaries remain difficult. “I don’t want my kids to constantly think of me as someone who’s got their phone in their hand,” he says.
Over time, Jacobs says leadership has become increasingly centred around people.
“We made a decision as a business a few years ago to say, well, look, we’re not going to be able to grow anymore if retention isn’t where it needs to be,” he says.
That thinking has shaped Ardent’s focus on team culture, community engagement and achieving B Corp certification earlier this year.
“How can we be the best employer?” he says. “We would far rather spend money on keeping people than trying to get new people in.”
Ardent’s internal values are central to Jacobs’ leadership philosophy.
“The first is to give the greatest welcome,” he says. “The second is to pursue quality without compromise. The third is to build pubs with purpose. And the final one is to lead with conviction.”
Conviction, he argues, is critical in business leadership. “People who actually just get stuff done. To take something fully from start to finish and execute it… it’s actually quite a rare trait.”
He also believes good leaders must understand their own limitations. “Hire people who are better than you, and don’t be scared of talent.”
Growth plans
Trading across the group is currently strong, Jacobs says, with year-on-year growth “very, very solid”.
“The margin pressures are there for sure,” he says. “But thankfully our sales growth is exceeding that.”
After a period focused on consolidation and refining operations, the business is now actively pursuing expansion. “We’re focused on growth. We will hopefully be announcing some sites soon.”
Jacobs says Ardent spent recent years ensuring the business was “bulletproof” before accelerating again.
“We’ve seen incredible results in our existing estate, which has given us an extremely strong platform to deliver this next phase of growth.
While Jacobs acknowledges ongoing cost pressures across hospitality, he believes the sector risks becoming consumed by negativity. “There’s a danger of the sector constantly talking about doom and gloom,” he says.
Instead, he sees long-term opportunity in what he calls a broader return to analogue experiences. “As we move into an increasingly digital world, there’s a shunning of certain aspects of it. The pub can really benefit from that.”
He points to trends such as vinyl sales and nostalgia driven culture as signs consumers are increasingly valuing real-world experiences.
“There’s an enormous amount of goodwill towards pubs,” he says.
Jacobs also believes shifting dynamics within the property market are creating opportunities for ambitious independent operators. “There’s a bit of a changing of the guard happening now,” he says.
Landlords, he argues, increasingly recognise the role strong pubs play within wider developments and communities. “Pubs really are anchors of their communities,” he says. “But they’re also anchors of development.”
And despite the challenges facing hospitality, Jacobs remains optimistic. “It’s a great time for talented operators,” he says.
