Purnell mounts new challenge
Top chef’s latest venture is a village pub with scotch eggs to die for...
IT’S the new Henley-in-Arden pub that nearly broke the internet as soon as bookings went live online.
Top chef Glynn Purnell’s Mount pub had 1,500 people trying to secure one table.
Now the first chance to get a seat indoors after the grand opening of the Warwickshire pub last Wednesday will be in May.
Michelin-starred Purnell said: “I knew I wasn’t going to be able to bring as many people here as Shakespeare did, but I’m certainly having a go.”
Luckily outdoor tables in the verdant waterside garden at the back are first come first served, if you are lucky.
Business partner Luke Fryer bought the freehold of the building, which is part listed, and dates back more than 200 years.
New to the hospitality industry, Mr Fryer says he wouldn’t have tried to realise such a dream had Purnell not agreed to literally put his name on the plates.
“We want to be considered like a proper, local pub,” says Blackburnborn Mr Fryer, who has set the business up along with wife Tania.
“That means allowing people with wellies and dogs to walk right through to the back garden.”
As for Purnell, Mr Fryer’s investment was a chance to give some of his trusted lieutenants a boost after Purnell’s was recently named the ‘second best restaurant in the UK’.
“The Mount is not all about me,” says Purnell.
“I have a team of staff who need the opportunity to be rewarded for what they’ve done for me.
“We are not here to make money and to run away. We want to be a massive part of the community in this part of Warwickshire and have already judged cake competitions recently. I tell my staff to enjoy every minute of doing the job they love. If people want to work for money, they should work in a factory and clock off at 4pm.
“I am lucky I’ve got a team of people I really believe in and 99 per cent of the time we can change people’s moods with a plate of food. That’s why I do it for a living.
Once you get past the modern, black window frames, the immediate front of The Mount is the listed bit with original wooden beams that must have seen countless punters in centuries past.
As soon as you go inside, there’s a bar on the left and to your right a seating area with solid tables and circular
bar stools to match.
For mere mortals, trying to run Birmingham’s first Michelin-starred restaurant would be enough to have on your plate.
But father-of-three Purnell is always up for a challenge.
At his first restaurant, Jessica’s in Edgbaston, he always had to be there so he even returned to the stove on the days he’d seen his three children born.
After creating Purnell’s at 55 Cornwall Street in 2007 and winning Brum’s first Michelin star (there are now five thanks to Simpsons, Carters of Moseley, Adams and Opheem), he’s built a team that can function without him.
But the self-styled Yummy Brummie loves being at Purnell’s and that’s where he still will be most of the time.
“I didn’t finish till 1am there on Saturday night – we were so busy it was almost like the first week that we
opened,” says Glynn.
“Perhaps I’ll be at The Mount on Sundays when I’m not at Purnell’s anyway and another lunchtime if we’re quiet in town.
“People are sometimes surprised to see me at Purnell’s, but why wouldn’t I be there?
“The Mount is a chance for my staff to spread their wings after I closed Purnell’s Bistro on Newhall Street – the only reason I did that was because the lease had run out.”
Meals at The Mount have been designed by Purnell and his team to offer quality and a sense of homeliness.
As someone who calls himself a ‘chef patron’ – a businessman as well as a chef – his tightrope act means walking the fine line between what he wants to achieve on a plate with what people can afford.
Keeping his vision focused will be former Purnell’s Bistro and Ginger’s
Bar manager Pete Casson, now the general manager at The Mount and new head chef Phil Steggall, sous chef at Purnell’s.
He concedes that were he to be thinking about the venture now, he’d be wondering if it was the right thing to do with galloping inflation and the uncertainties created by the crisis in Ukraine.
But he’s ridden above every challenge he’s faced before.
Purnell’s was born just before the financial crash and he’s survived Brexit and Covid, too.
Having already decided to make the leap with The Mount last year when the world was a more optimistic place, once again he believes that things can only get better and that now is as good a time as any.
If he was coming in tomorrow to order food, what would be the first thing on his plate?
“The scotch egg,” he says. “It’s phenomenal,
made with black pudding, smoked bacon – it’s the best ever.
“We are trying to offer something for everyone, so you could come in for a plate of chips and glass of wine if you wanted too – all the way up to our Chateaubriand steak which is £68 for two to share, so not as expensive as some might think.
“With beers, at first we’re looking to run a couple of guest cask ales so we’ll see how they go. We know exactly what works at Purnell’s, here we’ll have to see what people want and what sells. With the casks they can’t be open for too long before they go past their best so maybe we’ll get smaller barrels to begin with.”
As a family man, there’s a proper children’s menu available too, with the egg and chips a nod to Purnell’s late mother Patricia, a much-loved school dinner lady in Chelmsley Wood, who recently died following a battle with motor neurone disease.