The Good Pub Guide 2016: Horse & Groom and Cirrus Inns take top spots
The Horse & Groom in Bourton on the Hill, Gloucestershire, has been named the 2016 Pub of the Year in the Good Pub Guide 2016, and Cirrus Inns has won Pub Group of the Year.
The annual guide commended the Horse & Groom for its "fine range of drinks, excellent food, friendly staff, lovely views, and smart bedrooms". Readers' comments included calling it "a consistently reliable favourite" and "everything here is as lovely as ever".
Owned by brothers Will and Tom Greenstock since 2005, the pub serves constantly changing dishes made with fresh, local ingredients and produce from its own vegetable patch, fruit cage and nearby allotment. The bar stocks a variety of local real ales and lagers, plus gin from the Cotswold Distillery and a small wine list.
Cirrus Inns, represented by the Epicurean Collection, is a group of pubs across the UK set up in late 2011 with the aim of creating an estate of high-quality establishments with rooms. Its portfolio includes well-known sites such as the Admiral Codrington in London's Chelsea, the Punch Bowl in Mayfair, and the former Marco Pierre White pub the Yew Tree in Highclere.
Tom Greenstock said: "Winning the Pub of the Year award is what Will and I have been striving for since we opened 10 years ago. We've gained recognition through several other awards, but this really is the icing on the cake."
Paul Boyce, operations director at Cirrus Inns, told The Caterer: "We at Cirrus inns are delighted to be given such a wonderful accolade. We are proud of all our wonderful partners running the businesses including the kitchen porters, housekeepers and all the troops who make things happen. We are trying to put together an iconic group of the finest British pubs and country Inns and we hope this is just the start of things to come."
In January this year, Cirrus Inns announced plans to double the size of its estate to 30 pubs within the next two years.
Other winners in this year's list include the Bunch of Grapes in Mid Glamorgan (Dining Pub of the Year); Porch House, Cheltenham (New Pub); Grainstore, Rutland (Own Brew); Fat Cat, Norfolk (Beer Pub); Sligachan hotel, Isle of Skye (Whisky Pub); Woods, Somerset (Wine Pub); Fleece, Worcestershire (Country Pub); and the Luttrell Arms (Inn of the Year).
Full list of winners
Pub of the Year Horse & Groom, Bourton-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire; licensees: Tom and Will Greenstock
Dining Pub of the Year Bunch of Grapes, Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan; licensee: Nick Otley :
New Pub of the Year Porch House, Stow-on-the-Wold, Cheltenham; licensee: Alex Davenport Jones
Own Brew Pub of the Year Grainstore, Oakham, Rutland; licensee: Peter Atkinson
Beer Pub of the Year Fat Cat, Norwich, Norfolk; licensee: Colin Keatley
Whisky Pub of the Year Sligachan Hotel, Sligachan, Isle of Skye; licensee: Sandy Coghill
Wine Pub of the Year Woods, Dulverton, Somerset; licensee: Patrick Groves
Unspoilt Pub of the Year White Lion, Barthomley, Cheshire; licensee: Peter Butler
Town Pub of the Year Wykeham Arms, Winchester, Hampshire; licensee: Jon Howard
Country Pub of the Year Fleece, Bretforton, Worcestershire; licensee: Nigel Smith
Inn of the Year Luttrell Arms, Dunster, Somerset; licensee: Tim Waldren
Value Pub of the Year Crown & Trumpet, Broadway, Worcestershire; licensee: Andrew Scott
Licensee of the Year Kathryn Horton, Ostrich, Coleford, Gloucestershire
Brewery of the Year Harveys, Lewes, East Sussex
Pub Group of the Year Cirrus Inns represented by the Epicurean Collection
Cirrus Inns buys Cotswolds pub/hotel >>
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