Village inn picks up award for serving the best pub grub in Lincolnshire

Landlords Mike and Dot McCarthy, centre, and staff in the restaurant of the Carpenters Arms in Fiskerton.

LANDLORDS of a village inn are celebrating after their pub grub was named the best in Lincolnshire.

Dot and Mike McCarthy, of the Carpenters Arms in Fiskerton, picked up the Best Pub Food Restaurant prize in the 2010-11 Lincolnshire Life Taste Of Excellence Cuisine Awards after being nominated by customers.

“This is really great,” said Mrs McCarthy, 66, who has worked in the pub trade for 40 years.

“We just try to be a proper pub with good food and a selection of real ales “ with as much homemade as we can.

“We get fruit and vegetables from Fresh From The Fields, and meat from Fosters in Monks Road “ apparently all the cattle are in a field round the corner in Fiskerton.

“And all the fish comes from M And J Seafood in Grimsby.

“We change our specials daily, but I think most people like the homemade pies, things like chicken and stilton or steak and Batemans.

“Roast beef we do daily, as it’s one of the most popular.

“We’ve been here almost five years now and we’ve got a strong base of customers.

“Each year we get sent nomination forms for the awards and we put them on the bar people can then fill them in when they’ve had a meal, or you can fill something in on the internet.

“But we wouldn’t be able to do it without the staff.”

Kitchen manager Becky Joyce, 24, of Bunkers Hill, Lincoln, admitted to popping open the champagne when the result was announced.

She said: “We’re really pleased to win and we had a bottle of bubbly to celebrate.

“We’ve got a lot of customers who come back and use us a lot. People come on a weekly basis, so we must be doing something right.

“In the summer, we get a lot of trade with people coming from the campsites and with walkers coming up by the river, but it’s nice to let people know we’re still here the rest of the time.”

Pub regular Allan McKay, 59, said he considered the Carpenters Arms “the finest little traditional English pub” he had ever seen.

He said: “The food is excellent, the staff are excellent and the management are friendly.

“There’s a vibrancy about the place and to be able to come to that at the end of a working day is great.

“They really look after their customers and you never feel like you are a stranger. This is a thoroughly well-deserved award.”

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Link to article from Lincolnshire life