Jason & I recently visited his local pub – The Jolly Waggoner – a really great traditional local pub in Ardeley near Stevenage.

The pub is a great example of a traditional village pub that has embraced the best of what makes them so special. Real ales, quality food, open fires and lovely warm, cosy and very friendly atmosphere.

Since taking on the pub Tim, Emma, Adrian & the team have really done an impressive job in creating a great place to meet, eat, drink and be jolly! They’ve attracted back a lot of the locals and are using a number of innovative ideas to encourage new and repeat business.

One of these which we thought was particularly good is the ‘Guest landlord of the week’ – basically once a week on a Tuesday evening a local becomes the landlord for the evening and hosts the bar and the pub. The pub also donates 10% of the takings from the evening to a local charity.

It’s an inspired idea because the local person who is the ‘landlord for the evening’ invites their friends & family who in turn invite theirs and so on. Local people are talking about it ‘Who is the guest landlord this week ?’ and the local charity also actively promotes the pub as they benefit too. Their Tuesday evenings are now packed when traditionally a Tuesday evening is a very quite evening for most local village pubs.

We think it’s a great idea and something I’ll be encouraging our local pubs to try. If you’ve come across good ideas for pubs, restaurants & other local businesses please get in touch as we’d like to feature them here on the BeLocal Blog – team@belocal.com – thanks.