An update on life at The Greyhound…so Love is in the Air!…

8th February…Love is in the Air!

So we are feeling the love this week…as well as chilly in the snow! Sharing a fab little video that some of our team made yesterday whilst running the Sunday Pitstop takeaway cafe and sending out the Sunday Roasts…watch this… we hope you enjoy it! Snowy Sunday Greyhound Charcott

We have also updated the takeaway menu pages as are running some specials this weekend, a Burger Night and then a special for Valentines Supper of Chateaubriand, check out all the details on the Food Menu page and place your orders as soon as possible please.

Thank you! x

4th February…Keeping going at the Heart of our Community….

Well we are sure that so many of you will be feeling just like us at the moment, eager for news of what will happen next and when?! It is great to see that the vaccination programmes are so well under way and a true relief for many to see our older and more vulnerable loves ones receiving their jabs in the past few weeks. Am sure you are eager, just like us, for the the day that giving hugs to those we love will be allowed! It has been so long!

There has been all sorts of speculation around when the hospitality industry will be seeing signs of movement and being able to open up again will be permitted and the truth is that we just don’t know, early May bank holiday weekend has been the furthest yet that we have read about but we sincerely hope it isn’t that long away.

Hopefully with Spring around the corner and the days getting longer…yes every day makes a difference at the moment, we will all begin to feel this slowly lifting! The dark wet days through the Winter have felt the hardest and keeping chipper can be tough, even for those usually smiling from ear to ear because lets be honest we are all only human and every single one of us has felt the challenges of this in various ways since it all began.

We are hopeful that being able to open and utilise our outdoor space first will be a positive for us, we honestly can’t wait to be cooking again for you all, really cooking and serving food on plates with cutlery! Who would have thought that would have been something to be excited about…but most of all to be able to talk with you about how you’ve enjoyed our food and just life in general, we really miss it, good old conversation, the heart of what pub life is all about and what we are most looking forward to returning to in our daily life here.

This lovely photo was taken by the brilliant John Carey, who is one of our locals and an incredibly talented Food Photographer, often working with many top talented celebrity Chefs, we were honoured to have him here with the Hofmeister team back in September last year for a photoshoot.

We have tried really hard to stay in the forefront of most of your minds by keeping our presence out there and engaging with you and it has been the lifeline that has been getting us through, but throwing open the doors and welcoming you all back is like the carrot dangling ahead, we can’t wait to take a bite!

Until then keep safe, keep in touch and let us know if we can help in any way at all, we are here and still striving to be the very Heart of our Community! x

27th January…well we nearly had snow!…

So we had a fun weekend back in the zone cooking again last weekend, many many happy customers and you were all up for sharing your feedback with us which was lovely, just the morale boost we needed, thank you, I shared it in a lovely round up of the weekend on our Facebook and Instagram stories so if you’re not already following us on there please connect to keep in touch with what we are up to!

Back to it again this weekend, menus are up so check them out, we are ready for your orders x

19th January…Counting down to takeaways!…

Hi Everyone,

Hope your January is going ok so far and despite yesterday supposedly being called #bluemonday you are in fact getting through and managing to stay positive, well and healthy during this latest lockdown period.

The vaccine programmes are now underway and many of us seem relieved to see close family and friends now being invited to come along and get their first injections…strange times, who would have thought a year ago that having a vaccination would be something to be getting excited about?! Yet here we are, embracing this as a pivotal point, and the meaning beneath it, a step closer to being able to see a light at the end of the long tunnels, and the hope that in time we will be able to see family and friends and hug those we love and have missed so much!

In the spirit of staying positive we bring you something to ease the burden again of cooking every night as our takeaways start again this weekend, we will be doing Friday and Saturday evening, collections from 5 – 8pm and Sunday (yes Rich is “Roasting!”) collections from 1230 – 230pm. Please see the Food Menu page for the latest menus and use our Order A Takeaway page to place you orders. Please note the change this time is that we are not permitted to sell any alcohol now at all as pubs can now only do this if offering a home delivery service and sadly we are unable, with just the two of us, to be able to do this.

Our popular, but very Covid-19 guidelines friendly and safe Pop Up Pitstop Takeaway Cafe with continue each weekend, being open on Saturday and Sunday 10am – 2pm.

We are hoping very much that by concentrating our takeaway efforts on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays we will be able to be providing enough of a safe takeaway service to keep it viable as the period during which we cannot resume “normal” trade continues and this will of course help very much in protecting the future of the pub. Our ears are always open and if you have any thoughts, ideas or suggestions of things we can consider we would be very happy to hear these.

Lastly just to let you know that every weekend, whether it be Friday or Saturday evening or Sunday lunchtime, there will be a random lucky order selected to receive their takeaway on us, completely free of charge as a thank you for continuing to safely support us, we are wanting to show our appreciation within our local community and felt this would be a nice way to do it as you are all very valuable to us in keeping us going, thank you!

Look forward to seeing you this weekend 🙂

Fran & Rich x

7th January…We asked, you’ve told us and we are listening!…

Further to my update earlier this week we are really delighted that by using our social media connections we have asked you what you think about us running the pop up cafe and we are listening to what you would like. We are balancing this with trying to do our best in these circumstances to make a living and protect the future of our pub for this community to continue to be able to enjoy. The upshot is…our pop up cafe will continue to run on Saturday and Sunday mornings, see the opening hours page for timings.

We will be taking extra measures to ensure that everyone is able to safely social distance and there will be an order and collection point. In the words of one of our lovely locals we ask for your help in respecting that this is a takeaway only cafe and any congregating by customer cannot happen when using it please as we don’t want to find you or ourselves in a difficult position. We are really happy that you are so supportive and behind us in keeping it going as it really does help us to manage at the moment during these difficult times.

Thank you, we are glad we asked! x

5th January…Happy New Year Everyone!…

Well, the news that we are all expecting arrived last night, and we begin a new period of National Lockdown today. Not entirely sure that for it is going to be a great deal different to the life we have had recently since 19th December in Tier 4 as sadly it means we still are not able to open our doors or even plan for this anytime soon. But despite feeling a bit despondent about the start to a new year with scary rates increasing on the Covid front its really important that we don’t lose sight of the positives…we are not unwell, the vaccines are coming and whilst we are are in lockdown we are blessed with a beautiful area in the countryside to call home so must keep forward focused!

