The Eggletons to launch crowdfund for The Pony Chew Valley
The duo’s new venture is located on the site of their popular The Pony and Trap in Chew Magna, which closed permanently last year having been launched by the brother and sister duo in 2006.
The team will launch a crowdfunder in two weeks’ time to raise money to help complete the site’s complete refurbishment into a ‘produce-led restaurant, event venue, cookery school and kitchen garden’.
“The Pony Chew Valley has undergone a complete physical transformation, and this is the final stretch before we reopen with a brand new vision for our original space,” it says.
“We are looking to create food experiences that bring people together in a space to inspire joy, family connection and collaboration.”
Last year Eggleton said that he was closing The Pony and Trap, which held a Michelin star and was a regular on the Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs list, to reopen it as a community interest space.
Speaking to BigHospitality, Eggleton described the new project as very different to anything he had done before, with aspects such as hosting volunteering opportunities, with those involved in the schemes given lunch and a veg box in return, part of its operations.
“We’re not going to be a country pub anymore. I’m not even sure we’re going to be a restaurant," he said. "The Pony Chew Valley will be about food education. I specialise in food, so I'm going to look at food inequality. That's what The Pony Chew Valley will be examining.”
He said it would welcome people who would not normally have access to high-end restaurants by way of a volunteering programme. “We will work with our many partners in Bristol to get people here. The countryside is not accessible for some people in the city. I want them to come here and see how things are grown and how we prepare them."
Supporters of the crowdfund can get exclusive access to book at the new restaurant and an invitation the restaurant’s opening garden party.
The Eggleton’s recently opened Pony Bistro in Bedminster, which was shortlisted in the Opening of the Year category at the Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards.
