HALLMARK DAY FOR THE ALLMARKS

When Les and Wendy Allmark won the Beautiful Beer Gold Award for April, it was public justification for everything they’ve been doing over the past few years. Here, they talk about their time in the business and how it has helped to shape what they offer their customers.

“We’ve worked hard with real ale,” said Les, who runs the White Hall Hotel in Tywyn, Gwynned, with his wife Wendy, the licensee.

“It started back in a private members’ club in the Wirral,” Les explained. “Freddie’s was a small snooker club that was being run as a hobby by its owner. He brought Wendy in because to be frank, he wanted someone else to do all the hard work.”

Wendy took over and she plainly worked very hard indeed. She quickly trebled the club’s turnover, transforming it from simply a small snooker club into a very popular social club that happened to offer snooker, too.

Meanwhile, Les was helping out part-time in the club during his time off from his normal job, working on off-shore oil rigs. Les recently gave up his job on the rigs so that he could concentrate full-time on helping Wendy to run the White Hall.

So where does the real ale connection come in?

“Wendy wanted to introduce real ale because it was perfect for the club’s clientele,” said Les. “The boss wasn’t so sure – he was one of those types that thinks people come to a venue for the atmosphere, not the beer. Wendy disagreed, because it’s about both the beer and the atmosphere. And she was right. Customers loved it, word spread quickly and Freddie’s became very successful.”

So much so that when the couple started looking for a place of their own to run, real ale was very high on the agenda.

“That’s one of the main reasons we took on the White Hall,” according to Les. “Real ale was already here and proving popular, so when the Banks’s Business Development Manager contacted us about it, we thought it was a great opportunity to work in a place that already had a good offering.”

Currently, the couple offer four main real ales – Jennings Cumberland, Jennings Cocker Hoop, Banks’s Bitter and Marston’s Pedigree – together with a weekly guest ale from Marston’s extensive range.

It’s an offering that goes down very well with the tourists in this small seasonal town.

“We’ve been here only two years,” said Les. “This is only the start of our third summer season and we’re already starting to see the same faces coming back to us time and time again. It’s a testament to how well we look after the beer that customers keep coming back, even those who live quite a way from here.”

In fact, real ale is such an important part of their offer that in winter, when the tourists depart, Wendy and Les offer the remaining locals a hand-pulled cider, Thatcher’s Heritage.

Such a powerful attraction for customers is down to Les and the cellarman, Tony Nickson, who between them look after the beer full time.

“There’s always someone here who knows how to look after the ales,” added Les firmly. “If it’s not me, it’s Tony.”

Les has certainly learned his trade well, despite doing it alongside a full-time job on the oil rigs, while Wendy ran Freddie’s and then the White Hall.

So whatever Les and Wendy learned must have been good experience, because they are this month’s recipients of the Beautiful Beer Gold Award.

Good luck to them in September’s final.

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