We had planned to have a short pause on our evening takeaways at the start of this year to have a chance to recharge and do some planning, we have new life due soon on the farm as the Dexters are expecting! Calves are due at the end of the month so plenty of farm work to be completed ahead of their arrival and doubtless everyone will be thinking about a healthy start to 2021 too so this will hopefully also give you a brief chance to miss us and be looking forward to a takeaway treat when we resume on Friday 22nd January, we will share an updated menu on our website soon too.

You are also possibly wondering about the pop up Pitstop Takeaway Cafe that has been running at the weekends in the mornings from the beginning of November. We have made a difficult decision to suspend this for the moment. Right now with such pressure on the frontline NHS staff and hospital services within our area we feel that the responsible and right thing to do is not to be encouraging people along to something that is non essential at this time, no matter how much we have enjoyed seeing you whilst walking and cycling near us.

For us, we are just not comfortable with it and don’t want to disappoint customers by not offering it but equally don’t want to be a source of disappointment to our loyal customers or lovely Charcott neighbours by facilitating something when trying to avoid the spread of the virus has got to be everyones primary objective right now, we all need to play our part, however small it may be! We hope you understand our position and of course we will review regularly and keep you updated on as and when it is possible to start this again.

It goes without saying we couldn’t have got through 2020 without you, so a HUGE thank you to everyone that has been able to support us during this rough ride! We have tried our best to be continually adapting and evolving as each new challenge presents itself and we shall carry on with this determined spirit, it just isn’t in our nature to close the door and do nothing. Our future here and our much loved livelihood absolutely depends on staying strong and being positive and you, our wonderful community, have our assurance that we will continue to do our best!

For now, please keep strong, look after yourselves and let’s all do our bit to stay at home and help protect our NHS as well as our loved ones.

All our best wishes and love for a strong, healthy and happy 2021, together we will get there and it will get better!

Fran and Rich x

22nd December…Sending you all very special Festive Wishes!

Well as we are all spending our Christmas period this year in Tier 4 lets do what we can to try and enjoy it, being ever grateful if fortunate enough to have not been impacted by being unwell or losing loved ones. If there is anyone needing help or support or a Christmas dinner please let us know and we will be able to help out.

On Christmas Eve and Boxing Day our pop up take away coffee, cakes and breakfast rolls cafe will be open between 10am and 2pm so if you are out for a walk or a bike ride in fresh country air, (the forecast is not showing rain!) then pop by and grab a coffee or hot chocolate to take with you!

Merry Christmas Everyone! x

14th December…Tier 3 Pub Life…full of lots of unanswered questions!

Well, over the past two weeks we have continued to cook our takeaways for you and have been most appreciate of the opportunity to do this. Naturally though, it has been expected that the numbers would steadily reduce, Christmas is coming so we totally understand and expect that without the usual fun of social engagements that often take place at the pub, people have got to focus on other things besides takeaways in the run up to the festive week. We have been carefully considering how to manage what we can offer at this time and ensuring that we make decisions based on what is viable for us as a small business.

We have decided this weekend that we will be cooking for Take Away Pizzas only on Friday and Saturday evening between 5 – 830pm. Please note we are not cooking on Thursday evening or Sunday lunchtime this weekend for takeaway food.

We are being realistic and appreciating that despite all our frustrations with the whole of Kent being placed in Tier 3 the Covid infections rates have continued to rise and this includes across our surrounding towns too locally rather than just further away in the North Kent Medway, Swale and Thanet regions. Today it has been announced London is joining us in Tier 3 from Wednesday so even less likely for us to see Tier 2 coming our way unfortunately.

We are expecting that if we remain in Tier 3 for the foreseeable future we will take the time to appreciate an enforced and unexpected break to recharge and restore our energy levels over the Christmas period to be ready to face what comes next, whatever that may look like into 2021. We have been blown away by the support that you have all shown us at our pub throughout this year, what a challenging one it has been!

We have been blessed with your kindness, loyalty and repeated custom and we have truly tried hard to give it our all to weather the storm 2020 has given us all and keep going to be there for our community. We will still be here, even if the takeaway food has have a break so you can always call even if just for a chat, or pop by if weather permits for the Weekend Pop Up Takeaway Cafe Pitstops! We will keep this page updated as this week unfolds and you can always check our Instagram and Facebook pages too. Best wishes to you all for staying well and safe, Fran & Rich x

9th December…a week into Tier 3!

We are still here and still offering takeaways! We are very appreciative for your orders that have kept coming in, they really do keep us going! Naturally we are not holding out a great deal of hope for seeing Kent coming into Tier 2 after the 16th December but are having to take it a week at a time at the moment, it is very hard to plan! Keep your eye on our Facebook and Instagram pages too for news of our offerings for you in December. Keep being careful out and about everyone! x

2nd December…so sad we are still unable to open!

So, today we have reached the day that the National Lockdown #2 comes to an end…we are feeling really sad about being in Tier 3! And not being able to open again today to welcome you here. Feeling fortunate of course, to be living and operating in an area within Kent that is not reflecting the high statistics which have got us into this position. But feeling very sad about what this means for our business in what should be a fun filled run up of festive trade to Christmas.

We will of course, do what we do best, CARRY ON! Our takeaway food will continue as it has done throughout this lockdown, see the cooking days and times on the Opening Hours page and please use the Order form to place all orders.

Sadly this does mean that those who had hoped to spend Christmas Day lunch here now won’t be able to do this as we appreciate that even if there is a potential at review point on the 16th December for us to move into Tier 2 this is too late for making Christmas Day arrangements for these families. We can only hope to be able to to offer a Christmas to remember next year instead.

At the moment we are unsure what our potential will be for trade for the festive period. We will have to wait and see and then we will publicise what our opening offerings / take away days and times will be when we can make these decisions.

