Cheshire Cat Pubs and Bars are proud to announce that our lovely country pubs are now fully fledged members of the Sustainable Restaurant Association!

The SRA are a “not for profit” organisation, (with Raymond Blanc as President), who focus on helping restaurants and pubs to become more sustainable across 14 key areas of their work including in sourcing produce, their environmental impact, and their contribution to the local community and society as a whole.

If you are a customer in any of our pubs you’ll already know that we take sustainability pretty seriously, whether it be in the purchasing of our local beers, or our seasonal food or indeed minimising our environmental impact by attempting to reduce waste and recycling where we can. We also ensure that our pubs are at the heart of the villages in which they serve, by our tireless dedication towards community projects, and the development and training of our fantastic teams of staff!

Now, with the help of the SRA we are hopeful of taking our contribution to the next level so that you can be sure that we are working harder than ever to make our pubs even better at the things that we already try to do so well!

Watch this space for more news and updates related to our work with the SRA, just another way of ensuring that our pubs remain for the long term, “local and proud”

SRA President, Raymond Blanc OBE, named Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall as his Food Hero of 2015, (both pictured) at the SRA Awards noting the tremendous effect of Hugh’s hard hitting campaigns such as “Fish Fight”, which illustratively has motivated almost 900,000 people to challenge the European Union to change its regulations regarding fish discards and start eating less popular fish like mackerel.

Our Bulls Head pub started supporting Hugh’s fight nearly five years ago following his TV documentary on the subject and now all our pubs are FishFight supporters and signatories and we celebrate this through our menus and in our Seafood weeks within our pubs.

MARY AND TIM WITH THE AWARD

We are delighted to announce that our Church Inn pub has won the ‘Chairman’s choice’ Best Dining Pub Award for South Manchester and pipped our very own Bulls Head pub (also in Mobberley)!!

The ‘Eat, Drink, Sleep’ Awards 2015 took place at the Manchester Mercure Piccadilly Hotel and our Bulls Head and Church Inn pubs were up against each other in the same category! Barry our landlord at the Bulls Head was the first to congratulate Simon (our Church Inn landlord) and the team saying “They’ve done a cracking job and I am delighted at least one of us won it!! This will make the Bully team even more determined to beat our ‘little sister pub’ the Church Inn next time round!!”

Simon said “I am really chuffed for the Church team and the customers…it’s been a solid start since opening a year and a half ago…I am very proud and feel a little sorry for Barry but not really!!”

Owners Tim and Mary were there to cheer both their pubs on and what a night for the village of Mobberley with two pubs from the same village up for the award! Tim said “it is always so exciting to be nominated for an award without entering anything and for both our Mobberley pubs to be nominated was a great achievement for all our fantastic people from our pub teams to our loyal and supportive customers and suppliers”

Mary added “we have been in Mobberley now for just over five years with the Bulls Head and have so enjoyed it becoming a proud pub in the village. We took on the Church Inn two years ago when it had closed down and we knew it was going to be hard to create a second special pub in the village… but we are on our way. The teams at both pubs have made this possible with the help of course from our customers. This award is for everyone to celebrate”

As a big thank you to our team of managers and support managers a trip to Mallorca wineries was planned. Three wineries were visited over the three days. Macia Batle whose wines we sell in our pubs in the UK, C’an Vidalet who not only make wonderful wine but also distil Gin!! Then we finished at Angel Winery for an excellent final day!

The weather was wonderful and the wines equally as good. We were so well looked after by Marta, Anja and Andreas! Thank you to them for their hospitality and well done to our team for working so hard for our business.

WEATHER CLEARED JUST IN TIME FOR THE TEAM LANDING IN MALLORCA

THE VILLA POOL WAS ENJOYED BY ALL

JESS, BEN AND JAMES ARRIVE AT MACIA BATLE BODEGA

IT WAS HARVEST TIME FOR THE TRIP SO A LOT OF GRAPES TO CRUSH!

PART OF THE TEAM ENJOY THE TASTING AT MACIA BATLE

MMM! THOSE NIBBLES WERE TASTY

SAYS IT ALL!

THE OTHER HALF OD THE TASTING TEAM

SOPH POINTS AT THE WINE!

THE TEAM AT C'AN VIDALET WINERY AND DISTILLERY

THE TEAM WITH MARY REPLACING TIM!

SIMON IN HIS TOGA!

BEN GOES TOPLESS

JAMES LAUGHING PROBABLY AT SIMON WITHOUT THE TOGA

THE RUSTY CHICKEN OUTSIDE MACIA BATLE

THE VIEW FROM THE TEAMS VILLA

INSIDE THE MACIA BATLE BODEGA

We are delighted to announce that our lovely Church Inn in Mobberley has been recognised as the UK’s ‘New Pub of the Year 2014-15’ by the Good Pub Guide!

We re-opened the Church Inn just over a year ago following major restoration and refurbishment works. The Church Inn dates back to at least 1753 and we are proud of its standing in the village of Mobberley. There is plenty of history associated with the pub and this award recognises the efforts of many people.

We have to mention our landlord Simon, Head Chef Lloyd and the team who have endless enthusiasm and passion for the business and try their best at all times. Our customers who have supported the pub so well in its first year since re-opening. Our owners Tim and Mary who, despite owning the Bulls Head also in Mobberley, had the vision and courage to see the opportunity for a differentiated pub style so close to their already award winning Bulls Head and last but by no means least all our wonderful suppliers who have helped us achieve this award.

