10 Top Tips From The Landlord of CAMRA’s Pub Of The Year
Music: The Salutation Inn benefits from a piano situated by a window looking out on to rolling countryside. The pub also regularly hosts folk bands for live music.
Pub games: Punters can tally up their scores on the skittles board as they play on the wooden alley, or delve into the pub’s stash of table games.
Events: Countryside traditions are at the heart of ‘The Sally’s’ entertainment, with Morris dancing and apple wassailing on offer. ‘We are really about trying to promote and push rural traditions, it fits into our ethos to be doing these things,’ Mr Tiley said.
Locals Behind The Bar nights: Regulars are invited for a 15-minute training session behind the bar then take over the pub, until it ‘descends into chaos’, Mr Tiley explains. ‘It usually gets very busy and backed up but it is a lot of fun.’
Customers: Locals are so passionate about the pub that they chip in with painting, gardening and even built the beer garden’s picnic benches. ‘Our customers are amazing,’ Mr Tiley said. ‘We have regulars and we just love them. From the moment we arrived they have been brilliant – people lent us camp beds to sleep on because we didn’t have any furniture.’
Ham from Ham: The Sally raised 11 pigs in a 19th century walled garden last year, their ham now features in the pub’s daily menu and nose-to-tail eating nights. ‘The meat was absolutely delicious, it tasted incredible,’ Mr Tiley said. ‘This isn’t a pub for vegetarians but we’re in rural Gloucestershire, this is traditional farming country.’
Ham, egg and chips: This year the Sally is keeping chickens and growing potatoes, as well as pigs, so punters can enjoy ham, egg and chips grown 100 yards from their plate. ‘We always use local ingredients where we can but growing a whole dish ourselves is something I’m really excited about,’ Mr Tiley said.
Lunch only: The Sally has a three-dish menu of a Ploughman’s lunch, ham, egg and chips and a wildcard option which changes daily. There are no table reservations. ‘You want to go to the pub to be comfortable and totally relax and that’s hard to do when someone is delicately eating their dinner next to you,’ Mr Tiley said. ‘That’s why we only serve dinner on guest chef night each month.’
No lattes: There are limited wine choices, no coffee or tea and few soft drinks options. ‘This is a pub where you come to drink real ale,’ Mr Tiley said. ‘We are not a coffee shop, we are a pub.’
Drink: Last but certainly not least, the Sally is all about beer and cider. Punters can always enjoy five to six real ales from local breweries, such as award-winning Severn Vale, and nine different ciders from producers such as Tom Oliver and Barnes & Adams.
