Pub couple named best newcomer in company awards

A COUPLE who run a pub in Hurley has been named best newcomer in the Brakspear pub company’s annual awards.

Sarah and Marius Pretorius took over the Dew Drop Inn in Honey Lane in July last year after seven years of managing the Stag and Huntsman in Hambleden.

They took an eight-month break in between where they were given the opportunity to work at a five-star resort in Indonesia. When they returned they found the pub was up for let.

Mr Pretorius, 42, said: “We were running the Stag and Huntsman as a management couple. It wasn’t actually our business and we got to the end of our time there. Indonesia was a boot camp for what we could get when we came back to the UK.

“The Dew Drop happened to become available when we came back and on a beautiful sunny afternoon in June, we came to check it out and we fell in love with it. The logistics were complicated, taking it over, ordering stock and putting our signature on it was the first step.

“This building dates back to the 1800s and it has a history of going through tenant after tenant after tenant.

“We wanted to go back to the roots of what every country pub should be, an extension of the lounge with quality food at the right price point.”

The couple both moved from South Africa 15 years ago and met one another when they moved to the UK.

They received the business award from David Nathan, the chief financial officer at Brakspear, in a ceremony held opposite Temple Island having beaten four other nominated Brakspear pubs to the title.

Mr Pretorius, who is helped by his two children at the pub, Lily-Ann, 12, and William, 14, had no prior hospitality experience when he moved to England.

He worked his way up from pot-washer to chef after he was trained at the Cricketers in Sarratt, Hertfordshire.

In 2016, he was headhunted by the Stag and Huntsman and became its head chef.

Mr Pretorius puts their success down to using fresh local produce, alongside their involvement with community projects including fundraisers towards the church roof at St Mary the Virgin.

“We try to keep it as local as possible to support our local farmers and providers as much as we can,” he said. “There is a lot of local choice in the area and what makes us stand out is the home feel to it.

“It’s not a generic food list, it’s hand-printed weekly. If something runs out, it’s finished, there’s no going into the freezer.” The couple source their beef from William Newman, who runs Warren Wood Farm in Knowl Hill.

Mrs Pretorius, who moved from Durban to the UK, had been encouraged by her parents to find a more secure future. She said: “I found my niche in the hospitality industry. I took to it like a duck to water and, together, we have been a team from day one.

“Marius has always been head chef and I’ve always run the front so we work well as a pair and we just love hosting people. Our locals have been absolutely brilliant and we couldn’t have done this without them.

“Because of the turbulence of the history with the Dew Drop, when we settled in and they responded to us well, it was lovely.

“I was getting hugs from strangers saying, ‘Please don’t leave, this is amazing, keep doing what you’re doing’.

“I now pretty much know everyone by name. I know what they’re drinking and their kids’ names and we chat.”

Mrs Pretorius said she was pleased for their work to be recognised so quickly. “It’s really exciting for us,” she said. “When we sat down for lunch, we got a card with all the nominees and we saw that we were on there and we won out of five different nominated newcomer pubs and it was incredible.

“We were lucky that this pub was in beautiful condition so we didn’t have to do much internally.

“The ethos here is to have a community pub, family-based with lots of dogs and lots of walkers.”