The landlord of The Cornubia has defended the pub's food hygiene after it was awarded a zero star rating and told it was in need of "urgent improvement". Phil Bennett, who has run the popular Redcliffe pub for 11 years, says the rating is unfair because the council has not come back to the pub to reinspect it after they made the required improvements, and added that his pub is focused mostly on drinks anyway.
"We're not a 'beerstro', we're a pub. It's as simple as that. There's no other way around it," he told Bristol Live. Phil says that they serve a few bits of food, like pies and sausage rolls, but they are mostly led by 'wet' sales.
An inspector from Bristol City Council came out to visit on March 14 and dropped the pub's food hygiene rating from five to zero, and Phil said he was told they would return in two weeks to check if improvements had been made. However, he says despite making the required improvements, they have still not had a return visit so they are stuck with the rating, which he said is damaging his business.
Read more: The Shakespeare Tavern named as best pub in Bristol by CAMRA
"The council, in all their infinite wisdom, were supposed to come back up anyway to see all the improvements we've done and they haven't bothered doing that at all," he said. According to the inspection, the pub's management of food safety was in need of urgent improvement, while their hygienic food handling and the cleanliness and condition of their facilities and building were in need of major improvement.
But Phil said: "The only thing we do is a pie and a pint, which all the old drinkers love, because we do real ale and we do real very, very well." The pub recently came runner-up in the Campaign for Real Ale's 2022 Bristol pub of the year award. Phil says that he has been a chef since 1976, and he has never had any problems with food hygiene before.
"In all the other businesses I've been a chef in the South West, there were no complaints about me there," he said. He says that the changes they were asked to make were to keep better records, to use a thermometer to check the temperature of the inside of their oven, and to sort out a "few things" which were wrong with the oven.
He says they have now done all of this, but adds that the pub is mainly focused on serving drinks. "You come in here and chill out and relax with your partners or your office or whatever you want to do at the end of the day. It's as simple as that. We're a little haven in amongst all these building works all around us."
On April 11, The Cornubia was upgraded to a three-star hygiene rating following another inspection. You can read about this by clicking here.
