(Image: Darren Greenwood)
The landlady of a newly re-opened village pub near York says the launch has gone “really, really, well.”
Paula Dawson re-opened The Tankard Inn at Rufforth at 12-noon last Wednesday.
As the Press reported, villagers were queueing to get in to enjoy the pub – the only one in the village- that had been closed for nearly three years.
Paula, who grew up in what is now the Whippet Inn in York, described the re-opening as ‘emotional’, saying how she wished her publican parents could have seen her take on the Tankard.
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“I’m absolutely loving it,” said the former operator of Paula’s Kitchen, a Press award-winning café at Mill Lane at the other side of Rufforth Village, which is now in the hands of Paula’s husband Shaun.
Paula continued: “The Tankard has been really busy. I am getting lots of support from the locals. I am really pleased.”
So far the best seller, perhaps due to the fine weather, has been Sam’s Smith’s Taddy Lager.
Paula said: “It’s doing really well. But people are trying everything.”
The plan is for the Tankard to offer food in the coming weeks, starting with Sunday lunch, but one or two matters are still to be sorted.
In the meantime, new benches have been installed at the front of the pub, with others due any day now at the back and in the extensive beer garden.
The move looks to be just what the pub needs with the forecast of yet another heatwave, helping boost trade, with the forecasted weather set to be as warm as the reception Paula has received from Rufforth and its residents.
Sam Smith’s Brewery is said to be re-opening other pubs in the area.
Among them, The Wellington Inn, in Alma Terrace, Fishergate, York, and the ‘flagship’ Angel and White Horse in Bridge Street, Tadcaster.
However, the brewery currently continues its policy of not talking to the media, making verification of such reports difficult.