Grandness of inn George
The Furbanks family has rescued a historic coaching inn in Cambridgeshire and brought it right up to date with a well-heeled brasserie, says Ted Brunning
They're a problem, aren't they, old coaching inns? Huge piles of mouldering masonry, full of rot, and normally in completely the wrong locations for modern needs — who needs 'em?
The grand inns that used to be one of England's glories have had a thin time of late. Some of the most historic have been drastically and unsympathetically altered, demoted to local beer houses, or left to rot.
One that has survived — just — is at Buckden, near Huntingdon. Since the 1970s, when the village was bypassed by the A1, the fortunes of the George gradually faded, and half of it was even sold off piecemeal. Then, three years ago, the two halves were reunited when the Furbank family came to the rescue.
Anne and Richard Furbank started a very swish dress shop in part of the sold-off half of the pub 27 years ago, and as their business grew, they bought up the rest of it. Then in 2003 the George itself was put up for sale by Greene King.
The Furbanks knew the old inn had potential, but it needed more than just a bit of TLC. The whole place closed in July 2003, and the ground floor didn't reopen until March 2004. The Furbanks' daughter-in-law, Becky, won't say how much the refurbishment cost — but it certainly looks expensive.
The six-month project saw the place utterly transformed from a cheap, weary pastiche of an olde inn into a smart, modern, upmarket bar-brasserie.
Its only original feature is the parquet floor. Even the layout is nothing like it used to be. The new bar and restaurant merge into each other, all light and air replacing the old gloomy, solemn atmosphere.
The effect is one of elegant informality that suits both the local and the travelling trade; but more to the point, perhaps, it suits chef Ray Smikle's menus.
"We knew him, and his style of cooking, and we knew it was exactly what we wanted," says Becky.
"The only trouble was that we didn't know where he was. Eventually we found he was cooking in Spain, so we got in touch and persuaded him to come home."
Smikle's style is contemporary but international, rather than modern British. Light lunches range from roast tomato and basil soup at £5.50, via smoked salmon and crayfish sandwiches with cream cheese and spring onions at £7.95, to Gloucestershire Old Spot pork belly with red cabbage, mash and Thai dressing at £12.
Dinner is grander, with noisettes of lamb with tarragon mousse, garlic and rosemary panna cotta, and spinach, tomato and morel jus at £19.95, and grilled fillet of Highland beef, crushed truffle potato, butternut squash, cherry tomato confit and red wine shallot sauce at £24.95. But Becky insists that this is brasserie food, not fine dining.
"This district has a lot of good gastropubs and there are nationally-known fine-dining restaurants in and around Cambridge," she says.
"We wanted something in between — more sophisticated than a gastropub, but less formal and more personal and accessible.
"Ray is exactly the right chef. His cooking is fantastic, but he builds on the reputation of his food by not hiding away in the kitchen.
"He's a great character, who spends a lot of time out front, turning customers into friends — and that, of course, generates repeat business.
"Like us, he's well known in the village. We have built our reputation around taking personal care of our customers, and he definitely shares that philosophy."
You know the Furbanks have got the mix right when you can't find a space in the substantial car park at the George, even on a Monday lunchtime. The investment has been huge, but the old place has been transformed from decrepitude to bustling, buzzing life.
The beautiful old George has been not just rescued, but reinvigorated, — and good food has saved a slice of antiquity for posterity.