We’d like to take this opportunity to THANK all our customers, friends, neighbours and our team for standing by us at the pub, the continued support has been greatly appreciated and kept us going so far. We will keep you up to date and hope very much it won’t be too long before we can see you here to visit us again soon.

Stay well and safe everyone.

Best wishes,

Fran & Rich

25th November…we are counting down the days!

So yesterday we all listened to Boris advising that we are set to come out of this latest lockdown #2 next week….but we need to wait until tomorrow to know exactly to what extent we will be able to trade…we are praying to be in Tier 2 and allowed to open our doors and do more that just take away trade, we have everything crossed and have been working really hard behind the scenes here to be set and ready! Let’s hope it is good news!

Why not take a look at our Instagram and Facebook pages to see what we have been up to in getting ready for welcoming you back….it’s been non stop busy!!! And WE ABSOLUTELY CAN’T WAIT TO HAVE YOU BACK HERE!

In the meantime we will continue this week with our takeaways, see the full menu on our food menu pages and use our order a take away form to place your order, as much notice as possible will be really appreciated.

Thanks for everything you are doing to continue supporting us!

Fran & Rich x

16th November…Roasts are a big success, 68 went out of here yesterday! Please see the updated section below for the menu for this coming Sunday, 22nd Nov on the food menus page. You will also find our takeaway menus for Thursday – Saturday evenings there too.

We are so chuffed to still be able to cook for so many of you, thank you sincerely for all your support and keeping us busy! We really appreciate it x

12th November…YES!!! Rich’s roasts are available for takeaway!

We had been struggling to decide whether to go down the takeaway Sunday roast route…but are flattered to find you are super keen to carry on enjoying Rich’s roasts through this lockdown!

We have decided that rather than doing individual roasts we will offer fully cooked and ready to go takeaway roasts that you can order for the number of people you need. Everything will come ready for simply dishing up, so you can pop your plates in the oven and head to pick up, bonus will be no roasting tins for washing up! All this for just £13 per person, what’s not to love!

This Sunday, 22nd November we will be cooking:

Garlic & Thyme Supreme of Roast Chicken, redcurrant jelly
12hr Slow Roasted Brisket of Roast Beef, horseradish sauce
Homemade Nutty Mushroom, Almond and Walnut Roast.
All our roasts come with golden roast potatoes, honey roast parsnips and glazed carrots, creamy cauliflower cheese and fresh steamed seasonal greens and of course a Yorkshire pudding and rich gravy.

And this includes delicious homemade apple, pear & blackberry crumble too with custard to finish off, this is a gluten free dessert.

Collection is between 12-2pm from the pub. Please order online by 1pm on our website on Saturday if you’d like to have something lovely to look forward to this Sunday!
(PLEASE DON’T FORGET TO INCLUDE ANY DIETARY REQUIREMENTS, SUCH AS GLUTEN FREE, YOU MAY HAVE WHEN PLACING YOUR ORDER)

5th November 2020…

So we have sadly closed our doors again unfortunately for the next round of Lockdown #2! However, we are ready and prepared to offer our takeaways so please take a look at the pages for update on life here, takeaway menus along with the days and times these are available and use the form to order yours!….

Stay well, safe and strong everyone, thank you for all your continued to support and we look forward to welcoming you again just as soon as we are able to open up again, hopefully in good time for Christmas.

1st November 2020…

So our next lockdown is looming and we have 3 days to go! We are feeling sad naturally to be thinking about how much we will miss you all coming here, and the usual happy vibe about the place but we are READY to go with our takeaways! We will be uploading our menu on here shortly, watch this space!

WE ARE OPEN MONDAY, TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY THIS WEEK 12NOON – 10PM SO COME AND VISIT US IF YOU’D LIKE TO, BOOKING IS ADVISABLE IF YOU CAN TO SECURE A SEAT! CALL US ON 01892870275 OR USE OUR BOOK A TABLE FORM ON HERE.

We will continue of course to do all we can to support our community and keep its heart alive, if you need help or would just like a chat then don’t hesitate to give us a call. It’s not easy of course for any of us but we are all in the situation together and must remain focused on coming out the other side. We have worked tirelessly to ensure we have been Covid compliant since reopening and we will continue to do this, we will be so happy to open our doors to you again in early December. Stay safe, stay well and keep strong you lovely people.

Fran and Rich and Team Greyhound x

25th October 2020…Autumn Life at the Pub

The transition is now well under way as the beautiful Autumn leaves surrounding us at the pub are falling, the colours are amazing and we are embracing the change in season with delicious additions to the menu………. If you’ve not visited us recently you won’t be disappointed to return as the dishes are receiving very good feedback for being so tasty! The homemade shortcrust pastry pies are back, complete with our signature Greyhounds on top! This other picture to wet your appetite is the scrumptious local venison dish, noisettes with fondant potato, roasted squash, green beans and finished with a port and blackberry sauce with parsnip crisps, absolutely perfect when washed down with a large glass of red wine! Yum!

You will also probably have seen from our Instagram and Facebook posts a few weeks back that our wonderful Sunday roasts have also come back to the menu too and are being enjoyed by many each week, why now book a table and come and enjoy a walk to the pub and a homecooked hearty roast. We always offer two different meat roast options and a proper veggie one too, all complete with huge Yorkies, lots of fresh seasonal veggies and roasted potatoes and parsnips with plenty of tasty desserts on offer too for finishing off.

We are also excited to share the news that from the 27th October we will be open again on Tuesdays too, so another day for enjoying your company, just in time for half term. We have been incredibly careful to be following all the government guidelines for the appropriate Covid19 social distancing requirements here, and have been touched by your appreciation and feedback on how we are managing this. Being honest, it hasn’t been easy but hopefully we are making a good job of it and the next new build here is well underway now for ensuring we have a safe space for sharing with you to get us through the chillier Autumn and Winter months ahead…here are a couple of pictures in early construction phase, it is due to be finished at the end of this month and will include two lovely big log burners to keep it cosy along with soft lighting, will be the perfect place to enjoy a pint or two at the end of a country walk and treat yourself to one of our tasty pizzas!

