Operator profile: Public House Group

In January 2025, Pub & Bar invited some 350 operators and industry representatives to vote in the first ever Industry’s Choice Award – a new accolade from the National Pub & Bar Awards which was to determine the Top 10 pubs and bars from across the UK, as voted for by the sector. 

Each of those who took part submitted their favourite 10 venues, with the most votes for each site shaping the final list. Thousands of pubs and bars were put forward, so to make the Top 10 was a big deal. I use this anecdote when asked by Phil Winser, co-founder of Public House Group, “what the industry thinks of them”. His genuinely honest prying has a tinge of apprehension to it, as if worried by what the answer might be. I remind him that out of those thousands of sites nominated, Public House’s The Bull in Charlbury came in at number five (and then went on to scoop the biggest award of the night). “That is amazing,” he says, shaking his head, seemingly unaware as to how the business is perceived by his peers. 

To be fair, it may have been the line of questioning during my time with Winser and co-founders James Gummer and Olivier van Themsche that prompted such an enquiry. A few of the topics that we discussed at their Maida Vale site The Hero originated from industry murmurings I’d overheard since Public House Group became the ‘ones to watch’. “Oh, those guys are just printing money…” “Yeah, great sites, but where is the investment coming from?” “They talk about growing their own produce, but do they really?” Sadly, success can trigger envy and pessimism to present itself in many ways, so, having finally got all three of them in a room at once (it took the best part of a year to organise), I was keen to set the record straight and showcase Public House Group in the admirable light it deserves. 

Dining at The Bull in Charlbury

Public who?

When Public House Group opened The Pelican in London’s Notting Hill back in 2022, I had to do some digging to find out who was behind it. There was a lot of noise about just how popular this site immediately became, but it wasn’t obvious who the strings were being pulled by. Then all of a sudden, around a year or so later, critics were raving about a pub that had opened in Charlbury, Oxfordshire, called The Bull. “The best pie and a pint in your life,” wrote Giles Coren in The Times. Turns out Public House was behind this as well. Then came The Hero back in London in 2024, as well as Italian restaurant Canteen, with The Fat Badger – a set menu-style pub/restaurant in W10 – arriving earlier this year. Just recently, the trio opened The Hart in Marylebone, and it won’t be long until The Horses pub in Clerkenwell gallops into play in 2026. From a standing start in 2022, these guys have somehow opened six beautiful (and thriving) venues in prime locations in under three years (and I haven’t even mentioned the Cotswolds farm they own/run or the newly introduced pop-up catering offer called The Bushcamp), so I guess it’s fair enough to wonder where the money is coming from.

“Certain people still believe in this industry,” says van Themsche. “People and investors who still believe in pubs, who share the vision that we have, who really want to support and invest. “After the success of The Pelican, we created the group, and it was a bit like a startup – get investment first so we could organise ourselves and then we can scale. To do that, we’ve had the support of a large family office, BNF Capital. They love pubs, they’re so supportive of what we do and they’ve been incredible.” 

“Having that support office and having those people in the background who are able to help, whether it’s from a finance department or a people function or marketing… it allows us and the people who are actually in the pubs to be focused on serving guests and looking after people through our hospitality,” adds Gummer.

Private investment from a family business that can also help with head office functionality… it’s certainly an enviable situation and explains the speedy Public House growth. However, growth is one thing, profitability is another. How is the business looking in that regard? 

“We just turned profitable a few months ago,” says van Themsche. “We’re still learning, always, and we can see that in terms of profitability. We get to profitability much faster now, and we see improvements in every new venue.” 

“When we raised [the finance], we raised with the idea that we were going to be building a support function that was greater than you would need if you had two or three sites,” adds Gummer. “We have been building into that function. There’s obviously a difference between being profitable at site level and being profitable as a group. That has been the recent change.”

Food at The Pelican

Award-winning ways

Following The Bull in Charlbury’s fifth place position in the 2025 Industry’s Choice Award, it was then named National Pub & Bar of the Year, taking the title of the ‘UK’s best pub’ back to the little village in Oxfordshire. The Pub & Bar team visited The Bull three times to ensure its flawless operation was consistent, so we know why it won the top honour, but do its owners? Why do they think it triumphed?

“It’s that balance between the food being great and the team there being fantastic,” says Gummer. “But it is genuinely a part of a community, a wider community. People come and drink there, and they use it week in, week out. That aspect, when combined with the volume that it does, the farm, the impact that it has on a community and further afield… maybe that’s why. We never expected it to win, but I’m so pleased that it got recognised and that people thought about it in that breath.”

I mention that a Time Out piece covering the awards called The Bull “another gastropub” and not a proper boozer. How do they feel about that labelling? Seeing as they have Sally Abé, a Great British Menu winner, heading up the kitchen, does Time Out have a point?

“I would say our food is not gastronomic,” says Winser. “Our food is incredibly simple. Our philosophy is we find the best producers, we take that food and we do as little as possible to it. Whereas the ‘gastropub’ came out of chefs wanting to create gastronomic menus for themselves. We are trying to create an environment for the people who live and work within it.”

