Award winning chef Brett Sutton will be leaving the Eastbury Hotel in Sherborne .
Over his eight years as Executive Chef of The Eastbury, Sutton has been awarded many of the top accolades in the South West, including Best Eating Out Experience, Silver for Best Small Hotel in Dorset and winner of the Dorset Tourism Awards.
Sutton’s new venture will be the White Post Pub and rooms at Rimpton, near Marston Magna in Somerset.
The pub is well known for straddling the borders of both Dorset and Somerset, and originally customers would move from one bar to the other to take advantage of the two counties’ different licence times.
Currently the pub is approximately 70% drink sales and 30% food, but Sutton aims to switch this round, and will emphasise locally sourced produce, which will be supplemented with foraged ingredients and fresh herbs from a newly installed garden area.
The restaurant menu will showcase Sutton’s quirky presentation style, but will also offer pub classics and reasonably priced food to offer customers a broad appeal.
Sutton said: "I've always wanted to run my own business so we have been looking. We wanted somewhere in the area and this was the first one we looked at. We just thought everything clicked and we really want to play on the fact Rimpton sits right on the Somerset/Dorset border so there will be an emphasis on food from the two counties such as Dorset ales.”
The free house pub will be closed in February while Sutton and his wife completely refurbish it, and deck out its three letting rooms. A soft opening is planned, with the official launch in March. The Staff Canteen team are taking a different approach to keeping our website independent and delivering content free from commercial influence. Our Editorial team have a critical role to play in informing and supporting our audience in a balanced way. We would never put up a paywall – The Staff Canteen is open to all and we want to keep bringing you the content you want; more from younger chefs, more on mental health, more tips and industry knowledge, more recipes and more videos. We need your support right now, more than ever, to keep The Staff Canteen active. Without your financial contributions this would not be possible.
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