Hungry as a horse

Andrew Burnyeat visits the Running Horse in Hampshire, England

The Running Horse in Hampshire, England, is a prime example of a former country pub enjoying a new lease of life as a restaurant.

Who do we blame for the decline of the good old British rural pub? - greedy property developers, stuck-in-the-mud publicans or lazy customers who loved the idea of a local pub but couldn’t be bothered to walk 100 yards a week to go and support it?

It doesn’t really matter. For many of them, it’s already too late. OUT are the darts teams, the real ale and the chance to have a good gossip with other villagers. The lucky ones which have not been sold off to those greedy developers have become destination diners.

In have come the nouveaux-riches, the Sunday lunch set and the fine wine brigade, very few of whom actually live within 20 miles of the pub they now frequent.

Did we say pub? Apologies. If there’s no real ale and nowhere to enjoy a drink without feeling you have, at some stage, to ‘move through’ to the dining area, it’s a restaurant.

Many of them are now run not by traditional publicans but by chefs trying to make a name for themselves in the country, away from London and its astronomical overheads.

The best of this new breed of dining establishment at least tries to retain some link with the past, and thankfully the Running Horse fits into this category.

Which is a good thing, because when you consider the heritage some of these restaurateurs are sitting on, it’s a tragedy that so many simply bury it, to be dug up one day by some 25th .....

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By Andrew Burnyeat

Section : Spotlight

Page number : 65