Anna Gorman has just taken on a run-down Wellington pub with a mouldy reputation and is breathing new life into it. The Dolphin has been re-born with a new style, new look and new team.
This landlady knows what’s she’s doing. Anna has spent the past 10 years building up the Prince of Wales, Gloucester Road, into one of Bristol’s most individual and successful pubs. One glance at the PoW website http://bit.ly/V9W3n1 shows that this is no Slug & Lettuce or Skylark.
“I’m very much into community pubs where people come regularly and share some of their lives,” said Anna, who opened for business just two months ago. “The locals have been great, bringing vegetables from their gardens in for us, helping with flyers and even designing the Dolphin website.
Food is a big part of the package, with Anna in the kitchen producing a menu that she describes as “small, fresh and well-cooked”. Every day has three specials; one meat, one fish, and one vegetarian, with all the ingredients locally sourced.
Sunday lunch even features a vegan option – although other choices are available, as they say on the wireless. Food at Anna’s other pub, which she is still running at arms-length, is mostly organic and this is a future route for the Dolphin.
Anna’s two children Dylan,8, and Lauren, 6 are quite often to be found around the pub, as his her partner John. They met through a shared love of surfing, although how a woman this busy finds time to catch a wave is hard to figure.
Her key to relaxation is a deckchair – and passers-by during our brief summer noticed a fleet of deckchairs on the Dolphin forecourt. “If you sit in a comfy deckchair and it’s sunny, you’re going to be there for the rest of the day,” laughed Anna. N2Great for trade.”
The Dolphin, 37, Waterloo Rd, Wellington, Somerset, TA21 8JQ [map] [gmap]