Havisham Group supports Rarebreed Dining pub group with £6m investment

31 August 2016 by Janet Harmer

Rarebreed Dining, a new independent pub company, has secured £6m of finance to create a group of top quality venues in the home counties.

The funding, provided by the Havisham Group, a private investment fund launched in 2013 by David Brownlow, has enabled Rarebreed Dining to complete the acquisition of a second pub to join the Plough Inn in Cobham, Surrey (pictured), a Heineken leasehold property it bought 18 months ago.

The Shurlock Inn in Shurlock Row, Berkshire, the second pub to join the portfolio, was bought last week from a consortium of 17 private investors. It will continue to operate until January when it will close for a full refurbishment and the addition of a private dining room.

Meanwhile, in the coming weeks the Plough Inn will also have a private dining room added, with a window onto a meat dry-aging area.

Rarebreed Dining was launched by financier Jonathan Matthew, who used to work for Caird Capital, the private equity company behind D&D London, and restaurateur Jordan Hallows, who previously owned the Circle bar in Clapham and Southwark Rooms in Southwark, both in south London.

Matthew and Hallows have since been joined in the business by John Sparks as group head chef and their wives, Sarahjayne Matthew and Philippa Hallows. Sparks previously worked as head chef at Bovey Castle in Devon and the Dunhill Club in London.

"Jordan and I both live in Surrey, which might only be twelve and a half miles away from London, but might as well be a decade and a half away," explained Matthew. "We want to bring to Surrey the kind of dining that we can experience in the capital."

While rare breed meats are central to the menu at the Plough, there are also oysters and lobsters. All ingredients are British and all menu items are home-made, including the ketchup.

"We've been inspired by the likes of Soho House," added Matthew. "We want to create special pubs which customers will be happy to go to on a regular basis."

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