Baker takes over village pub

NEW tenants of a pub in Stoke Row have started renovating ahead of opening at the end of the month.

Tona Erreguin, the co-founder of the award-winning Imma the Bakery in Stoke Row, took over the Cherry Tree, a 400-year-old Brakspear pub, last month.

She has taken over from Dan and Natalie Redfern, who started running the Red Lion in Woodcote in September.

Along with her wife, Aya Fibert, and business partner, Toby Boyes, the trio have spent hours gutting and redoing the interior and exterior of the building.

Mrs Erreguin said: “At the start of any project, there is a lot of work to do and then you just have to keep carrying on with the work until it’s done.

“We just started doing all the renovations and have been here about three weeks.

“We have had loads of people who used to work at the bakery with us or who are local helping, including carpenters, builders and painters. We have been repainting, renovating, fixing building works, redoing the kitchen and reflooring.

“It has been a lot of cleaning, tidying and sorting things out to get ourselves in the place.”

Mrs Erreguin aims to serve “British classics with no fuss, executed to their best” served from 11am to late at night.

She said: “A friend of mine, who is a really good chef, is coming from a Michelin background but she very much cares for the full experience of the pub with its classics, which serves for everyone. She is really happy to come and join us.

“Among a bunch of other proper British classics with no fuss, we’re hoping to do a roast dinner with a nice selection of drinks too.

“It’s trying to do something nice that works for everyone. We don’t want to turn the pub into something that it’s not.”

Mrs Erreguin will continue to incorporate herbs and vegetables from the kitchen garden at the front of the pub into meals. She said: “We’re going to try and make the garden work nicely and try to get as much as we can from it because produce needs to be local and sustainable.

“A lot of people think being sustainable is ‘greenwashing’ but sustainable is to use local and seasonal stuff, which is on hand and to respect everything and waste nothing.”

Mrs Erreguin wants to provide good food but also provide an holistic dining experience.

She said: “To me, service is the most important part of food. One of the most intimate and private experiences of life is food and to allow someone else to do it for you.

“When you go to a pub or restaurant, anything you cook has to be a really high-quality experience and really nice.”

She added: “At the moment we are trying to focus on getting this ready and starting to operate and then we can start to think about other things and events.”

The bed and breakfast rooms will also be re-touched for staying guests and staff could also live upstairs. An opening date is yet to be confirmed but the trio are aiming for late August.

Mrs Erreguin studied philosophy in Argentina before becoming a head chef in Mexico.

She spent more than 15 years in fine dining, including in Michelin-starred restaurants, before opening the newly expanded bakery, which produces a sourdough loaf that was named Britain’s Best Loaf in 2024.