Osian Phillips has taken over the running of the pub which dates back to 1460
New landlord of the Beaufort Arms, Osian Phillips, pictured behind the bar(Image: Thornton Taverns Ltd)
The Beaufort Arms is among the list of oldest pubs in Wales. But the new person in charge has proven that age is just a number.
Osian Phillips is the new landlord of the 566-year-old pub in Kittle, Gower, at the age of just 20.
The young man, from Gowerton in Swansea, worked his way up the ranks at another pub in Swansea and when he saw the opportunity come up to take over the running of a watering hole of his very own he jumped at the chance.
He said: “I started working in pubs when I turned 18 and I worked my way up over at The Dunvant as part of the pub leadership team. I started doing glass collecting just before it had its refurbishment, and after I worked as one of the bar staff, and within a year I was up to supervisor, and a year later I decided to look to do my own thing.
“I saw this come up at The Beaufort and it kind of felt like the next step for me so I applied for it through Marston’s, and met with the area manager, regional manager, went through my business plan, went to Wolverhampton to complete training, and took over on November 8.
“It’s been going really well with a slow start, building it up, but things started off good over the Christmas period – it was crunch time taking over and getting the staff all ready. Going into January now we’ll be able to focus on the staff team training for the 10 who work here and get everything sorted.
“For myself it’s definitely been a big learning experience so far. It was about wanting to come in and see what I could do, building it up to what it used to be, and looking to bring back a community pub.
“My background has been mostly in the drinks side of things. I’ve got an interest in cocktails and do my own rum infusions – it’s what my main interest was working at the other pub, learning the specs, learning the menus, chatting to customers. It’s what I enjoy doing.”
New menu
Osian pictured outside the historic venue(Image: Thornton Taverns Ltd)
Osian, a former pupil at Bishopston and Gowerton schools, said: “Marston’s decided to bring it back onto a classic food menu. I am not an employee of Marston’s – I’m a separate company now so I set up my company with Marstons in partnership to run the business.
“We are serving up pub classics with a couple of added extras, like kebabs and things, but it is the classic Marston’s menu that people will be familiar with all around Swansea.
“We’ll be looking to get our open fires fixed hopefully by the end of January so there is a bit more warmth and a bit more atmosphere. We’re going to do a whole new repaint of upstairs and we’re planning on repainting the downstairs too to get it all updated and create a cleaner look.”
Event plans
Osian plans to make full use of its outdoor area(Image: Thornton Taverns Ltd)
Osian added: “We’re going to try and do a lot more community events and having the locals coming up for men’s afternoons and try and bring it more into the local community again.
“The regulars have all been really positive since I took over and we’ve had quite a lot of support from everyone with people sharing around my posts and helping me to find staff. People have been coming in and trying out the new menu – they’ve all been really, really supportive.
“We also want to make better use of the outdoor space coming into the summer and have some proper evenings going on with live music.
“I want to do a bluegrass event at some point and have that local atmosphere really.”
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