Life as a pub owner

The first 2 years of owning a pub feels like a million years ago, despite the fact that at the time of writing, it was 6 years ago. Adjusting to living at work was probably our biggest challenge. Being in your place of work but just upstairs did have its’ perks, it was a very sociable way of living; you always had someone to have a drink with. It did mean that during time off, the phone still rang, deliveries still arrived and needed being put away etc.

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Memories that stand out, well there are loads. This blog is only going to be a small series of

short memories and stories of those first few years here as what follows are the pandemic

years. Which I feel will be far more interesting for you all to read. In the meantime year 1 and 2 memories.

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The first beer festival. Back then it was at the end of September as we had wanted to mirror it on Oktoberfest in Germany. All the team wore costume or checked shirts, we had extra long Bratwurst sausages and pretzels as the food offering. We had organised many an event prior to this, and so were not afraid of the set up (it took 5 days for us to set up, now we are super slick and do it without thinking…6 years on I guess!). What does stand out most…it was freezing.

We had to abandon the outside fairly early on. It was autumn, it was frosty and we all got sooo cold. Other than that, from what we can remember it was great fun, good company, good beer and drinks offering, good music, and a starting point for many a beer festival to come. Probably our biggest success from it was discovering the band ‘The Reggaskas’. They are just amazing, and have since become our house band playing here yearly,, they even played at our wedding.

Since this first event, we went on to plan x2 the 2nd year here; one too many we discovered.

But we then reigned in everything and took on everything we had learnt from both and moved it to the Sunday of the August bank holiday and the Black River Inn yearly beer festival was born.

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The first Christmas. Alex’s parents came to visit that first Christmas. We had taken on board

many ideas from the previous owner; including the optional fancy dress idea for the New Years’ Eve party. Two of our regulars and now friends have birthday near Christmas and coincidently we had planned an evening of live music, a giant paella pan of chilli on offer and just festive fun, which did happen early on, however on the music front not so much.

Sadly for us, on the morning of the event, our music act cancelled due to ill health. In a mad panic, we tried everything we could to find a replacement act; which we did. Unfortunately, and this has become one of the hilarity moments, they arrived with the impression of grandeur. However once they started to play, let’s just say after their first set Alex went to tell them that we would pay them what was owed, but maybe they should save themselves further embarrassment and pack up. The pub had emptied.

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The first snow for us in BT. I fall into the category of loving snow. I think I turn into the biggest child when even a flutter starts. It’s one of those magical, fairytale moments. Ten months after we moved the Black Torrington, weather warnings were out. The pub was empty. I think I was sat writing risk assessments of all the exciting things. Richard was writing menu ideas with Alex, the three of us clock watching and wondering whether the snow would actually come, would it bring people to the pub? The first flurries that fell, we all three got super excited. Richard was living in Black Torrington, and so we had no worries about getting home. The pub began to fill, people looking for an excuse to have a pint with friends, enjoy the snowy walk.

One of our regulars was driving for work, and was stuck on the A30. The entire pub was calling him, taking selfies of them with pints and group photos to make him jealous etc. It was a real insight into pub banter, which we knew of, but being fairly ‘new’ in the village hadn’t part-taken in it much ourselves. The following day, we awoke to a winter wonderland.

All day, the pub was just the most fabulous hub of people on snow days, we were so busy, only 3 of us working as no one else could get in, and it didn’t feel like hard work, as we were enjoying ourselves as much as the next person. Looking back, it was one of the moments, where as owners, Alex and I understood that a healthy work-play balance was important, and could be done, if done sensibly.

I think I will leave the other memories for a moment. These 3 fairly big ones will suffice. Plus

other memories might come to play in other blogs I send out. In the next selection of stories

from me, I will start to delve into the pandemic years. Boy what a lot of stories we all have of this time. I hope you will be as excited to read as I am to tell.