“People like being able to use the pubs in different ways,” adds Gummer. “At The Bull, more than anywhere, we have people that will come in a few times a week for loads of different reasons, either for meals or to meet someone for a pint. That is, for us, what makes a pub, and that is what is fundamentally different between a pub that serves good food and a gastropub – you are less inclined to go just for a pint in a traditional gastropub.”

And what about JD Vance then? Was he popping in for a pint or a three-course dinner? Rumour (and reports) has it that the vice president of America was forced to cancel his booking at the UK’s best pub in August, as The Bull’s team threatened to walk out if he visited. The trio are clearly prepared for this question, despite not being quoted anywhere about the matter.

“We took the hard line at the very beginning of when this whole thing happened,” says Winser. “And we’ve done that the whole way through. We’re still going to stick with that, which is to say, ‘no comment’.” 

“We just sell pints in the Cotswolds,” adds Gummer, through an innocent chuckle. “…with the occasional steak and chips.”

Inside The Fat Badger

Straight to the source 

They of course do a lot more than that, and as each site opens, loyal guests are becoming more familiar with a Public House-style pub. They fit the modest mould of prevalent designs we’re seeing in London and the south west at the moment, where less is more and details are delicate. Stripped-back interiors, white linens, dark woods, one candle on each table. It’s a popular prototype that many are looking to now. If, as many would argue, The Pelican was a pioneer in such style, how do they feel about potential copycat operations? 

“We actually haven’t seen that yet with us necessarily,” says Winser. “It’s a compliment at the end of the day, right? However, if we can get people to copy our food philosophy, we’re doing fantastic. If every single pub in the country copies our food philosophy, that would be the greatest thing in the world.”

Let’s talk about the food then. Gastropubs or not, the fact remains that Public House Group venues are known for their food and the chefs cooking it up. If you dig a little deeper, you’ll easily discover the foundations of the sustainable reputation that this small pub operation is building on. I wish I had the pages available to me here to document all of the genuinely inspiring detail behind this approach. From Public House’s market garden at Bruern Farms, which serves as a primary vegetable supplier into the pubs, to its relationships with other small-scale producers – its mantra that ‘pubs can be key players in creating a mindful food system within the UK’ is one that deserves to be investigated in proper depth. I would urge you to watch the video at publichousegroup.com/produce to see what it’s all about. And yet, I have even heard this element of the business be doubted by some (green-eyed?) people in the industry. How does that sit? 

“Anyone who wants to come for a tour, anyone in the industry who wants to come anytime and have a look at the setup, they’re more than welcome,” says Winser. “The labelling of food is always a hard thing, but when we started, we said it’s a non-negotiable outside of certain ingredients. We’re only going to use British produce. We can go to bed at night knowing that such an approach goes deep down. I think it’s also why we’re able to attract amazing people, who also know that it’s not bullshit.”

“The first thing that every single person did when they joined our pub in Marylebone was hop on a bus at 9am and head straight to the farm. They met Thomas the grower, talked about where we’re getting this produce from, saw the central production kitchen. We don’t claim that every single thing comes from the farm. It’s more about being part of a bigger conversation as to how we can source differently, how we can support smaller, local producers – it’s a much bigger piece.”

Setting the table at The Hero

Support group

Which is what this article should be as well really. In the hour or so I spent with the Public House Group founders, so many important and motivating issues were covered that deserve more detail in this write-up. Team retention and levels of pay, building a head office structure, creating an in-house design team, balancing premium perceptions alongside a value-driven offer, how to create pubs suited to their location, being helped, being inspired… It was that final point that led to the conversation on the difference between inspiration and impersonation. And when I mention the various interpretations of Nick Jones’ Soho House we’ve witnessed over the years, the Public House Group founders sit up immediately, as if almost out of respect, before concluding with a wonderful example of how success can breed support in this sector.

“I would love to take this opportunity to mention Nick,” says Winser. “We can talk about negativity and envy or whatever it may be, but there are certain characters who are so successful within this industry, who have come out and helped and supported and turned up. And no one has done that more for us than Nick Jones.

“That’s why he is so successful, because he cares. He comes to our places the first time they open. He gives a proper, hardcore review, and then he comes back a week later to see it again. He has introduced us to people within the industry and that sort of thing. I mean, he has been unbelievable.” 

“As with any new companies, you open and you start to get a reputation maybe in some way,” adds Gummer. “For some people, that can be when the heckles go up a little bit, and it can become a little bit more like ‘that’s my turf and that’s yours’. For Nick, it has been the exact opposite. It has been nothing but generosity, introducing us to people that he thinks might be able to help, recommending our venues to people, if we’re doing an event, he turns up every single time.”

“What the industry needs more of is this type of support, less envy and more sharing ideas,” says Winser. “Because no idea in hospitality can be claimed as an original idea. We know that’s 101. Now more than ever, we need to support each other.” 

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