Chef re-opens restaurant as new ‘destination’ venue

A PUB restaurant and hotel in Whitchurch which has been closed for two years has re-opened.

The Ferryboat Inn, in High Street, is a pub, restaurant and hotel which is owned by Heineken Star Pubs and Bars, which took over the pub in 2018.

Award-winning chef, Codie Charles, 33, the new general manager, will oversee operations at the Ferryboat Inn.

A grand opening took place on Friday last week, which saw more than 30 pre-booked diners and drinkers in the revamped restaurant.

They had a set menu at £30 per head, tasting a mixture of starters, mains and desserts.

The hotel, which has 10
en suite rooms, opened two weeks ago and is already fully booked for Henley Royal Regatta next year.

More than £60,000 has been spent revamping the venue and £20,000 has been spent on the kitchen alone, bringing the total equipment value to around £100,000.

A new pergola area is being developed in the garden for outdoor dining, alongside a children’s play area.

Mr Charles, who was a chef for nine years, hopes the venue will become a destination people will want to travel to from further afield.

He said: “We want people to enjoy the food from the high-quality menus, which are all freshly cooked, but we also want people to travel and stay here. Feedback from the village so far has been positive.”

The restaurant will offer a range of homemade dishes, including breakfast, but it will centre around being an on-site smokehouse which uses local produce and suppliers. A large wine selection is available, chosen to pair with the food offerings, including fish, such as salmon.

Mr Charles said: “Our menu is large at the moment because we’re making it all fresh and we want a good variety but our focus will be on smoked things, such as pizzas, sausages and other meats.

“We will also offer vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options as well as a takeaway service through Uber, Just Eat and Deliveroo, which will deliver up to eight miles away.

“In this day and age, it’s all about quantity over quality. However, if you don’t get many people coming, then your quality will be sacrificed because you can’t batch cook, so if we have to shorten the menu and adapt, that’s fine.”

The head chef, who has a smokehouse background in a restaurant in East London, will guide a team of three, which includes a sous chef, a chef de partie and a junior chef.

Breakfast is offered daily from 6am to 10am and includes an all-you-can-eat option. This early start allows chefs to be on-site to prepare smoked meats for later in the day.

Mr Charles said: “We’re using a lot of local ingredients. Our eggs come from four miles away, our meat from Vicars Game, eight miles away, and our vegetables are all organic, supplied by a local farm.

“We tried to get as much sourced locally, similar to what Jeremy Clarkson has done. This way it’s more cost-effective and locals enjoy that too, not only because it’s local but because the quality is typically better too.”

Live music is booked every Friday for the next eight weeks from 8.30pm to 10.30pm.