Award winning food pub group Knife & Fork Food has completed an extensive renovation of the 12th century Old Swan Inn in Llantwit Major, creating a dedicated restaurant space, which will seat up to forty diners.
Knife & Fork, who have owned the historic Llantwit pub for 8 years, have invested £40,000 in order to bring The Old Swan Inn’s dining space very much in line with the aesthetics and menu offering of the other award winning locations in the Knife & Fork group, including The Conway in Pontcanna, The Pilot in Penarth and The Discovery in Cyncoed.
The company hopes that their investment will mean that The Old Swan Inn will now appeal as much to lovers of fine food from Llantwit and further afield, as it does to their loyal community of local drinkers who frequent the 800 year old community pub for their eclectic and high quality selection of regional ales and fine wines.
Commenting on the refurbishment of the Old Swan, Sharon Noakes, director at Knife & Fork Food, said: “The Swan’s extensive refurbishment is already creating quite a buzz in Llantwit Major and around the Vale and we’re so pleased that people are eagerly anticipating its grand unveiling.
“We feel that this significant investment is a natural progression for The Old Swan which as a major hub for the local community really deserves a great restaurant that it can be proud of.”
As with all pubs across the Knife & Fork Food group The Old Swan will be sourcing its ingredients and produce locally, with a focus on seasonality, and dishes will be chalked up on the constantly evolving blackboard menu.
So committed are The Old Swan to delivering diners local ingredients with provenance that many of the dishes served up at the pub will contain ingredients from the Swan’s kitchen garden, which has been lovingly cultivated over the past years. The garden has been tended by a number of local volunteers whose green fingers have helped the allotment space flourish over the last 18 months, providing a top up of home grown vegetables that go straight to the kitchen and into the Swan’s delicious dishes.
The revamp of The Old Swan Inn follows on from several years of growth for the pub company, who acquired The Discovery in Cyncoed 2014 and The Pilot in Penarth 2012, following the acquisition of The Conway in Pontcanna in 2008. The success of the group has been reflected in a number of high profile awards, most notably regular inclusion in the highly acclaimed Michelin’s Eating Out in Pubs Guide and the CAMRA Good Beer Guide, both hospitality industry bibles.
Speaking about the company’s future expansion plans, Sharon Noakes commented:
“We have a proven track record with our core concept of good food, good wine, carefully selected ales and an atmosphere that our customers can feel comfortable in. And as we move into 2017 we are very much looking forward to rolling that concept out across south Wales.”
The Old Swan Inn’s restaurant opens on Thursday 3rd November.