Simon Rogan set to open pub in same Cumbrian village as L'Enclume and Rogan & Company

Rogan will lease the pub from Stockport-based brewery Robinsons. "We made tentative enquiries but obviously as soon as they knew that we were looking, and with our pedigree in Cartmel, they were obviously quite keen to get us on board," Rogan said of the negotiations with the pub owners.

Speaking to BigHospitality, the chef and restaurateur revealed he was planning to introduce artisan ales to the bar and Cumbrian produce to a local and traditional menu which he said would have 'a bit of L'Enclume flair'.

"Obviously people know who we are and are always going to connect it to our other businesses. We are not looking to change too much - a lick of paint, curtains, upgrade the food, a good friendly presence - but it doesn't really need too much doing to it."

My local​

After a small refurb the venue with a 50-cover seating area, will reopen at the end of the month and Rogan plans to be spending a good portion of his time there - both as a chef and a customer.

"It is my local pub - I live literally 50 yards away from it. I am sure I will be there propping up the bar! I will have to physically go past it to go to L'Enclume or Rogan & Company."

"It sits well within the portfolio. With Rogan & Company at one time we had aspirations of doing a simple pub-type food and beverage operation but it didn't match its surroundings. Now we have got a pub where we can really go for that and carry out what we had originally anticipated because Rogan & Company now sits between a pub and L'Enclume."

Recommend​

Rogan, who last month described achieving the perfect score with L'Enclume in this year's Good Food Guide as 'the icing on the cake',​ said he expected many of the customers to the pub to be current locals and overnight visitors to the chef's other businesses.

"The first thing people ask us when they check into our accommodation is 'where can we go for a drink?' In the past we have always recommended other people's pubs now we can recommend ours."

"It is also somewhere for all our staff to spend their hard-earned cash. It made perfect sense for us to get hold of it and we believe we can make it into a really good addition to our portfolio," he added.