23rd September 2020…

So it has been a little while since we have posted an update on here, things have been very different since we were able to reopen but we have been truly delighted that we have been able to welcome so many people back here to enjoy the pub.

For the most part we have enjoyed beautiful weather and been able to make the most of all of our outdoor space, truly blessed as appreciate some pubs without any seating outside will have had very different experiences to us. Our team has worked tirelessly to ensure that you have been able to visit us safely, table service has been our new normal since reopening so we have got to grips with this aspect pretty well. Granted that some customers may not feel that it is quite as instant as being able to order at the bar, but the end result is the same, and your thirst is still enjoyably quenched!

Moving forward in the Autumn now we are going to have to make a few further changes in line with the new laws that have been introduced and obviously we are going to need your understanding and cooperation to ensure that these are smoothly implemented and adhered to. Naturally we are trying to retain the “feel” of the pub being a pub and not somewhere too full of signage about rules and regs, perspex screening and dividers everywhere etc but this is all largely dependent on being able to ensure customers can continue to come here and observe safe social distancing.

So in sharing a little mug shot of me before I go downstairs this morning please be reminded it is now a legal requirement to wear a mask / face covering when you come to the pub and enter to come indoors. This must be worn until you are seated to eat and/or drink. If you need to use the toilet facilities you will need to put it back on and the same applies when you are ready to move away from the table again when leaving the pub. Please be aware if you have an exemption from wearing a mask / face covering, we may ask why you aren’t wearing one, please don’t take offence if so. ( I am smiling behind this, my mask is appropriately themed with glasses I think!)

As the weather in now cooling down it is worth a reminder that we only have 7 (yes only 7!!) tables inside the pub for people to sit at and unfortunately if you can’t be seated then we can’t serve you so BOOKING in with us in now more important that ever, we really don’t want to disappoint you by turning you away but we will have no choice if you haven’t booked and we can’t fit you in. Our food service times have been adjusted slightly again to accommodate the change in opening hours required. Please also see the details of our take away food service times too, this is a great alternative if we can’t fit you in for a table!

8th July 2020…

WE ARE OPEN! IT’S GREAT TO BE BACK & ABLE TO WELCOME YOU AGAIN!

If you would like to visit us, please read the information to follow:

Please note our revised opening days and hours too as we phase everyone back into pub life, see the opening hours page for full details.

There is no alternative to seeing how we get on and tweaking processing as we learn and this is required. We will be supporting the request to hold traceability records as we believe it is the responsible way to do it and these records will be held for a minimum of 21 days.

We have amended our contact form on our website to take booking requests.

We will have booking slots and our tables will be bookable for up to 6 persons from no more than 2 households including children for a maximum 3 hour slot.
Our tables will be outside in the garden and we will do our best to assist with sun and rain coverings (these are currently additional works in progress!)
Unfortunately we will not be able to relocate your table to inside if the British Summer weather is unkind as we do not have a big enough pub for this so it will be up to your own decision to take your chances!
If you decide to cancel we ask you to ring and advise us so the table may be offered to others.
To begin with we are not planning to ask for deposits for securing tables but please note this may change if needed in the future.
Across the front of the pub on the flagstones terrace we will also have smaller bookable tables for 2-4 persons from no more than 2 households. These are for a maximum of 2 hours, however these may be extended if there is availability.
We will be unable to manage queues if these are full if you arrive without a booking. Right now to ensure we can handle this situation safely and responsibly we ask you to help us by booking please.
Booking is currently by using our contact form on the Getting in Touch page on our website only at the moment.
Once you have received a booking confirmation email from us it will contact the details of our procedures for when you arrive here.

Please remember that we are doing everything we can to try and get this right, for you and for us, it is our home at the end of the day as well as your pub and we really want to share it with you as soon as possible in the safest most responsible way we can. We are so looking forward to seeing you all again.

Thank you

Fran & Rich x

1st July 2020…We are excited to announce we will be reopening our pub on Wednesday 8th July at 12pm.

So…it is really happening…we are permitted to reopen the pub, YAY!!!

Of course we are absolutely delighted by this news and have been busy over the past week digesting the huge amount of information within the published government guidelines to ensure we interpret and apply it correctly here in our pub, with every emphasis, as you’d expect no less from us, on protecting the safety of our customers and staff.

There is no denying the fact that it has been incredibly challenging and stressful, not to mention costly too, in being able to figure it all out and get everything needed into place, we only want the best experience for you as our customers and our wonderful team here.

We will be operating a booking only system for both food and drinks to begin with, we are new to this too you know, so ask for your patience and understanding as we all get to grips with new ways of managing things. There is no alternative to seeing how we get on and tweaking processing as we learn and this is required. We will be supporting the request to hold traceability records as we believe it is the responsible way to do it and these records will be held for a minimum of 21 days.

We have amended our contact form on our website to take booking requests. Please note our revised opening hours too as we phase everyone back into pub life.

We will have booking slots and our tables will be bookable for up to 6 persons from no more than 2 households including children for a maximum 3 hour slot.
Our tables will be outside in the garden and we will do our best to assist with sun and rain coverings (these are currently additional works in progress!)
Unfortunately we will not be able to relocate your table to inside if the British Summer weather is unkind as we do not have a big enough pub for this so it will be up to your own decision to take your chances!
If you decide to cancel we ask you to ring and advise us so the table may be offered to others.
To begin with we are not planning to ask for deposits for securing tables but please note this may change if needed in the future.
Across the front of the pub on the flagstones terrace we will also have smaller bookable tables for 2-4 persons from no more than 2 households. These are for a maximum of 2 hours, however these may be extended if there is availability.
We will be unable to manage queues if these are full if you arrive without a booking. Right now to ensure we can handle this situation safely and responsibly we ask you to help us by booking please.
Booking is currently by using our contact form on the Getting in Touch page on our website only at the moment. (Whilst working on getting everything ready we are unable to man the phones over the coming days but will deal with everything via the contact form)
Once you have received a booking confirmation email from us it will contact the details of our procedures for when you arrive here.

