Despite my name I am very much born and bred in the UK, Marlow in fact but have a Spanish mother and German father. So while my mates at home had to be stuck in cold beer gardens waiting for their parents to have a few drinks I was brought up the continental way and my many summers in Germany and Spain would revolve around the local bars. On leaving school I pushed the continental theme further by living in Switzerland for a year (while trying without success to get into the British Ski Team). Back in the UK I worked with Whitbread for almost 10 years and then Scottish & Newcastle / Spirit Group for another ten. After a stint running a massive car supermarket and Regent Inns I am now in between jobs talking to the 'usual suspects'.. I recently got married to Fiona and we have a three year old son William who has notched up over 100 pubs in our travels.

So I love everything to be formal and branded then...NO! Branding pubs/restaurants while providing a safety net for basic standards is all well and good and several do this wonderfully. The best for me are the pubs that you have no idea belong to some group. My haven is individuality, often smart tenants and freehouses and a pub that has great atmosphere and has not had the guts ripped out for no good reason or brightened up to the hilt to be a gastro pub in an area that frankly does not need it only for the doors to be locked in the future. I mourn every pub that shuts no matter how bad and there are often some very basic fundamentals that are not happening which are in 'our' control rather than blame it ALL on Government, pubcos etc. I travel all around the UK and will normally cover a whole bunch of Good Pub Guide pubs (and others) on the way and my years in the trade mean there are very few areas of the UK I have not covered.

I look forward to you checking out my blogs and for your feedback

Cheers

Jean-Paul