Awards are great. Accolades for a job well done, an achievement for hard work, working towards a goal, and being rewarded feels good. One Welsh hotel has achieved this and then some but refuses to rest on its laurels.
Grove of Narberth seems to have harnessed some extra-special fairy dust which has seen their team heaped with awards from best young waiter in the world to hotel of the year, best wine list in Wales, and a plethora of AA stars and red rosettes. It's a destination hotel in the heart of Pembrokeshire – tucked away in a glade, overlooking a newly-placed pond, surrounded by cherry blossom trees and the wilder Welsh countryside making it a magical place to visit on the frostiest morning in mid-winter or sunny evening during summer.
Entering through the cast-iron gates after winding around the narrow Pembrokeshire road and your mind is already anticipating something hidden away and magical. And it is.
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The way Neil Kedward – who is managing director and, along with wife, Zoe, owner of the hotel and its sister venues Coast, The Beach House and, in the past few months, Penmaenuchaf near Dolgellau – describes how he found the Grove premises and curated a team over the years just goes to how special the place is to him. You can tell that hearts and souls are poured into every aspect of the place which Swansea-born Neil only discovered after his sister retrieved the particulars for it from a Tenby estate agent on the off-chance back in 2006. While the dilapidated, but impressive venue was off-route after a day of property hunting Neil had a feeling it was going to be something special.
"It's like when you buy a home – you know intuitively you've found the right place," he explained. "And Grove has got that magical quality. It's not a big fancy house perched on top of a hill being self-important. It's in a glade, in a hollow overlooking the Narberth hills – you can see the Preseli hills in the distance. It's in such a humble setting and it isn't a grand country house either. Sometimes you go into a country house and it can be quite grand. Grove is not trying to make a big statement. You walk in and you instantly feel comfortable – it's very homely. And that quality combined with my amazing team – if you can get those two bits right..."
Neil, whose background is in engineering, and Zoe didn't intend to open an hotel at first but they managed to turn a derelict property first into a B&B where cooking lover Neil took charge of the kitchen, serving his famous homemade crumpets, and now a venue where they've curated and developed a team from the word go that share his passion, enthusiasm, and optimism. "I'm very ambitious for our venues and we do have a vision for all of them and I know where we're heading and we're not there yet," he said. And the staff know that and that's important. They know we have that vision. I do hope it's not just a job to them."
It's not. The staff members I chatted to – from Tilly Morris, officially the world's best waitress after reaching the finals in Monaco of the Young Chef Young Waiter final, head chef Dougie Balish, who is in charge of the hotel's two restaurants, The Fernery and Artisan Rooms, duty manager Claire Matthews, and general manager Karen Weisheit – all spoke of how working at Grove is like being part of a family. That family welcomes new guests and regulars and aims to give them the best time ever.
Tilly – a vibrant, positive force of nature who came in on her day off to speak to me – is, at 21, enthused as you'd expect from someone who's at the top of their game already but is as modest as she is warm and welcoming, citing the way the team at Grove got behind her to help her win the accolade earlier this year. "The support I felt in the month of preparation leading up to it all [was great] – every single person in this place was asking if they could help or do anything to support me," said the Somerset native who moved to Pembrokeshire to work at Grove, which she describes as a "home from home" for guests, just over a year ago. "And it's like that with every competition – there's just the constant reassurance of people and the feeling they have your back. I'm very grateful."
General manager Karen, who is the current GM of the Future as per the Independent Hotel Show Awards and will start on an industry best scholarship in the new year, has worked at Grove for five and a half years after moving around a few Michelin-starred venues like Gidleigh Park in Dartmoor and Cliveden House in Berkshire. She said Neil and Zoe don't subscribe to the usual rules of hospitality and it pays off. The staff all work four-day weeks and Karen said the approach was paying off already. She said she and her partner were seeking employers "who did things a little differently" and that's how they found Neil and Zoe. "They don't have a hospitality background and that means they don't have the standard attitudes which I found really refreshing and that shines through everything.
