The very first thing Stosie Madi and Kathy Smith did after gathering the award that named their pub, the Parkers Arms in Newton-in-Bowland, Lancashire, because the Gastropub of the 12 months at this summer time’s Nationwide Restaurant Awards (NRAs) was search for a quiet spot to mirror on what’d simply occurred. Unable to discover a quiet nook, the pair finally settled on a disabled bathroom. There, away from the hubbub of the awards celebration, they have been capable of leap up and down, give one another a hug, and permit the second to soak in.
“Everybody needs to come back and discuss to you and congratulate you whenever you win,” says Madi. “Nevertheless it’s essential to take a step again so you’ll be able to actually take it in and recognize what’s occurred. Parkers is our child and it’s one thing very private to us. And in a room like that, stuffed with all that expertise, it’s a great feeling to be recognised. It’s very transferring.”
“Parkers is our child and it’s one thing very private to us”
Parkers’ triumph at this yr’s NRAs, which additionally noticed it rank at quantity 12 on the highest 100 eating places listing, is the most recent is a collection of accolades picked up by the agricultural inn, which underneath Smith and Madi’s stewardship has cemented its status as a gastronomic vacation spot and among the best locations to eat within the UK. Again in January, it additionally claimed the primary spot on the Prime 50 Gastropubs listing and earlier this summer time it was listed on The Good Meals Information’s Britain’s 100 Greatest Native Eating places listing.
“Individuals ask should you win these awards does it imply extra friends include exceedingly excessive expectations? Some do. However we all know precisely what we do, and we by no means deviate from that. It’s in regards to the meals and the service, and we ship bang on.”
Sustaining consistency
We’re sat in a quiet nook of Bar Termini in London’s Soho the morning after the NRA ceremony. Each Madi and Smith nurse photographs of espresso and glasses of grapefruit juice, a testomony to the extent of frivolity the evening earlier than. There’s no sense of alcohol-induced weariness, although; each are nonetheless bright-eyed and beaming from their win the evening earlier than – the trophy sitting pleasure of place between them on the desk.
Like Madi, Smith is brazenly overwhelmed by Parkers’ run of success. “We very often really feel fraudulent once we go to awards occasions as we’re such a small enterprise and insignificant in a approach to the business,” she says. “It’s fairly formidable to be in a room like that and swiftly, they’re all applauding you.”
The Parkers Arms has lengthy been a fixture of the Newton-in-Bowland panorama, nevertheless it wasn’t till 2007 that Madi and Smith, together with Smith’s brother AJ Nolan, took over the working of the pub. Within the years since, Parkers has maintained a place on each the Prime 50 Gastropubs and NRA lists, with voters greatly surprised by the mix of hearty pub grub and idyllic countryside setting.
Whereas Madi’s meals usually garners a lot of the reward, the Senegal-born chef attributes the pub’s actual success to the truth that herself, Smith and Nolan are constants within the enterprise. “We’ve been there since day one and it breeds a way of familiarity that’s fairly uncommon today. You might have a lot of locations that open and some years down the road the proprietorship waters down as they open extra locations, however we’re constants in folks’s lives.
“I’m at all times on the go, so the meals is at all times good; the greeting is at all times the identical as a result of AJ is on the bar; and the service is at all times to the best commonplace as a result of it’s being run by Kathy. That’s the secret to what we do. I can hand on coronary heart say I don’t know of many companies which have retained that consistency for such an extended time frame.”
A gastropub within the true sense of the phrase
One other latest accolade picked up by the Parkers is a gold certificates within the ‘Pub Pie Class’ class on the British Pie Awards 2023, with the profitable gold-standard pie that includes curried mutton and offal baked in a rendered mutton fats pastry.
Madi has lengthy been recognised for her pies, with the now award-winning mutton pie having been a fixture of the menu for greater than a decade. “The pies are a labour of affection and at all times can be a part of the menu, however we’re greater than that,” she explains. “Our focus is seasonal and celebrating Lancashire’s bounty.”
“The pies are a labour of affection and at all times can be
a part of the menu, however we’re greater than that”
A lot has been written prior to now in regards to the African and Center Japanese influences current in Madi’s cooking, with latest dishes together with Bowland venison fillet tartare served in a ‘kibbeh nayeh fashion’. Nonetheless, from her personal standpoint, what actually drives Madi’s creativity is a agency perception in native sourcing; the wealthy ‘terroir’ of the Trough of Bowland affording the chef entry to a beautiful array of produce. “We’re a gastropub within the true sense of the phrase as it’s in regards to the meals the place we’re. We embrace that.”
All meals served at Parkers – together with the ice lotions, breads, and chutneys – is ready contemporary on the premises, with the menus typically altering twice every day relying on availability of elements. Different pie choices to characteristic embody layered creamed potato terrine pie, and a black pudding and pork turnover (pictured).
Then there are signature dishes together with the confit Lancaster mushroom parfait; the braised Bowland beef with greens; and Yorkshire rhubarb-cured mackerel. Desserts, in the meantime, can embody the likes of a pistachio slice; strawberries, jelly and cream; and apricot and almond croustade with diplomat cream.
Whereas the meals very a lot has a refined, restaurant high quality that goes effectively past the conventions of conventional ‘pub grub’, Madi and Smith have at all times gone to nice pains to make sure that Parkers features, quintessentially, as a pub. “The factor is, you’ll be able to at all times stroll in and simply have a drink,” says Madi. “We solely take a sure variety of diners as we will solely cater for a specific amount, so we at all times have tables for folks to take a seat and luxuriate in a drink, as effectively for these wanting both a snack or a meal. It’s at all times been essential to have that twin dynamic as a result of we don’t appear like a restaurant, and we’ve by no means tried to.”