Please note that we will not be serving take away food this weekend (2nd – 5th July), we do plan to reintroduce this too as appreciate not everyone that has enjoyed it over lockdown may be able to come back here so soon. Our pizzas will remain a constant thing of the future here as you will see the wonderful arrival of our much larger new oven too, it’s a real beauty! Keep your eye out for all the details of this coming soon too.

Thank you for all your incredible support, it has kept our lovely pub firmly on the map and in a position for its exciting revival ahead now!

With our very best wishes,

Fran and Rich x

23rd June 2020…

YAY!!! We are absolutely delighted to hear of the governments announcement today that we are able to look forward to opening our lovely pub again on Saturday 4th July, it’s such good news! We are busy working through the details that have been issued in their guidance documents to ensure that we interpret and implement this appropriately here to ensure a safe and responsible return to the pub for our wonderful customers. We will be operating a booking only system to begin with the be able to manage numbers as we are only a small pub, we thank you for your understanding.

We will publish details as soon as we are able to this week and are ready to take bookings along with our menu details too. In the meantime here are this weekend’s take away menus…

Hello, thanks for stopping by, we are excited to be expanding our take away offerings from the beginning of June as our Summer Kitchen reopens on the front of the pub and we will be cooking on our wood fired Ofyr Grill and offering our delicious burgers, chicken and kebabs to mix it up a bit as we will be alternating this with continuing to offer delicious homemade wood fired pizzas for take away too.

Please kindly carefully read the following information about how we are operating:
We will continue with a contactless collection during the period we are unable to be open for normal pub trade due to the Covid 19 situation.

We will be cooking as follows this week:

Wood Fired Ofyr Grill on Thursday 25th and Friday 26th June from 5-8pm, please see the menu here…OFYR GRILL TAKE AWAY MENU – JUNE 2020

Wood Fired Pizzas on Saturday 27th June 5-8pm and Sunday 28th June 5-7pm, please see the menu here…THE GREYHOUND CHARCOTT – TAKE AWAY PIZZA MENU APRIL 2020.docx

We will continue to operate as a pre order take away service only throughout June, and if all is well and we are permitted to reopen our garden space in early July we will publish details for this later in the month.

Please kindly bear in mind we that as we are NOT as large takeaway chain outlet we are only able to take orders in advance and our phone lines open on a Thursday morning from 11am.

You can then place orders from Thursday morning into the weekend, as much notice as you are able to give us is helpful, especially if you have a big family. We try to answer as many calls as possible, please bear in mind that it is only the two of us working at the moment and it is often not possible to take calls in the evenings when we are actually cooking and serving food. It does get very busy and we are sorry that we can’t always please and feed everyone that gets in touch, we are doing the best we can in these times so appreciate your understanding.

Please note we only take orders by phone, NOT email, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or texts as payment is also taken in advance.

Thank you so much for all your support, we have been overwhelmed by this and are truly grateful for all your orders, keeping us busy!

Fran & Rich x

MONDAY 8TH JUNE – PLEASE NOTE…

As per our social media update today we wish to avoid disappointing anyone but we will NOT be cooking this weekend 11th – 14th June. Our pizza and Ofyr grill take away services will resume on the 18th June. This is to allow us some time to catch breath, recharge and continue with preparation works underway behind the scenes to get ready for when we are permitted to welcome customers back to the pub. Thank you for your understanding, it has been a full on ten weeks of take away service so far for just the two of us, so we are looking forward to the opportunity to enjoy someone else cooking the takeaway too for a treat!

Thank you, as always we really appreciate all your support and custom to date.

Fran and Rich x

NEWSFLASH – JUNE 2020 UPDATE!

We will be cooking as follows this week:

Wood Fired Ofyr Grill on Thursday 4th and Friday 5th June from 5-8pm, please see the menu here…OFYR GRILL TAKE AWAY MENU – JUNE 2020

Wood Fired Pizzas on Saturday 6th June 5-8pm and Sunday 7th June 5-7pm, please see the menu here…THE GREYHOUND CHARCOTT – TAKE AWAY PIZZA MENU APRIL 2020.docx

Please kindly bear in mind we that as we are NOT as large takeaway chain outlet we are only able to take orders in advance and our phone lines open on a Thursday morning from 11am.

Please note we only take orders by phone, NOT email, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or texts as payment is also taken in advance.

Thank you so much for all your support, we have been overwhelmed by this and are truly grateful for all your orders, keeping us busy!

Fran & Rich x

Reposted – Saturday 11th April

As you will no doubt have seen from our social posts this week, we have reached the decision that we are going to offer our community a safe and responsible way to enjoy a take away from us during this period where social distancing is of paramount importance.

We are pleased to share that we are launching take away pizza, having been able to bring forward some of our plans for the Summer of 2020, we have managed to install our new wood fired pizza oven and get the beauty fired up! Please be very aware that we are NOT going to be operating on a competitive scale production wise with the likes of the big well known pizza chains.

Today are cooking from 5-8pm take away pizza for contactless collection to support the social distancing guidelines currently in place. Please click here for our TAKE AWAY PIZZA menu…THE GREYHOUND CHARCOTT – TAKE AWAY PIZZA MENU APRIL 2020.docx

We hope you enjoy what we are trying to offer in these difficult circumstances, it is hard for everyone right now and we are determined not to let our lovely business here slip away in front of us by not being able to open our doors at the moment. It is just 3 years this week since we bought this lovely pub and as we are an independent free house without a brewery group behind us, its future very much depends on what we do right now, we simply can’t sit still!

Tuesday 7th April…

Quick links for our Virtual Quiz Night tonight at 7pm…

Link to watch:

www.twitch.tv/prestwickuk

Quiz sheets:

Round 1 – https://forms.gle/cFiGUWUGZB1RY9jt7
Round 2 – https://forms.gle/ymqSEDHLWVHiKAfMA
Round 3 – https://forms.gle/97f5gaVRRky22s19A
Round 4 – https://forms.gle/kDZWvDqQQYkaWA9f6
Round 5 – https://forms.gle/vWHoqCoD4kqm4sKd9
Round 6 – https://forms.gle/NxSe5epktBTxrcQM8

If you use the quiz answer sheet links above for each round you can submit your answers directly to Pete and then scores can be included on the live leaderboard!