"They just question things that have always been a certain way and why has it always been done like that. Things like the working hours: 'Why do you have to work 80 hours in the kitchen?' That sort of attitude. They just think outside the box and push boundaries. An easy way to explain it is say a member of staff does something wrong they don't just go: 'You're doing that wrong.' Their question is: 'Are you okay?' It's a change of mentality of how a question is asked. From the kitchen porter to the housekeeper they know everyone's story. And with that they make everyone feel seen and important. And they filter that down to managers and people we recruit. We try and recruit nice people. That's the biggest feedback we get from the guests – the staff, the staff, the staff. They can feel our staff are generally happy to be here."
Karen adds that the four-day week is a "massive' element" in the staff's satisfaction at work and makes her a better manager and means the staff are happy in their roles. "I've got an extra day off where I can process, have more headspace," she said. "It's made me a much better manager because I'm a lot more approachable and when I'm here I've got more energy.
"But what the guests see is just genuine care – our smiles aren't fake. You go to some amazing five-star hotels in this country and yes the service is impeccable but it's not genuine. I feel like that's the difference here – we mean it. And with recruitment we try and recruit nice people because we can teach you anything – you just need the right attitude and be a good human being."
Neil echoed that the staff's passion and buy-in to the business – and that four-day week – does really make the difference. "I genuinely feel that it isn't just a job for most of our staff – they really come to work with a passion for what we do and the venues. They don't just care for the guests – they care for each other. And that's true. They are creating the atmosphere together. It's interesting. I recruit some people [and] I think: 'Well, there's something there.' They can be a bit nervous, a bit awkward to start with, might seem like they don't fit, but we know that they've got something. And at first they might jar a little bit but they change before our eyes and start to get what it's all about."
Head chef Dougie, who's worked at Grove for three and a half years is a little bit serious on first impression and definitely less effusive than some of his colleagues but when he talks about what it's like working there it's really evident that he knows that there's a reason the team and the hotel are as successful as they are. By his own admission he's "not a people person" but he seems to be doing all right by his kitchen team while both the restaurants are in the Good Food Guide. Dougie said he's "never worked anywhere" like the Welsh hotel in terms of supportiveness and it's changed his managerial style.
"I'm not particularly a people person, I don't really rely on other people for things, but here is unbelievably good with the staff," said the brand-new dad who plunders the beautiful on-site kitchen garden for his seasonal menus. "I've completely changed as a manager from what I was before. People can come to me, or the other managers, with whatever problems, be it family issues, mental health, and we'll just sit down and have a coffee and talk through it and see what we can do to help. I've never worked anywhere that was something that people did.
"Hospitality can be more of a macho environment about who can drink the most or shout the loudest and work the most hours whereas here it's about protecting the staff you've got and that they're happy. It's why we've got a good core team who've been here for quite a long time in terms of hospitality."
Dougie adds that while Grove feels like a home away from home the reason its five-star status remains is because things are done to a high level. "There's no getting away from that and that's the main reason most of us are here. It's not just a job – it's about being the best that we can be."
Back at the front of house I also catch up with Claire Matthews. She doesn't come from a hospitality background but came to Grove four years ago after being a stay-at-home mother for her four children before a separation meant she had to return to work. It's not, of course, unusual to employ people with no previous experience but Claire bounced around a few jobs locally and said her job at Grove has given her a new-found confidence.
"I lacked so much confidence – I cannot tell you how little I had in myself," she said, becoming a bit emotional. "But the difference now, after working here, it's mad. It's a fantastic place. They've sent me on courses and it just feels supportive. One place I worked previously had a proper blame culture. Working here, compared to there, it's like night and day.
"But, it all sort of came together to lead me here. At first it was just a job. And after about two or three months I was like: 'I feel at home – this is where I belong.'"
Claire added: "I feel like we benefit from being in Pembrokeshire and having Pembrokeshire people. It's that culture of speaking and chatting and slowing down that Grove benefits from. We have a lot of guests from London and they are blown away by the staff. They are so friendly and we don't think we are doing anything different."
So really the secret of the Grove's success isn't much of a secret at all. It's just good old-fashioned Welsh hospitality and friendliness and, from the staff's point of view too, being looked after.
"The customer has always been by our side," Neil said. "And it's that encouragement and the fact we've always tried to do the right thing by them and the success has encouraged us to keep moving it forward. The Welsh are great at hospitality. It's in our blood in Wales. When I was a little boy every door was open and a warm welcome. The family thing in Wales is very strong – we care and it's sincere. And I tell my staff: 'When somebody comes through the door welcome them in as you would your friends coming to stay at your house.'"
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