The co-founder of four-strong pub operator BBL Holdings Alistair Bramley has opened a gastro-pub with his wife Anna, in Hertfordshire.
The Bull in Watton at Stone, near Stevenage, re-opened after a £240,000 joint investment with Punch.
The couple has recruited chef Stuart Smith, who used to head the kitchen at Jamie’s Italian in Milton Keynes, to oversee the menu. There’s a focus of top-quality but traditional pub dishes with a slight Italian twist.
Bramley opened the first ever Baroosh bar in Hertford on behalf of brewer and pub operator McMullen’s.
Most recently, he ran a small group of four top-quality pubs, including Punch Taverns’ College Arms in Hertford Heath, as part of a business he co-owned called BBL Holdings. Anna was involved in the marketing of BBL’s pubs and prior to that edited in-flight magazines for a publishing business based in London.
The couple’s former business partner Tim Lightfoot is running BBL Holdings.
