Fisherman’s Daughter Brings Award-Winning Pub Group To North

Most people will remember the Red Lion pub as a Wacky Warehouse on the A61 road between and but following a £750k refurbishment the once bygone pub in South Stainley has been transformed into a gastropub with luxury rooms.

The multi-award-winning Seafood Pub Company, which has eleven pubs in and around Yorkshire and Lancashire, including the renowned Fleece in Addingham, has created an atmospheric space at The Inn complete with grey panelling, polished wood floors, vintage rugs, leather armchairs and wood burning stoves. All 12 bedrooms are beautifully designed, fusing contemporary and traditional styles. Another addition in all rooms is a gun cabinet for the local shooting fraternity and The Inn welcomes dogs in their bar and garden lodge bedrooms.

But for Joycelyn Neve, who at 33 is at the helm of The Seafood Pub Company, she simply wants to bring joy to people through their food and drink. A part of this stems from her father Chris Neve, who as a former trawlerman established his own wholesale fish company in Fleetwood supplying restaurants.

“My biggest inspiration with everything in life is from my Dad. He started his own business, looked after his customers and staff and never cut corners,” said Joycelyn, whose ambition is to build the Seafood Pub Group up to 20 sites.

With a healthy injection of £18 million from investors Penta Capital in 2016 Joycelyn has set her sights on opening further pubs in York, and .

Joycelyn Neve, MD and Founder

Joycelyn founded the Seafood Pub Company in 2010 after studying Geography at Liverpool University. But having grown up around the food industry with her father’s business she was drawn into hospitality working for based events company and restaurants and bars in Manchester. But she always wanted to run her own business and after travelling around South America she came home to start her pub empire.

At just 25 with no proven track record Joycelyn was backed by Thwaites with £350,000 to fit- out her first pub The Oyster and Otter in Blackburn, and soon after was followed by nine other pubs around Lancashire.

Since then, the Seafood Pub Company has won a raft of national and regional awards including, The Publican’s Best Food Offer three times, Restaurant Magazine’s Pub Company of the Year, Development Chef Awards’ Best Pub Group Menu and Best Group Chef, the prestigious Cateys Pub and Bar award and Lancashire Life’s Dining Pub of the Year and Restaurant of the Year.

Joycelyn now plans to build on the success she’s achieved across the Pennines and has chosen Yorkshire as the area to expand into, with the Fleece in Addingham being her first in the region, followed by The Inn at South Stainley, which is managed by Agron Gerbeshi, formerly of the Restaurant Bar and Grill group.

Here she explains her love for Yorkshire people and the region: “There is so much synergy between Lancashire and Yorkshire, the values of the people are so similar, and we all enjoy a bit of banter across the border! It’s got to be about quality, it’s got to be about value and personality and when we open a new site the message I give to the team is that I started this business to make people happy with food and drink, it’s as simple as that.” With an established local chef who is in touch with regional tastes, Dan Parry, formerly of Oliver 24, Courtyard in Harrogate, The Tiger Inn at Coneythorpe and The Royal Oak in Staveley, he’s well experienced in the tastes of Yorkshire folk to deliver an extensive menu that offers something for everyone and not just a good selection of fish and seafood as the name suggests.

Dan Parry, Head Chef at The Inn, South Stainley

“We have some great fish and steaks and we’re building quite a following for our traditional Sunday roasts with all the trimmings. But we also have the kids staple favourites too, with a choice of six different pizzas, a great burger and traditional fish and chips,” added Dan, 39, who lives in North Stainley.

The Inn’s menu draws on Joycelyn’s family heritage, with market fish specials that change daily. The specials showcase the freshest catches, whether that’s, squid, crab, hake, halibut and monkfish then Dan adds his own World food twist, like Skate Wing with Malaysian curry. Traditional roast dinner

Goosnargh duck breast with spring greens, crispy leg, roast apple, duck and black pudding hash and duck egg

Hake with buttered cockles, asparagus and clotted cream mashed potato

To welcome the community to The Inn, The Seafood Pub Company are holding their first food and drink festival over the weekend of 10th 11th and 12th May which will include a variety of local produce food stalls, beer festival, a gin and wine hall, cooking demonstrations, wine tasting tutorials, BBQ, live music and entertainment. Money from the event will be donated to Martin House charity for children. Please register for your free ticket and full event timings at www.innatstainley.co.uk

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