Landlord has six months to save Chertsey pub

Nov 28 2008

Chris Garbott and daughter Kirsty

Chertsey pub The Vine Inn has welcomed its third landlord in a year - but the new boss has just six months to win customers back or the pub will be sold.

Chris Garbott, 46, a former engineer from Middlesbrough, started accepted the task of reviving the Bridge Street-based boozer's fortunes, and will run it with his partner Jayne Rolfe and their daughter Kirsty, 17.

He only recently got his personal license, and before that his experience of the trade was running DJ and karaoke nights at pubs.

Yet Chris is confident of success, saying: "We've been given the opportunity to see what we can do with the place. We've put so much hard work into it and I'm not planning on going anywhere."

The Vine Inn has had a tumultous year, closing twice in the space of four months.

In June, it closed for a refurbishment, and after six weeks of being reopen in Sepetember it was closed again without warning and metal shutters placed on the windows and doors.

Philip Palmer, regional manager for Enterprise Inns, said: "We've brought in a family, and we are going to see how it goes. The neighbours expressed their concern to us about [The Vine] being closed, but we're keeping our fingers crossed. We hate seeing pubs shut, it's good to see it reopened again."

The pub re-opened on November 27 with Chris and his family at the helm. They have spent a month cleaning the place up and have set the goal of building a reputation for the pub as a place for good beer and hearty grub.

Chris added: "We've got a lot of work to do before we can think of getting the kitchen open, but we do plan to do so in the next couple of weeks."

"At the moment we'll be serving sandwiches and pies - good lunch time food. We want to get younger people in, but at the same time get the older regulars back. We want to the pub to have a sense of community."