Gloucestershire pubs win big at Great British Pub Awards
The Pub for families and The Best Town Pub celebrated their wins at the awards this week
Two Gloucestershire pubs were recognised as some of the best in the country at the Great British Pub Awards this week!
The Best Town Pub was awarded to Dr Foster in Gloucester. Dorian Kirk, the owner, said ''its absolutely incredible. We took the pub over two years ago and we had to completely turn it around''
''We feel like we've brought it back to being that much loved community space.''
''The team we've got now are just phenomenal, all credit goes to them for winning this award.''
The Plough in Prestbury in Cheltenham took home the award for the Best Pub for Families.
Emma and Paul Gibbon, the owners, talked about what makes their pub a special place for families.
They said, ''They can literally spend a whole day at the Plough playing games, making memories, get the board games out, do something with the kids rather than just letting the kids run around the garden. It's a space for everybody to enjoy together.''
In a time where pubs are struggling to stay open and owners are campaigning for lower taxes. The owners of Dr Foster and The Plough talked about why pubs are so important and what these awards represent.
Dorian said ''They're just so vital to the heartbeat of community, especially now more and more people are online or separated. Pubs have a more important place than ever. We've got to fight really hard to keep them.
Obviously, there's so many closing, so awards like this really shine a light on people who working really hard to make sure there are excellent examples of what a pub should be.''
He added, ''especially in town centres, like where we are, right in the heart of Gloucester, to shine a light on Gloucester as a city that sometimes gets forgotten.''
Emma and Paul owners of the Plough echoed Dorians concerns.
''It costs a lot of money to go to the pub these days. Prices are going up. We're really struggling.
We're campaigning for a lower rate of VAT for pubs, purely because we want to help with the cost of going to the pub. It's really important on nights like this that you see these amazing pubs that are getting awards.''
''But, the message is still there, that even a busy pub isn't necessarily a profitable pub at the moment and we need to see these generations coming through to make sure that we've still got customers in the future.''