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Old Spot of the Best

Simplicity is the key to Pub's Success

WESTERN DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30 1997
By Catherine Turnbull

RIC Sainty serves up the best beer - and the best conversation - between Gloucester and Land's End, according to the Campaign for Real Ale.

This week the Old Spot is the best pub in the South-west and next week it could be the best in Britain. For Ric and his wife Ellie are waiting to hear if they have won CAMRA's national title.

Punters at the hostelry, in Dursley, Gloucestershire, with its low beams and cosy fires, pop in daily to sup the ale and exchange banter.

Chris Wright, a master builder who installed the two open fireplaces, says it is the conversation with like-minded people that keeps drawing him back.

But the well-kept real ales, which include the robust Old Ric, named after the landlord by local brewer Chas Wright from nearby Uley, have definitely got something to do with the appeal.

Chris says: "We know the beer here is good because we know Ric has already sampled it.

"There are always two from Uley and a couple of guest beers. I like the lower-strength bitters which you can't always find in pubs. This is a friendly place where people are always goodhumoured."

Pensioner Derek Richmond says the formula for success is simple. "It's good beer, good company and a good landlord that makes it."

When Ric and Ellie bought the former Whitbread house freehold it was neglected and had failed to sell at auction.

They threw out the fruit machines, pool table and juke box and laid a tiled floor, put in pitch pine tables and benches and opened up the fireplaces.

Ellie said: "We have based this on traditional pub values including friendliness, good beers and simple food.

"We just serve cheese platters and sausages made with Old Ric beer for the lunchtime trade."

And Ric said the customers have contributed to the pub's success. "Strangers and people on their own of either sex are made to feel welcome by everyone in the bar. It is small and intimate and we never have any trouble," he said.

The pub was previously known as the Fox and Hounds, but the Saintys renamed it after Uley Brewery's Old Spot beer and the Gloucestershire pig of the same name. It was built in 1776 as a farm cottage and later became a school before becoming a pub about 100 years ago.

CAPTION: Keeping it simple ... Ellie and Ric Sainty in the Old Spot

Reproduced courtesy of Western Daily Press - 30th Dec 1997.