The award is for all the people associated with the Church Inn to celebrate, enjoy and raise a glass to.

Well done everyone!!!

A Cheshire pub has welcomed the 200th gin to its record-breaking collection.

The arrival of the 200th gin at The Cholmondeley Arms, near Malpas, marked the end of a week-long ‘Gin Fest’ and the third anniversary of the pub’s refurbishment and opening.

Tim Bird and Mary McLaughlin opened the pub in 2011 with 40 gins and established a reputation for stocking a collection of some of the best and most unusual gins in the country.

The 200th gin to be unveiled was a newly launched Burleigh’s Gin.

The new gin arrived at the pub in a helicoptor, where it was welcomed by hundreds of guests and locals celebrating the culmination of ‘Gin Fest’, which saw gin tastings, a collection of sports and vintage cars, live music and a pop-up gin bar in the pub’s garden.

Tim Bird, owner of the Cholmondeley Arms, said: “It was a fantastic festival of gin at the weekend.

“We’re delighted to welcome the 200th gin to our collection and intend to keep building on this in the years to come.”

The pub continues to challenge brand owners and customers to ‘bring a gin to the Inn’ to see if they have it in stock.

Cheshire Cat Pubs and Bars, led by Tim Bird and Mary McLaughlin, has acquired the freehold of their Bulls Head Pub from Punch Taverns and also bought the freehold of The Roebuck Inn from Wellington Pub Company, situated opposite The Bulls Head in Mill Lane, Mobberley in Cheshire.

Bird told Propel: “It has been exciting doing the two deals at the same time. We have operated The Bulls Head for four years on a lease with Punch Taverns and have built the pub up after carrying out a major refurbishment. We are sure Punch is pleased with the deal but we are delighted to have paid 4.8x Ebitda for a pub we cherish. As for The Roebuck Inn, this pub has been closed for well over a year. It sits straight opposite The Bulls Head in Mill Lane, Mobberley. We were tired of looking across the lane and seeing The Roebuck deteriorate and knew if the deal was right we would go for it. We will hopefully develop bedrooms and a small bistro as well as the barns and gardens. It is the first time in history (some 200+ years or more) that the two pubs are under single ownership. Our bank, HSBC, have been hugely supportive with the two investments and we continue to work very closely with it. In a year of consolidation we had said that we wouldn’t necessarily be acquiring a pub this financial year but this opportunity was a rare one and we had to take it.”

The deal means Cheshire Cat Pubs and Bars now own three freeholds and two 25-year leasehold pubs in Cheshire. Meanwhile, its award-winning Cholmondeley Arms, situated on Lord Cholmondeley’s estate, celebrates its claim to fame as the biggest Gin Palace in the north west next week when it holds its first ‘Annual Gin Fest ’. Gin brand owners are asked to visit www.cholmondeleyarms.co.uk to check if they are listed in its collection of 200 gins.

Bird added: “If they aren’t listed then we challenge them to bring their ‘Gin to the Inn’ on Saturday 19 July.”

LAURA TROTT became a household name by scooping two gold medals at her first Olympic Games in London in 2012. Here she opens up about her weekends and obsession for EastEnders.

Track and road cyclist Laura Trott OBE began her cycling career at the age of eight.

A four-time world team pursuit champion, she became a household name by scooping two gold medals at her first Olympic Games in London in 2012. More recently, she was crowned women’s 2014 British Cycling Road champion. Laura, 22, will take part in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next week. She lives in Stockport with her Olympic gold-winning cyclist boyfriend Jason Kenny.

“I train six days a week and it’s pretty intense, with early starts and late finishes. So when I do have a rest weekend, I like to put my feet up. On Friday nights, Jason will cook. He’s not bad in the kitchen, although more often than not we’ll have his staple pasta and tuna dish. Then we’ll watch EastEnders – I’m obsessed and can’t miss an episode!

“I like to be in bed by 10pm. I get grumpy if I haven’t had a good 10-hour sleep. In an ideal world I’d have a lie-in, but our two dogs never allow us to sleep late. They’re gorgeous little sproodles [a cross between a springer spaniel and a poodle] called Sprolo and Pringle and they’re yapping and full of energy by 8am. So Jason and I will go for a cycle and they’ll run alongside us around the country lanes near where we live.

“In the afternoon, we’ll go over to Jason’s parents’ house. They’ll make us bacon sandwiches for lunch and we’ll stay for the whole afternoon. His dad makes a mean curry for dinner too and we’ll watch TV. I love the Outnumbered box set, I find it hilarious.

“Sunday is a lazy day. We’ll spend most of the morning in our pyjamas, before taking the dogs for a walk and then head over to our favourite pub, The Church Inn, Mobberley, for a roast lunch. Jason loves motor racing, so if there’s a Grand Prix on TV we have to be back in time to watch it. In the evening, we’ll relax with a film, but there are always arguments. Jason loves action films – I’d rather watch a romantic comedy. Then it’s off to bed, as we’ll both be up at the crack of dawn for training.

“I’ve a lot on at the moment, with the Commonwealth Games, and I’m taking part in the Prudential RideLondon event in August, too.”