Hope you enjoy joining in! Good Luck x

Monday 6th April…

We are happy to share that following a successful launch of our take away pizzas this weekend just gone we will be cooking them again for orders this week on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 5pm.

Please call to place an order on the day and we will be happy to do this for you (as far as capacity permits). See our lower post for the pizza take away menu.

We look forward to cooking for you! Stay well and safe everyone.

Thanks
Fran & Rich

Sunday 5th April…

Pizza take away collection 4-6pm today.

Please order in advance by phone only on 01892870275 if you’d like pizza today, the earlier the better as we reached capacity quickly yesterday and were sorry not to be able to feed all those who called us. Thank you so much for all your support, it is really appreciated.

Saturday 4th April…NEWS!!! PLEASE READ THE WHOLE POST TODAY!

Today we will launch take away pizza offerings for contactless collection to support the social distancing guidelines currently in place. Please click here for our TAKE AWAY PIZZA menu…THE GREYHOUND CHARCOTT – TAKE AWAY PIZZA MENU APRIL 2020.docx

We are all trying to do “the right thing” to minimise the spread of COVID-19 by following all the guidelines and rest assured that we are constantly ensuring everything is cleaned down regularly throughout all preparation areas here. This is another reason there will be no access into the pub for collections and we are using our Summer kitchen counter outside. If you any questions please just pick up the phone 01892870275 and ask, it will be impossible to monitor the website contact forms or Facebook / Instagram all day with messages.

PLEASE ORDER AS FAR IN ADVANCE AS POSSIBLE, WE ARE COOKING TODAY FROM 5-8PM AND YOU CAN PHONE ANYTIME TODAY TO ORDER AND PAY AND WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO HAVE YOUR ORDER READY AS CLOSE TO THE TIME YOU’D LIKE AS POSSIBLE.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE OF YOUR SUPPORT X

Saturday 21st March…

Well, what can we say at this sad and difficult time for everyone across the globe…all feeling more than just a little overwhelmed by how quickly everything in life is changing from what we know!

So thought it would be appropriate to share our position here with you right now. We sadly closed our doors last night in line with the government guidelines to support social distancing. Together we must all work to beat COVID-19!

We will continue to offer our food take away service along with take out beer and wine too. If you would like to order take away we will be delighted to cook for you. Please place your order on the phone, call 01892870275 and we will let you know what time to collect. Please note we are not serving take aways to be eaten on the benches outside the pub or in the garden as this falls outside the government guidelines.

Take Away Food Hours 5 – 8.30pm – Last orders 8pm
Please give us as much notice as possible if you’d like to order a take away, we are not experts in this field so will be doing our best with all the timings and everything will be freshly cooked to order.

Please note we are unable to offer this on Sunday 22nd March as are only able to provide the Mothers Day menu that has been pre booked for customers with us.

THE GREYHOUND CHARCOTT – TAKE AWAY MENU MARCH 19 2020.docx

We wish everyone the very best for keeping well and safe during this time and of course if there is anything that we can do to help any of our local customers with meals please let us know.

Thank you so much for all your well wishes, we really appreciate it.

Fran & Rich and all of team Greyhound x

Coming Up…St Paddy’s Day 17th March…and Mothers Day 22nd March…

You are very welcome to join us for an evening of fun Irish folk tunes to mark St Paddy’s day here next week. We will have some Irish themed specials on our menu and be joined by the Parrot Fashion & Friends band who will be performing in the bar on Tuesday evening from around 7.30pm. Booking is advisable to avoid disappointment if you’d like to eat with us, give us a call on 01892870275.

Mothers Day is also almost upon us too, we are almost fully booked but if you’ve not got your plans sorted give us a call, we may be able to help. We are running a delicious 3 course menu and looking forward to spoiling all the lovely Mums coming to join us.

March 2020…Yay! Spring is on its way!…

A great start to the Spring season, the rain seems to be finally easing and we have been celebrating some special birthdays at the pub to kick off March. A true pleasure to welcome Mark & Paula with their lovely crowd to enjoy a 60th party for Mark with brilliant live music from the lovely Gez Gold. It was also Rich’s birthday too and I can’t thank enough our lovely friend Jo, for baking him a great cake to mark the occasion. It was a fun filled evening and also a great opportunity to showcase some of the lovely new paintings adorning our walls right now, local artist Larraine Shamwana is very talented and can also be found at Jessops Studios just down the road from us on Chiddingstone Causeway. Larraine’s paintings are for sale either at the pub or her studio or you can contact her directly for commissions.
Also enjoyed the chance this week to take a walk around our farm, checking on all the animals, won’t be too long before the lambs start arriving. Beautiful Spring flowers coming up, can’t help but smile!

Late February…brings something to smile about here!…

Absolutely delighted to report that we have just been awarded 5 stars in our Food Hygiene inspection from our local HSO, Gloria. We are very pleased to note her compliments in all that we have achieved since buying this pub and giving it a big over haul, especially within the kitchen. We have invested a lot in improving the facilities here, and appreciate that although much of it is behind the scenes from a customer perspective, it really has been worth it and given us the opportunity to create a great working environment for our team. Although our kitchen here isn’t huge we have worked hard to get the best out of our space and ensure that we make it work to our advantage to be able to continue to bring to you the best of what with do with our fresh local produce for our menu. Special thanks of course go to our Head Chef Sean for his continued focus and dedication to keeping us all in check!

February 2020 …Love is in the air with Valentines dining…

A truly scrumptious weekend filled with lots of loving vibes, great smoochy music and full bellies all round as we celebrated Valentines evening here. During February we have also been enjoying watching the Six Nations Rugby here too,absolute perfection when also combined with one of our delicious Sunday roasts too. It has been a chance for many of our lovely customers to enjoy a great combination of favourite Sunday activities,walking to the pub amidst all the water logged fields and still enjoying a good bit of pub banter!

