The Fleece, Witney

“A stylish pub with top food”
Helen Peacocke, Witney Gazette
“”
Now Magazine January 2009 edition

fleece@peachpubs.com

When he was at Northampton college, Alistair was Best Student of the Year on more than one occasion. He’s been in the industry for nine years now, the first soaking up some Mediterranean influences (and a few rays) on the tiny Greek island of Paxos. What went on the menu was just what was grown locally – a discipline which helped him establish an imaginative style of cooking. Three years later, fresh from a stint in Devon, he arrived in Witney; his intuitive approach and willingness to mix the traditional with the avant-garde have gone down a storm ever since. And now too with the judges of the prestigious 'Craft Guild of Chefs Awards', who awarded him a Chef's Oscar this year - a real accolade.

For every Caesar salad we sell, we will be making a 25p contribution to healthy eating activities in a local primary school.

Why Caesar salad? Well, it’s not the lowest calorie dish, but we think you’ll love it, so it met our fundraising criteria for a best-seller that will be on the menu all year round.

We will be changing our menus with the seasons and we’re hard line on animal welfare. All our chicken, eggs and pork are free-range. We do not use foie gras. Our Aberdeenshire beef is Scotch Beef Club accredited and our chefs regularly visit the farmers. We buy British wherever we can to keep food miles down, and, where we need to import ingredients, we minimise air-freight. Provenance is key to serving trustworthy food. Our coffee is ethically sourced from Guatemala (by Union Coffee Roasters, recently voted No. 1 ethical coffee company) and the bespoke furniture we commission is made from European oak and iroko timber from sustainable forests. We have also worked with the Carbon Trust to ensure that The Fleece operates as energy efficiently as possible.