A bullish bent for stylish food in Charlbury

“It’s 2am on December 3 and we are opening our doors to the public in approximately six hours. We’re working through the night (again), desperately trying to finish last minute jobs, hanging pictures, putting up lights, installing the bar and suddenly we’re plunged into darkness.

I’ve managed to drill through an electrical wire that has only gone and blown the lighting for the entire pub. No biggie. This pretty much sums up the six-week takeover we had while setting up the Bull. Total chaos. But chaos that I loved from start to finish.

Pre-Bull, I was doing a job I didn’t want to be doing. Commuting an hour each way up and down the M40, never seeing my wife and three small boys - we decided I couldn’t do it anymore.

I’d spent my twenties running pubs in London and knew that this was my true calling and what I really wanted to do. We’d heard whispers that the Bull might be for sale. So off I went.

We decided we had to be open for Christmas. This gave us precisely six weeks to redecorate and to a certain extent, rebuild the whole place.

My wife Willow fortunately for me has very good taste (other than men) and with her help we have managed to breathe new life into this wonderful but tired inn. Handily, Willow is a stylist and she oversaw the decorating. I do the practical, she does the pretty. We’re a very good team.

Our vision from day one was that we wanted the pub to feel like a home. We wanted gorgeous fabrics, wallpapers and furniture, incredibly delicious home cooked food and a welcoming, all-inclusive vibe that would make you never want to leave. No pressure.

The thing we felt from day one was the encouragement from the locals. Charlbury is a very tight community and they’ve only ever wanted us to succeed, which helped when we just couldn’t envisage it pulling together in time. Falling rooves, planning permission palavas, dodgy electrics and dreadful dingy rooms. A lot of work.

There were four bedrooms but we wanted eight so we decided to turn the previous owners’ accommodation into rooms too. There was no garden to speak of and so we have created one by splitting the old car park in two.

To match the product with the vision, our guests are encouraged to relax in an armchair by the log fire with a Bloody Mary or discover the converted horsebox bar in the garden with a glass of bubbles.

The menu is a combination of modern pub food that celebrates classic dishes with a twist, from the Bull Burger enhanced with Korean pulled pork as an optional extra, to a Paddock Farm pork chop with chimichurri. Locally sourced ingredients are key for chef Dominic Hewitt, formerly of Thomas’s Café at Burberry and Noble Inns.

We are extremely pleased with the outcome and have learnt a lot along the way, met great tradesmen, along with the not so great, and with the knowledge we have now, hope that the next one will go more smoothly.”

The Bull Inn, Sheep St, Charlbury, Oxfordshire, OX7 3RR

01608810689

bullinn-charlbury.com