Tom Robbins 

Is this the birth of the superpub?

The Hotel du Vin group is launching a chain of posh pubs with rooms. Tom Robbins is first at the bar
  
  


The Hotel du Vin group has a rather surprising new slogan - 'beer is the new wine'. Surprising not just because beer sales in Britain fell by more than seven per cent over the last year while those of wine continue to grow, or because 36 pubs are closing every week, but mostly because Hotel du Vin, a chain of 14 properties, is a company whose brand and reputation has been built on the huge selection of fine vintages it offers.

Undeterred, last week in Brighton the company unveiled its new concept, the first Pub du Vin, a prototype for a new chain of pubs with 10 to 12 bedrooms that will soon be rolled out around the country. Officially, bosses remain tight-lipped about the exact extent of their expansion plans, but privately there is bullish talk of opening as many as 50 pubs in the next four years. The slogan may be surprising, but given the current economic climate, isn't launching a major new hospitality brand bordering on the bonkers?

'I'm infatuated with the pub business because two things have happened - the economy has gone in favour of starting a pub business, and the smoking ban has allowed you to do a really good food pub for the first time,' says Robert Cook, the chief executive. 'This is almost like a miniature version of Hotel du Vin, but rather than the wine-driven offer with 700 bins, we will become purveyors of great local ales, look after them, go for Camra awards and so on.'

Everyone knows that moving from wine to beer can leave you feeling queer, but the more you hear about Cook's grand plan, the more it makes perfect sense, and he is far from alone in realising the time is right to move into the pub trade. Ilse Crawford, for example, the designer of Babington House and Soho House New York, has recently turned her attention to two pubs, The Olde Bell Inn in Hurley, Berkshire and the Crown at Amersham.

'The pewter tankard seems to be the new martini glass,' says Matt Turner, editor of Sleeper, the hotel design magazine. 'The impact of the smoking ban, and now recession, has meant a lot of pubs are going out of business and coming on to the market. Hoteliers, with their expertise in providing quality food and accommodation, can often make these businesses work where traditional publicans have struggled to.'

It seems a whole range of factors have suddenly come into line to make pubs the hot new trend in the hospitality business. Suitable city centre property to convert into hotels has grown scarce, as has the finance from banks to do so. Pubs are numerous and far cheaper to convert, often already having bedrooms upstairs that have been used by staff. It works from the customers' perspective too. They now want to spend less on eating out and weekends away, making going to a pub more attractive than a smart hotel (Pub du Vin's rooms will typically be £15 to £20 cheaper than those in the Hotel du Vin, where you might expect to pay between £140 and £190). At the same time, there's a growing interest in locally sourced, traditional British food, meaning many would choose rustic pub fare over fancy restaurant food regardless of price.

The trend suits Hotel du Vin perfectly. The chain's properties, which have won the Best British Hotel title for the last six years running in the Observer Travel Awards, are sited in smaller cities, while its sister brand Malmaison operates in bigger cities. Now bosses intend to use Pub du Vin to press out into market towns that are affluent but not big enough to support a full-scale 40-room hotel. So the concept is sound, but is the pub actually any good?

When I visited, on its very first day, there were only two other customers, but the staff were friendly, the locally-brewed real ale fresh and frothing in the tankard, and the steak and ale pie was delicious. Upstairs the bedrooms are still being finished (the first will be available on 17 December), but already the trademark Hotel du Vin touches are there. There are freestanding roll-top baths in some bedrooms, and vast monsoon showers - in one room the shower is 10ft wide.

In some ways, though, Pub du Vin is as much of a contradiction as its name suggests. Bottles of champagne and oysters in an ice bucket sit on the long, polished metal bar, but behind it you can buy (heavenly) pickled eggs for 50p. The menu includes delicate delights such as dressed crab and butternut squash and sage risotto, but there are bottles of HP sauce on the tables. Meanwhile some of the hearty pub staples come at conspicuously restaurant prices - steak and chips is £17 - and the couple at the next table round off their meal with decidedly unpub-like espresso macchiatos. 'The food was great,' they tell me, 'but it's not a pub.' What then? 'It's a wine bar... '

Perhaps, but I wonder if just because there's no dart board or fruit machine, because everything is spotless and the loo rolls have been folded into a sharp point, it means this isn't a pub. Perhaps this is modern Britain, where class clichés are no longer relevant and a venue can be all things to all men. Cook certainly sees it that way. 'Where I live in Northumberland, my village pub has chief executives and bankers at one table and shepherds and lumberjacks at the next, and they all mix; that's exactly what we're trying to achieve.'

• Pub du Vin, 7 Ship Street (01273 718588; www.hotelduvin.com/pub_du_vin)

More pubs with rooms

The Devonshire Arms, Derbyshire

This former coaching inn, pictured right, on the Chatsworth estate in Beeley has been transformed. The bedrooms, designed by the Duchess of Devonshire, are bold and beautiful - one room is decorated in every shade of pink. The inn has retained all its charm, with mullioned nooks and crannies.

• Doubles from £125, B&B. 01756 718111; www.devonshirebeeley.co.uk

Anchor Inn, Hampshire

Opened in March by Andrew Clark and Lucy Townsend, ex-Hotel du Vin chefs, the Anchor Inn in Lower Froyle aims to provide customers with the 'feel of a bygone England'. In the bar you'll find sagging oak beams, open log fires and plump leather chairs. The five homely bedrooms are all named after war poets.

• Doubles from £130, B&B. 01420 23261; www.anchorinnatlowerfroyle.co.uk

York & Albany, London

More of a posh restaurant with rooms than a pub, the York and Albany, which opened last month, marks Gordon Ramsay's debut as hotelier. Overlooking Regent's Park, the food is predictably great. There are 10 bedrooms, stuffed with sumptuous fabrics and period antiques.

• Doubles from £155, room-only. 020 7387 5700; www.gordonramsay.com/yorkandalbany

The Gurnard's Head, Cornwall

This imposing building dominates the windswept landscape above Gurnard's Head, near Zennor. Inside is unbelievably cosy. Expect fish stews, smoked Cornish pilchards and a Sunday rib of beef that's slow-cooked overnight. The seven rooms are small and simply decorated and you'll find stacks of books.

• Doubles from £80, B&B. 01736 796928; www.gurnardshead.co.uk

Fox and Anchor, London

This wonderfully preserved Victorian pub has been quenching the thirst of the workers of London's Smithfield Market for more than 100 years. Earlier this year it got a slick makeover and there are now six stylish rooms upstairs. Downstairs it is still a traditional boozer, serving real ale in tankards and stunning pork pies.

• Doubles from £95, room-only. 0845 347 0100; www.foxandanchor.com
Nicola Iseard

 

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