Derbyshire Times Love your local feature, looks at the Pig & Pump, Chesterfield
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00:00 [Music]
00:08 Pubs have been a cornerstone of our local communities for centuries,
00:11 offering a place for people to meet together and socialise,
00:14 as well as providing thousands of jobs and a cornerstone of the local economy.
00:18 Here we go behind the bar to meet the people who run our pubs
00:21 and say why it's important for you to love them.
00:24 Tell me a bit about yourself.
00:25 Yeah, so my name's Taren Henson. I'm from Chesterfield originally.
00:30 So I've been working at the Pig & Pump since I started just after the first lockdown,
00:35 just after Covid. So it was sort of like quite weird times to kind of come in.
00:40 So I've been here since then. I became general manager.
00:45 This has probably been about two years ago now.
00:48 And we've just sort of seen the pub go from strength to strength.
00:52 Obviously when everything was sort of came out of lockdown, when everything changed.
00:56 After that, we sort of went full force with new menus, ale wise.
01:02 So we've got probably I'd say the biggest choice of ale in the town centre.
01:06 We're right next to the Crooked Spire. So it's a perfect location for us.
01:10 With people coming in, there's certain ales that we keep on constant.
01:14 So we know we've got reoccurring customers who will come in, keep the quality of the ale.
01:18 And then on top of that, with the food, the quality that we've been doing,
01:22 we get repeat custom from food as well, which is really good.
01:26 How many staff do you have?
01:29 So it's quite a small team. I'd say it's about massive. I'd say there's about 15 members of staff.
01:34 They're both front of house, back of house.
01:37 Again, with it being a small team, we are all very close.
01:41 The owners are very, very hands on with helping the business, growing the business.
01:47 They're both from Nuneaton kind of way. So they've been in Chesterfield for quite a few years.
01:52 Five years they've had the pub now. They know the area. They know a lot of people around.
01:57 And they work really hard, work with us as well.
02:02 Kate, one of the owners, so she works mainly kitchen side, does a fantastic job working the kitchen,
02:08 designing the menus, designing all the Christmas menu that we've done.
02:12 Working very close with Sal, who's our kitchen manager.
02:15 And then the other owner, Tom, he works closely with myself,
02:18 so looking at getting ales in, what's popular when we get it in.
02:23 Trying to make sure that a lot of the ales that we get are local.
02:26 So Sporty, we use Thornbridge quite a lot, a very local brewery.
02:30 Aberdale that we use from Sheffield. So people will see them, remember them.
02:35 And then I think it sort of is a lot of people, even when they come to the area, if they want to try ales,
02:40 a lot of people will go for local ales.
02:43 Is there any popular one at the moment?
02:45 Yeah, so we have the Ossock White Rat, which absolutely flies out.
02:49 Very, very popular. And then Thornbridge Chai Pour that we have on.
02:52 So again, absolutely flies out. People really like it, really enjoy them.
02:56 Have you got any plans for the future for the pub?
02:59 So we are looking at, at the moment, we're just getting some refurbishment done in the kitchen.
03:03 And then after that we are hoping to start launching Sunday roasts coming forward.
03:08 There's not many places in the town centre itself that do a Sunday roast meal
03:12 with a lot of places that did do before, say the Rectory, stuff like that, that have closed down.
03:16 It's something that the town has lost.
03:18 So we want to sort of make a hearty Sunday roast where people can come, get good value for money
03:24 on a large portion of food, leave happy and we'll do the washing up for them.
03:28 What do you think is the best thing about the pub?
03:31 I think a lot of things come together to make it what it is.
03:35 I think the staff, how welcoming everyone is, how people feel when they come into the pub.
03:41 It's got a really nice atmosphere.
03:43 We have quizzes that we do, we have a quiz on a Tuesday, we have live music on a Friday night.
03:49 Everything is very consistent, so you'll come one day and have a meal,
03:52 the next time you come it's the same, it's exactly the same.
03:55 Large portions, again everyone is leaving with a full belly, they've had a nice few pints
04:00 and they can go home happy.
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