Seafood Pub Company plans ‘new concept’ for fifth site
The Company, set up in 2011 by Jocelyn Neve and chef Antony Shirley, has acquired The Barley Mow pub in the Pendle village of Barley - four miles from another of its venues, The Assheton Arms at Downham.
Neve explained that the new pub ‘will have a different identity and present a different kind of wow-factor’ to the group’s existing sites.
“It will be a village localfor Pendle people and Pendle visitors – ideal for family meals and drinks with friends in an atmosphere of open fires and cosy corners,” she said. “And those who have had a day in the great outdoors can kick off their boots, relax and work off their appetite with a menu of pub classics and on-trend food.”
A £500k refurbishment programme has already started at The Barley Mow, which will be the first in the group to offer overnight accommodation with the addition of five bedrooms. Neve added that the pub-with-rooms format ‘could also start to appear among the Seafood Pub Company’s existing four pubs’.
Business growth
The first Seafood Pub Company site to open was the Oyster and Otter at Feniscowles, on the outskirts of Blackburn – which soon won a regional ‘Best Food Pub’ title in the Great British Pub Awards.
The following year, The Assheton Arms was added at Downham which, within months, won the ‘Lancashire Life Dining Pub of the Year’ title, took over from the Oyster and Otter as the North West ‘Best Food Pub’ and has now been listed in the 2014 Good Food Guide.
Last year, the group appointed an operations director to help grow the business. Simon Farrimond, who joined the company from the Angel Inn at Hetton, said he saw staff development as core to the business's future success. Later in 2013, The Seafood Pub Company’s third and fourth pubs opened within weeks of each other - The Fenwick at Claughton near Lancaster and The Farmers Arms at Great Eccleston on the Fylde.
The Seafood Company capitalises on the fact that Neve's father Chris has an established fish wholesale business and that chef Shirley’s background includes stints at prestigious restaurants in Manchester, London and the West Indies.
The group focuses on using quality 'same-day' catches from Fleetwood trawlers, with the menu also including a number of dishes using locally-sourced meat - all dishes are delivered without any 'pretentious foam, dots or swipes'.
The Seafood Pub Company will open The Barley Mow in Barley in the spring.
