{"id":4684,"date":"2017-05-25T10:18:16","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T10:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/https:\/\/http:\/\/lcnonline.co.uk\/\/\/?p=4684"},"modified":"2017-05-25T10:18:16","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T10:18:16","slug":"nose-country-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lcnonline.co.uk\/nose-country-style\/","title":{"rendered":"A nose for country style…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Popular Hillsborough dining pub, The Parson\u2019s Nose, has unveiled a new \u2018country chic\u2019 look following a \u00a3500,000, 12-week redevelopment programme.<\/em><\/p>\n

The recent \u00a3500,000 revamp at The Parson\u2019s Nose in Hillsborough has thoroughly transformed the busy venue which, along with Balloo House at Killinchy and The Poacher\u2019s Pocket at Comber, constitutes the Balloo Inns group, owned by Ronan and Jennifer Sweeney.<\/p>\n

The redevelopment has added an additional 40 covers to the dining quota at the village venue, bringing its full complement to 120 seats.<\/p>\n

The property itself has been expanded at the back, increasing the size of the old dining room and offering lovely new views out over Hillsborough Lake. And the rear of the premises, which previously suffered from a lack of natural light, has been opened out into the beer garden:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole flow of the place at the back really has improved a lot now,\u201d Ronan told LCN this month. \u201cI think we\u2019ve brought a lot more country chic to The Parson\u2019s Nose where before, it was much more a classic Georgian look. That was the brief to our designer and I think he\u2019s managed to do that very well without losing any of the character of the original venue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s now a real cosiness to the Parson\u2019s Nose. There are four different rooms on variouslevels throughout the building. We\u2019re very lucky, I think, in that if you hear of somewhere that has a 120-cover restaurant, you might think of one huge room with 120 seats in it, but the biggest room at The Parson\u2019s Nose has 50 covers and the other three rooms are smaller, each with their own distinct ambience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronan began his career working for hospitality veteran, Bill Wolsey. After four years at that, in December 2003, Balloo House came onto the market and Ronan jumped at the chance. He and Jennifer bought the place and went on to focus on transforming its food offering. These days, the 400-year-old venue has a formidable reputation as a gastro-pub and fine-dining restaurant.<\/p>\n

Then, in 2009, The Parson\u2019s Nose went up for sale in Hillsborough and Ronan and Jennifer took it on:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur intention at the start had been to refurbish the premises,\u201d recalls Ronan. \u201cIn the event, however we spent \u00a3100,000 on redecoration and refurbishing the kitchen and the turnover just went bananas, it went from strength to strength. We found there was a considerable demand here for a gastropub and we realised that there wasn\u2019t really any need for further investment just at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, in December 2012, the former Lisbarnett House restaurant came onto the market:<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than invest in The Parson\u2019s Nose at that time when, we felt, it still didn\u2019t need any additional financial help, we decided to buy and refurbish Lisbarnett House and it was really in much more need of some urgent investment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sweeney\u2019s spent a total of around \u00a3400,000 redeveloping Lisbarnett House, which they then renamed The Poacher\u2019s Pocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, it took us 18 months to get that place the way we wanted it,\u201d says Ronan. \u201cWe re-opened in April 2014 and turnover at The Poacher\u2019s Pocket now is higher than it\u2019s ever been and we\u2019re really delighted to see the place developing into a great, local community pub.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The planning application for the current round of improvements at The Parson\u2019s Nose went through in January last year. Hillsborough itself is a historic village and a heritage site so it took upwards of 11 months to satisfy planners that the designs for the new dining pub would be properly sympathetic to the area.<\/p>\n

Work began at The Parson\u2019s Nose in January this year and the venue closed for 12 weeks, re-opening again on March 26:<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s quite a long time to be closed\u201d, admits Ronan, \u201cbut to be honest, January and February are quiet months anyway and our big fear was really that the work would run on into the Easter period. But we had a great team on the job, great builders and shop-fitters who worked seven-days-a-week and we were able to re-open in good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronan says that customer feedback on the new-look Parson\u2019s Nose has been \u201coverwhelmingly positive\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have loved the fresh feel of the new place and they have told us that they think that the new menu is a little more family friendly as well. We\u2019re now offering a full range of wood-smoked sourdough pizzas alongside our full menu and we think that\u2019s attracting more families to The Parson\u2019s Nose.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a gamble to get involved in the whole wood-smoked pizza side of things, I think you can go too Italian and people think that you\u2019ve changed your whole menu, but we\u2019ve not done that, we\u2019ve just added a pizza section and families love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well-known local chef, Danny Millar, has been executive chef at all the venues since 2006 and Ronan says that he and his kitchen team have been central to the group\u2019s ongoing success:<\/p>\n

\u201cBalloo Inns is doing really well,\u201d he adds \u201cCountry pubs are probably always going to have to compete with the city centre venues to retain their custom, but we are really focused on increasing our quality levels and if we can see any opportunity to do that, then we have got to go there because things are tougher in the rural areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronan also says that while there are no firm expansion plans in place for the group, he certainly wouldn\u2019t let a good opportunity go by:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, we\u2019re just trying to improve on everything,\u201d he adds. \u201cOur product has been well received overall and our job now is to be the best that we can be. We don\u2019t want to lose any of the ground that we\u2019ve gained so far, we have a reputation for quality food and hospitality and we don\u2019t want to let that crown slip.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Popular Hillsborough dining pub, The Parson\u2019s Nose, has unveiled a new \u2018country chic\u2019 look following a \u00a3500,000, 12-week redevelopment programme. The recent \u00a3500,000 revamp at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA nose for country style... - Licensed & Catering News (LCN) - News Coverage from the Local Trade<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"googlebot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"bingbot\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/lcnonline.co.uk\/nose-country-style\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A nose for country style... - Licensed & Catering News (LCN) - News Coverage from the Local Trade\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Popular Hillsborough dining pub, The Parson\u2019s Nose, has unveiled a new \u2018country chic\u2019 look following a \u00a3500,000, 12-week redevelopment programme. 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