This weekend! 24th & 25th January…

Don’t miss out on live music here tonight as we banish the January blues with David Shepherd, live in the bar from 9pm! Excitingly David will also be broadcasting live from here for an interview with BBC Radio Kent tonight too, sharing details of his gigs, you can catch him on the radio at 7.45pm tonight and then head on down and enjoy listening to him live!

Tomorrow night we will be hosting our 2nd Burns Night Supper! It’s a sell out so will be a fun and busy evening here, unfortunately we won’t be able to host anyone else tomorrow evening. We will enjoy a fantastic ceremonial address of the wonderful McCaskies award winning Chieftain Haggis by our lovely Bill Lang and great live bagpipes played by Simon Burt. There is a prize for the best dressed diner tomorrow evening, so get your kilts on!

January 2020…Happy New Year One and All…

Getting back into the swing of post festive life and the start of the new year…already lots going on and we are busy with planning for what this year will bring us, especially with expanding our team, see the great opportunity below!

Next in the diary we are going to be enjoying a Burns Night celebration here on Saturday 25th January, we will be welcoming our lovely friend Bill back to lead the evening along with Simon, the piper, both in their authentic traditional Scottish dress for a fun evening and wonderful Scottish Supper menu, at just £29 per head. Why not give us a call and book your table today?

We are also going to be enjoying fantastic live music here on the 24th January with David Shepherd to dust off any January blues, get your friends together and come down to have a great evening with us!

And in even more exciting news we have a great new job role here that we are recruiting for…would you like to join our team? Take a look at the attached job description for our Junior Sous Chef and if you are interested, get in touch! The role is a permanent full time position and offers a great opportunity for the right candidate to be involved in the exciting future plans for our lovely pub! Junior Sous Chef Job Advert – Jan 2020

December 2019…and here is it….Merry Christmas Everyone!
What a delightful month this has been, I’m sorry to be updating towards the end as it has been a busy one! We have really enjoyed hosting so many lovely customers this month meeting for festive feasts with family and friends and enjoying the pub and all we have to offer.

Our kitchen team worked really hard under Sean and Rich’s supervision to share a really delicious menu throughout the month, I‘m including some pictures of the tasty dishes, ranging from pan seared king scallops, local wood pigeon parfait, smoked salmon gradvalax, herb crusted hake, rump of Stidolphs lamb, ginger honeyed chicken skewers, a superb selection and all made in house from scratch here using only the best of fine local produce. We have been delighted with the feedback on our Christmas menu this year and it was our absolute pleasure to offer Christmas Day dining this year for the first time and feed 40 lovely locals, what a day and what incredible weather we enjoyed too!

New Years Eve was a blast, we said farewell to 2019 in great style here with a fabulous party and lots of fun, so great to share it with so many lovely people and close out a wonderful year with many great achievements, we are so thankful to everyone that has supported us here throughout this year, you have been amazing and we really look forward to sharing an exciting and fun filled year ahead for 2020!

November 2019…starting to feel a little bit festive!

We are now into the final week of November and the run up to the big day is approaching fast! We are delighted to be cooking for many of you on Christmas Day this year and hope very much you are looking forward to it too. We also also offering a delicious Christmas menu running from 28th November through to 21st December, if you’ve not got your festive gatherings sorted yet then get booked up and come and enjoy an evening with us! You can find this menu on our Food Menu page, you need to book a table to avoid disappointment.

We also have a wealth of live music lined up to see us through from now until the New Year, check out our new Events & Live Music page for all the details.

Get your friends together and embrace this time of year, the fires are roaring, there are great walks to the pub and lots of well kept ales on the bar along with a great selection of wines and ciders too. We have some excellent options for those that are driving too with a whole new range on offer, not to mention the festive toddies and mulled wine and mulled cider too!

October 2019…Lots of Live Music and Christmas Planning!

So here we are busy thinking ahead to Christmas already! We have been overwhelmed that following our decision to offer Christmas Day lunch here this year we are excitingly almost fully booked! Take a peak at our menu here…The Greyhound Charcott – Christmas Day Menu – 25 Dec 2019

We have also launched our delicious festive menu which is running for gatherings with families, friends and colleagues from 28th Nov – 21st December too so if you are interested in having a Christmassy knees up enquire at the bar when you next pop in and get yourself booked to enjoy an evening with us, take a look at the menu here… Christmas Menu Dec 2019

In the meantime we have lots of live music coming up to keep you entertained, next up we have Andy Mack performing live on Friday 1st November at 9pm in the bar, with an excellent repertoire of music, and happy to take requests, great start to the weekend!

Followed swiftly on Saturday 2nd November when we welcome The Patinas who will be livening up the bar from 9pm with an excellent selection spanning from the 50s to present day! Get your friends together and come and join in after you’ve seen the local fireworks displays!

Sept 2019…

As we see this beautiful Autumnal morning light come up, and pause to appreciate how lucky we are living here it seems the right moment to reflect on how we are seeing the sun set on yet another long, amazing Summer here at The Greyhound Charcott.

The Summer of 2019 has given us so much to enjoy and we, along with our fabulous team, have truly had a blast bringing our customers the very best of what we have on offer. Some of you may know that we have 26 in our team, here they are! We all enjoyed our annual outing last week to say thank you to them for all they do to contribute to what we are able to deliver! I didn’t manage to do an August update as there was so much happening so this one is more of a round up of what we enjoyed in July and August…

We have continued to strive to deliver a great experience for each and every customer that visits us and have been so proud to have been recognised for this notable ways…they say things happen in 3s! And indeed for us they have…we have received some fantastic new awards this year, the best one being West Kent CAMRA 2019 Pub of the Year Runner Up for the whole of West Kent! We are absolutely delighted with this position having just been open two years and only eligible for entry after one year. Our presentation for this achievement tied in with a fabulous weekend of festival celebrations to mark our 2nd Birthday for the anniversary of our opening, with another good beer festival, lots of great live music and to tip it off as we received our 2019 Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence, we actually hit the No.1 spot of Trip Advisor for our area! and we are so happy to know that what we’re doing is what our customers love! We have managed to hold this position for three months so far…log may it continue! Final great news for us was the inclusion into the new CAMRA Good Beer Guide 2020, with a lovely little write up…if you enjoy a great pint you won’t be disappointed here!

