It never ceases to amaze me how many people leave their city lives to go into the country pub or B&B business with no previous experience.
There's so much more to success than stylish furnishings and scattering objets trouvés about. It takes an appetite for hard work, business acumen and intangible ingredients which are all too apparent if they are missing - a genuine liking for people and a desire to create a memorable experience.
Shortly after arriving, I discover that owners Michelle Paynton and Steve Hill had never so much as pulled a pint when they bought the Lord Poulett Arms in 2002. It was down-at-heel but offered the space in which to create their dream of a dining pub. They ditched their jobs in London and got stuck in.
Despite Hinton St George being a very pretty Somerset hamstone village, it is not a place to which London weekenders regularly beat a path, so they needed to draw predominantly local custom.
I'm not a local, but as I wander into the bar no fewer than three staff, busy preparing tables for the evening, greet me with a smile and a "hello". The third is Michelle. "Welcome committee," she laughs, introducing herself and whisking me upstairs to my room.
This room isn't shown on the flashy website - it's not a sexy double with a bath in the middle, it's the twin - but it's just as nice and anyway, I can do without bathing in front of my friends (one of whom is due to arrive any minute). It has antique brass beds, exposed stone, pale cream furnishings and a good tea and coffee tray with white crockery, fresh milk and loose tea.
The private bathroom is opposite and has a giant slipper bath, though no slippers for crossing the hall and standing on the chilly stone floor. There's a bit of a knack to opening the door ... hope I don't end up spending the night in here.
Released from the bathroom, I'm just making tea when two taxis pull up in the street below and disgorge a posse of passengers. Vivacious chatter begins to bubble up from downstairs and almost drowns out the sound of my rumbling stomach.
By the time Daniela arrives I'm fighting off hunger pangs in the bar, a cosy area off the restaurant, with candles, dried hops, flagstones and a fire. Two elderly gents prop up the bar like extras.
Blimey, this place is getting busy. Staff ferry plates into the rapidly filling restaurant while Michelle - who has evidently got the hang of pint-pulling - tells the extras about a folk festival they've arranged for May Bank Holiday, with music and Morris dancing. "There was trouble here on Monday night," says one of the locals with a chuckle. "People were singing in the bar."
"Outside it's completely dead," Daniela says. "In here is obviously where Hinton St George happens."
Happening things at dinner are organic smoked trout and Parma ham salad, pan-roasted pork tenderloin with baby veg, triple-cooked chips and rhubarb and vanilla crumble. I'm tackling a hefty wholewheat strudel of spinach and chestnut mushrooms when another horde arrives and sends the volume up another notch. "That's the local history group," says our waitress.
At breakfast, in a smaller dining room on the other side of the main hallway, we tuck into toast and preserves made locally by someone called Sue Knight and available, the labels say, from the shop across the road. What a shame we can't stay on - one night in the bosom of this little community doesn't quite seem long enough.
· High Street, Hinton St George (01460 73149, lordpoulettarms.com). B&B £88. Dinner around £19.75 for two courses excluding drinks.
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