Out of (West) Africa
Madi and Smith met years earlier than their acquisition of Parkers, a world away from Lancashire on a seashore in Gambia. “We first acquired chatting over a beer,” remembers Smith. “Stosie had come house as her household have been expats there; and I used to be travelling to Australia, supposedly.”
The pair shortly turned mates, throwing ‘huge, wild events’ at Smith’s home. “Individuals informed us that we should always do it for a dwelling. So, we thought why not give it a go?”
Madi, who’s of Lebanese and French heritage, was raised in Gambia and introduced up in a hospitality household, serving to her father run inns and eating places when she was younger. From an early age, she knew she needed to be a part of the business, however was eager to take action on her personal phrases. Partnering with Smith, who beforehand had a profession within the insurance coverage sector, was a possibility too nice to disregard.
“I don’t assume there’s something that Kathy doesn’t know,” she says with a fond smile. “There isn’t wherever she hasn’t been. She’s a hive of knowledge and was the right particular person to enter enterprise with.”
The pair finally established three in style eating places in Gambia, reaching protection in Lonely Planet, in addition to nationwide and worldwide newspapers; and catering for the American Embassy and the British Excessive Fee.
In addition to being shut mates and enterprise companions, Madi and Smith additionally share adoption of a daughter who’s Gambian by beginning. In one other world, you get the sense they might have stayed in West Africa. Nonetheless, the nation’s more and more fraught political panorama finally compelled them to depart with their daughter within the early 2000s, returning to the place Smith initially got here from within the Ribble Valley. Having bought their enterprise in Gambia, they arrived within the city of Clitheroe the place they initially purchased the freehold to a 30-cover restaurant. After they acquired it, the plan was to construct the enterprise and prolong the eating area, however they struggled to get planning permission. And so begun the hunt for a bigger web site, which finally led to them to the Parkers Arms.
“I keep in mind saying that if I appreciated the kitchen, I might do it,” remembers Madi. “The place had been deserted by its earlier homeowners (“It was lined in grease and shit, an actual mess,” says Smith), however the area was huge, ethereal and you possibly can see the countryside by means of the window. We’d by no means finished a pub earlier than, however I believed: how tough can or not it’s.”
Overcoming challenges
Each Madi and Smith make no bones in regards to the struggles they’ve confronted since taking over the Parkers. The early days noticed them confronted with the affect of each the smoking ban and the 2008 monetary crash, in addition to difficulties engaging native diners with its extra elevated meals provide. “We’ve weathered many storms,” says Smith. “That’s why it’s emotional.”
Bigger long-term challenges have included troubles with staffing, which have been additional exacerbated by the pub’s distant location. “Brexit actually scuppered us, which is an enormous drawback with progress,” says Madi. “We may have grown Parkers much more and quite a bit faster. As an alternative, it’s been gradual and natural, as a result of to be greater you want an enormous crew, and it’s exhausting to get that the place we’re.
“We’ve weathered many storms. That’s why it’s emotional”
“There’s no public transport in Newton-in-Bowland; and no different bars or outlets right here. It’s simply us. And most of the people seeking to develop in hospitality will need extra. We used to have numerous {couples} come to work for us, however Brexit ruined that.”
Regardless of the difficulties with recruitment, the duo are clearly pleased with the close-knit crew they’ve introduced collectively – who they each credit score as being integral to the pub’s ongoing success. They embody Vlad, Madi’s ‘right-hand man’, who joined as a pot washer and has labored his method by means of the kitchen. “He’s been with us for 5 years now and I hope he’ll stick with us for a very long time to come back. We’re like a household. We at all times work collectively and assist one another.”
Doing issues in a different way
At one level in our dialog, Smith jokes that she’s tried to retire a number of instances lately. “I’d by no means cease fully, however I wish to much less hours. While you’re in hospitality, you by no means retire. And I’m not somebody who may do nothing.” A pause, and with a chuckle, she provides: “And I’m positive Stosie will provide you with one other hair-brained scheme alongside the best way.”
“I’ve a couple of,” interjects Madi. “However I by no means have the workers or time to actually take into account them correctly. However my dream for Parkers is {that a} couple come and take it on someday and keep on the legacy. That’s what I really need. Nobody has made successful of that web site earlier than us. And it will be prison if it was misplaced.”
Certainly, the unhappy reality is that an increasing number of pubs are shutting up store. Latest information obtained by Worth Bailey reveals that pub closures reached the best quarterly determine in additional than a decade within the second quarter of 2023, with 223 pubs getting into insolvency, up from 200 within the first quarter of the yr.
Moreover, 729 pub companies went bust over the previous 12 months, representing an 80% improve on the 2021/22 determine of 405.
“I can’t imagine what number of pubs have closed,” says Smith. “It’s so unhappy. Every single day somebody closes close to us.”
With excessive power, labour and wholesale meals and drinks prices squeezing the sector, the long-term outlook for hospitality appears to be like gloomy. However with Parkers clearly firing on all cylinders, Madi and Smith are hopeful that their future stays affluent.
“There aren’t actually any pubs close to us now, that are individually owned,” continues Madi. “In case you come to us, you’re coming for one thing totally different. Parkers is a correct pub. We’ve at all times finished it in a different way, and it really works.”