We’re chuff-chuffed! Brothers’ joy as Railway Inn steams in with top award
TWO brothers who opened their first pub weeks before the pandemic have managed to make it such a success they have just been given a major national award.
Gareth and Llwyd Griffiths took on the Railway Inn, in Cowers Lane, near Turnditch, in October 2020, just 23 days before the country went back into lockdown.
But Gareth, 25, and Llwyd, 27, battled through the tough two years and transformed the pub’s fortunes to the extent that it has now been given the Rising Star award at the Marston’s 2022 Pub of the Year Awards.
Gareth, originally from Chaddesden, said: “I left school and started working for Marriot at Breadsall Priory and I worked my way up there into a management position.
“I was bored one day during lockdown and decided to give it a go for myself and use my own ideas instead of making money for someone else.”
He said: “I had gotten fed up with working for a corporate company. Options were very restricted, but Llwyd and I had spoken about it many times because he is a chef and I work front of house.
“We spoke about it many times about how nice it would be to run our own pub and our own business together, and my mum and dad were really supportive of it as well.
“We had both driven past The Railway many times and we thought that the place never looked appealing, has so much potential but never really got off the ground. We looked at it as a fresh start for the pub.”
The brothers have completely refurbished the inside of the pub and removed the carvery service, opting for plated meals using locally-sourced ingredients.
They have also overhauled the beer garden at the pub, cutting down trees to create a new grass area.
Gareth says they were able to bring a new lease of life into the pub thanks to Covid grants. And he says the response from the locals has been amazing.
He said: “None of them would have set foot in here before and they boycotted it and it was very close to closing down completely and being turned into houses. When we posted on Facebook that we had won the award, the locals were coming in with cards, bottles of champagne and they wanted to celebrate with us.
“Where we are based, there is no village shop, no community centre, there’s no village hall. It is the pub or nothing. So they were all so pleased. It’s for them as much as us.”
The pair are looking forward to their first restriction-free summer season and are already planning events.
Building on their success at the Railway Inn, Gareth and Llwyd are hoping to take on more pubs in the future.