The owners of an award-winning Sussex country pub have opened a new site.
Tony Leonard and Dom McCartan, owners of the Snowdrop Inn, Lewes, have reopened the Roebuck, Loughton, after taking on a private lease for the site and giving it a major refurbishment.
Leonard and McCartan attempted to buy the Roebuck before it was due to close in March 2013 but their funding fell through.
Leonard said: “The bank put it up for sale and we got the funding again and put in a bid for what we thought it was worth as a business.”
But the couple were outbid by a property developer who reportedly wanted to demolish the site, which Leonard said “would have been a disaster”.
However, local resident Rachel Daniels outbid the developer and asked Leonard and McCartan to take on the Roebuck on a free-of-tie private lease in January 2014.
Leonard and McCartan also ran two successful Brighton pubs, the Eagle and the Spotted Dog, but gave up the sites’ leases following rent reviews with landlord Greene King.
The couple’s Lewes freehouse the Snowdrop has previously been a regional winner in the Best Food Pub, Best Cask Beer Pub and Best Freehouse categories at the Publican’s Morning Advertiser’s Great British Pub Awards.
As well as the addition of a new kitchen, the interior of the site was completely redesigned.
Leonard said: “It’s a huge transformation. Bits have been built on the outside, walls have been taken down, and staircases have been turned around. We’ve worked on a sort of steampunk theme – we’ve had lots of local artists and people involved in that, it’s been a long time in the making.
“We have gargoyles in the urinals, live jellyfish and a big brass time machine behind the bar – given that we weren’t tied to real history because that had all been stripped out years before, we went down a fantasy alternative kind of route.”
McCartan, who will take the helm of the kitchen when they launch the site’s new food offer on Monday 22 June, said: “We’re going to keep the menu pretty similar to what we’ve done in the past, which is great simple food, cooked will with good ingredients.
“We always work with the best Sussex seasonal produce. For instance, we use a local charcuterie from Cooksbridge that was featured on Countryfile.”
A range of draught, cask and craft beers will be available at the site including local Sussex beers Burning Sky and Harveys.
