White Horse – Number 1

I wrote about the new management of our local pub in King’s Sutton (or gastro-pub I should say), the White Horse, not so long after they moved in and transformed the place – food, drink, service, value, ambience etc.

I walk past just about every day, and we go in to eat there with pleasure on a fairly regular basis, so it’s become clear that business has steadily grown under the watchful eye of front-of-house Julie and chef Hendrik.

What I hadn’t realised is that they are already Number 1 on Tripadvisor out of no less than 147 eateries in the Banbury area. What a gift for our lovely country village.

Finding a niche in the eating out market

Our lovely village on the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, King’s Sutton, offers so much... Three pubs, three shops, two churches, a fine village hall, a multitude of clubs and activities, including regular live music. But no good restaurant food. Until quite recently, that is.

When we first came to live in the village some twenty years ago, the White Horse pub was an ancient, dingy drinkers’ den, not really to be entered unless one was an insider. Then someone saw its potential and converted it into an attractive but rather basic gastro-pub. The aged drinkers abandoned ship.

Somehow or other that change never worked commercially. Managements came and went, each one tweaking the offer, but none able to make the property make a dollar.

Recently arrived a new young couple, Julie Groves and Hendrik Dutson – she the landlady and he the chef – and the food they are producing (and the welcome) is of a quite different order from what has gone before.

Sophie and I have now sampled both lunch and dinner there – with great pleasure. So we hope that, this time around, the White Horse, Julie and Hendrik are here to stay.