Here is a little additional selection of pictures sharing some of the special moments here this Summer, on top of our own 2nd Birthday celebration weekend, there have been many celebrations too with people sharing milestone birthdays, special anniversaries and even a wedding lunch too, we are always touched that people choose to have these here with us, if you are every interested in holding an event with us please get in touch with Fran. The August Bank Holiday weekend was another wonderful one full of beautiful sunshine and our annual Family Car Treasure Hunt was another storming success again this year, special thanks to the Yates Family for setting this years hunt after winning last year.

Our next post is coming soon as guess what is coming….yes….Christmas…keep you eye out! Thank you everyone for enjoying this Summer here with us. See you soon, Fran & Rich x

July 2019…
Just sharing a few fantastic pictures from our 1st Classics Night, it was amazing and we were blown away by the number of people that came and joined in.

What a wonderful array of interesting vehicles, including a beautiful vintage tractor, for everyone to have a good wander round, thank you to everyone who came to share in this fun evening and especially as it was a great opportunity to raise some more money for Hospice in the Weald, another £300!

June 2019…
Well, Summer is on its way and we are counting down to our 2nd Birthday Party weekend, you might have seen our “Save the Date!” posters up around the pub as we will be celebrating in style on the weekend of the 13th & 14th July to mark two years of being here! Time certainly flies when you’re having fun and what a jam packed two years it has been. We have a great weekend planned, including lots of great live music to mark this special occasion so make sure you put it in your diaries and come along to join in with us, don’t miss out!

The icing on the cake is the recent news that we have been awarded Pub of The Year Runner Up by West Kent Camra and they will be joining us on our birthday on Sunday 14th July to present us with this award. To come second to a longer established and bigger town pub in Tunbridge Wells, The George, who have won for the second year running is a huge achievement for us and we are absolutely delighted with this news!

We have just re-opened our OFYR Summer Kitchen on the front of the pub at the beginning of June, you may have seen it last year, it is a great wood fired BBQ Grill, a real feature at the front of the pub and a wonderful way to enjoy cooking our varied menu including delicious steaks, chops, homemade burgers, fish and more, get yourself down to the pub to try out our tasty menu as we are cooking on it every weekend.

Don’t miss these dates coming up….

Tuesday 25th June from 7pm – Our First Classic Car, Motorbike & Tractor Evening, all enthusiasts welcome, bring your classics along and enjoy appreciating others. We will have a good selections of beers on the bar and tasty burgers on offer.

January 2019…
Christmas here, along with our second New Years Eve in Charcott was a very busy time, welcoming many old and new faces to celebrate with us over this time and look forward to meeting many more this year! Last year we were incredibly lucky that the sunshine continued into October as we celebrated a fantastic day when we tied the knot in perfect sunshine locally at the beautiful Bore Place! We have been very touched by all the special wishes we received, thank you all for these!

November 2018…
Our wonderful head chef, Sean, is fully settled in with us now, life is fast paced and we are busy planning some exciting things for our Spring and Summer menus, our kitchen has now been up and running almost eighteen months our menu is ever expanding, we still pride ourselves on keeping things simple, it isn’t gastro or fancy but tasty, wholesome and most importantly all homemade using the best of fresh, local and seasonal produce, our dishes are made from scratch daily in small batches, also ensuring that there isn’t ever much going to waste. We mentioned earlier we have been pleased to welcome Sean on board to head up the kitchen team and we will continue to always try hard to offer something for everyone, we are also happy to adapt dishes wherever possible so please also just ask if needed.

While we are talking of cooking….we have other exciting news as we are featuring with our own chapter in a wonderful new local charity cookbook, out for sale now! We attended the exciting launch of the book along with many other contributors at the beginning of last November and quickly sold out of our 80 copies just after Christmas, this was amazing as for such a good cause. We have proudly taken another delivery of the books to further help the fundraising! The book has been put together by the Tree of Hope, a local Tonbridge based charity providing invaluable support in enabling families to fundraise for their childrens’ healthcare needs. The Cookbook makes a fantastic present, Mother’s Day is coming up, and is also a wonderful way to raise the profile of many local independent businesses like us within our local community as well as a fabulous selections of recipes too, here’s a sneak peak

from our photo shoot as we have included our Stidolphs Spicy Lamb Burger recipe….don’t miss out, come and get your copy here at the bar for just £20, all proceeds are going to Tree of Hope charity.

September 2019…
We loved celebrating our 1st Birthday here last July, how did that first year fly by?! We enjoyed a great weekend of celebrations with our first Beer Festival, several live bands and excellent fundraising for Hospice in the Weald too which was brilliant!….

Many of you will no doubt have enjoyed our Summer kitchen that we launched this year too, added on at the front of the pub. We introduced of our state of the art OFYR Grill as wanted to be different from an ordinary BBQ, it’s wood-fired and we have enjoyed using it to cook a fantastic range of meat, fish and veggie dishes. The feedback has been great, especially for the special evenings we have done, including Steak Night and our Turkish Night too.

The best present we received on the morning of our 1st Birthday was a Certificate of Excellence from Trip Advisor, it made our day! Wonderful to know that our customers are taking the time to review us and think we are getting it right, a really special review we received was this one…

Now flying into our second year here we are so proud of the way our new business is going, the support it has seen so far and feedback it has received is so encouraging, we thank you all for giving us the chance to enjoy Charcott and make new friends here in this lovely community, it certainly seems to have it’s heart back! Our August Bank Holiday Family Fun Day was testament to this, with 22 teams taking part in the annual car treasure hunt, a tradition we inherited and are happy to continue, so much fun for all involved along with live music, bouncy castle fun and lots to eat and drink!

Our Quiz Nights are now well established on the first Tuesday of each month, Steak Nights have taken off too, keep you eye out in the bar for details of our next one and book your table to avoid disappointment.

There is lots to join in with here at The Greyhound, our home, your pub, all our customers being part of it matters to us and we’ll be ready to welcome you for a visit, join in and you won’t leave disappointed, we look forward to seeing you!

Fran & Rich