A POPULAR bar and restaurant in St Asaph has re-opened.
The Plough, located at The Roe, re-opened under new owners after more than two weeks of renovation work. It held a special re-opening event on Thursday, February 26. Attendees could try free food samples and chat with the staff.
The establishment was bought by Valiant Pub Company after the owners of 27 years, Simon and Joanne Rodenhurst, announced their retirement after 27 years.
Now at the helm is landlady Julie Hood, who has extensive experience running pubs across the UK, including in Yorkshire and Mid Wales.
Originally from South Shields, Newcastle, and now Prestatyn-based, Julie was previously the landlady of The Park Hotel in Colwyn Bay.
Julie hailed the strong start to the pub's return, with a queue lining up outside the pub before its 5pm opening yesterday.
It wasn't long before every table downstairs was taken, with residents clearly keen to see the revamped establishment for themselves.
"It feels really, really good [to open]," Julie said.
"I actually had three different sites and decided to let go of them to come and take this one because it's such a big venue.
"I've been dead excited about opening here. I've been in Aberystwyth for nearly two years - before that I was in Yorkshire, one of the big flagship sites."
The pub launches its full new menu today (Friday, February 27), but some mouth-watering samples of the menu were offered to patrons on opening day, including sausage and creamy mash.
Julie added: "It's nice to see people back in the venue because usually when something closes, it takes a while for people to come back in.
"But I think a venue like this has always been very, very popular anyway and everyone wanted to come in."
What has changed?
Julie continued: "Some of the artwork, we've obviously made it a bit more cosy, so when you come in, there's pictures on board.
"We went through what was on the menu before, but we put our own spin on it.
"So we've got different party packages and we've got Mother's Day coming up, so we've got a set menu for that and loads of different offers.
"We've done starters and sharers and nibbles and stuff like that as well. I don't think that was a massive thing here before, but we've brought that in now as well.
"And then we've got the lounge bar upstairs, which was predominantly used for functions but we're going to use it for functions and also sporting events as well, things like the Six Nations at the moment.
"We've taken a couple of TVs down because when you're dining, you don't always want to be watching the telly.
"So that's why upstairs predominantly is the main restaurant area. If you want fine dining, that way, but [the ground floor] is more casual and cosy.
"We're doing breakfast 10am till 12pm, main menu from 12pm till 8pm, and the opening hours until about 11 or 11.30pm.
"Obviously if we're busy, we'll stay open. We've got our license till 1am, so we've got it and will use it."
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