The Gurnards Head and Felin Fach Griffin Do Nicely in Top 30 Gastropub Awards

EATDRINKSLEEP DOUBLES UP IN UK GASTROPUBS TOP 30 LIST

The two pubs owned by brothers Charles and Edmund Inkin through Eatdrinksleep Ltd. have been voted onto the annual list of the United Kingdom’s top thirty Gastropubs. Brecon’s Felin Fach Griffin has moved up one place to Number 14, and its Cornish sister, The Gurnard’s Head, reopened in April 2006, appears in the list for the first time at Number 16.

The Top 30 Gastropub Awards are organised by PubChef magazine, and are voted by 400 pub food experts, including pub owners, chefs, restaurant critics and food writers. Among the voters were Raymond Blanc, James Martin, Anthony Worral Thompson and Loyd Grossman.

Shadowed by the Brecon Beacons and the Black Mountains, the Felin Fach Griffin’s kitchen is headed by Dutchman, Ricardo van Ede. Head Chef at the Gurnard’s Head, which lies on spectacular moorland and overlooks the Atlantic, is New Zealander Matt Williamson. Both sites source much of their produce from local farmers, foragers and kitchen gardens.

The Gurnard’s Head and the Felin Fach Griffin were respectively the only pubs in the south west of England and the whole of Wales to be voted onto the Top 30 list.

Jo Bruce, editor of PubChef, said: “Gastropubs have had an impact everywhere from M&S to Manhattan and are loved by the British public as they offer them a more informal and accessible place to dine out. With their chefs often focusing on regional and local produce, gastropubs reconnect people with produce and recipes from their area.”

Edmund Inkin, joint owners of the pubs, says

“To have both of our pubs in this Top 30 list is a phenomenal achievement in itself. To achieve it in spite of the natural and understandable bias of voters to London and the South East makes this all the more noteworthy.”

PubChef magazine is the food related supplement to the licensed trade’s leading trade magazine, The Morning Advertiser. Both publications are published by William Reed.