Griffin's a true Brecon beacon

Offering real luxury but doing thesimple things in life well, have made theFelin Fach Griffin a major attraction, despite its remote South Wales location.Mark Taylor reports

Charles Inkin's desire to offer people "the simple things in life done well" has made the Felin Fach Griffin pub in Brecon a destination venue for people looking for contemporary city luxury in a rural Welsh setting.

"People who stay here always say it's just like staying at somebody's house, which is what we always wanted from the start. My original vision was exactly this," says Inkin, looking around the bar with its open fire and deep, soft leather sofas.

With seven individually-designed rooms up-stairs (ranging from £92.50 to £115 per room, per night), accommodation accounts for a quarter of the business at the Felin Fach Griffin.

Inkin says: "Rooms were essential for us and we're running at 70% occupancy, which for this part of the world is very good. We get a lot ofpeople from London who take four days off work for a long weekend. They arrive early on a Friday and leave late on a Monday.

"One of our best business ideas has been to offer special deals. If people phone me and they say they want to stay four and five days, then I'm not going to rip them off. If they stay in the room with the four-poster, then I'll only charge them double room rates for those four nights. The idea being they might come back again or they might eat here on those four nights ­ and they tend to."

A wayside pub located in the shadows of the Black Mountains, four miles south of Brecon, the Felin Fach Griffin had been derelict for seven years when Inkin took it over.

Foot-and-mouth epidemic

After a year of renovation, the inn opened for business in May 2000, but the foot-and-mouth epidemic that swept the area within a few months had a dramatic effect on business.

"It was horrendous," reflects Inkin. "We lost so many bookings ­ people just didn't come to Brecon because it was totally affected around here. It's all a blur now, but we ticked over somehow. I remember driving through villages on days they were burning cattle. I can still remember the stench."

At the time, Ballymaloe-trained chef Inkin was cooking at the Felin Fach Griffin full-time and attracting glowing reviews from national restaurant critics for his simple, seasonal food.

Now running the business with his brother, Edmund, Inkin has stepped back from the cooking side, leaving the kitchen in the very safe hands of Dutch chef Ricardo van Ede, a former Michelin-starred chef from Amsterdam, who has also worked at the Cliveden Hotel.

Geared towards passing trade

The pub's dinner menu is short, with six starters (ranging from £4.50 to £6.95) and six main courses (£13.95 to £15.95). Lunchtime dishes are all less than £10 and geared more towards passing trade and walkers. They range from Welsh cheese ploughman's (£6.95) and open sandwiches served on homemade soda bread (£5.95) to more substantial dishes like local Bower Farm sausages with mash (£7.95) or Welsh minute steak with braised leeks, chips and béarnaise (£9.95).

The restaurant is now doing 450 covers per week, with food accounting for 63% of sales. The 37% wet sales are dominated by the extensive and well-sourced wine list that majors on Old World French reds.

Last year the pub was the regional Welshwinner of Les Routiers' Locally Produced Food Supporters Award. In addition it picked up the title of True Taste of Wales' Best Restaurant of the Year 2004/2005.

By using predominantly local producers, the kitchen achieves a GP of just under 70%, and Inkin's latest business idea has been to set up a small kitchen garden at the rear of the pub.

"Last summer," he says, "we had a crop of beans, peas and salads, and we've just planted soft fruit plants. It's going to take a few years to make it profitable, but, aesthetically, it looks fantastic, with areas of colour. We're going to develop the rest of the garden with fruit trees and develop the courtyard so people can eat outside in the summer."

Being in such a remote part of Wales, the main problem for the pub has been staffing, and Inkin is quite vocal on the subject.

"I've been looking for a chef de partie for the past six months. Agencies put you in touch with people, you ask them down for a trial and then they don't turn up.

The work ethic is appalling

"The work ethic is appalling. Chefs leaving college just want to be head chefs and to walk around with a clipboard, do an hour in the morning, an hour in the evening and make sure their minions are working hard. It doesn't work like that anymore.

"I'm very lucky that the guys I do have here work as if it's their own business, and they really put their heart and soul into it. I know if I'm not here, they'll do their utmost and they won't take shortcuts.

"It feels like a small family and I think they genuinely enjoy it. There's always a good atmosphere here, we get some great crowds, there's never any trouble here. I think the staff are quite proud to work here, and we look after them."