The Mount by Glynn Purnell: 'A good solid pub with the DNA of what we do at Purnell's'

Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox

Deputy Editor

Celebrated Michelin-starred chef Glynn Purnell is set to open a pub in Henley-in-Arden.

With a launch date yet to be announced, The Mount by Glynn Purnell will be located on the property formerly occupied by The Butcher's Social in the medieval market town.

After the closure of Purnell's Bistro & Ginger's Bar in Birmingham last year, the chef was intent on keeping his team on board, so seized on the opportunity to open The Mount.

"Most of the staff that are going there have worked for me for a long time," he explained, with the bistro's GM Pete Casson taking on the same role at The Mount, and Phil Steggall, currently a sous-chef at Purnell's, heading the kitchen.

"It's really exciting - it's my first venture outside the city centre," Glynn said, "so it's going to be something new and interesting."

The food

The food at the pub will showcase a different style of food than what guests have come to expect from Purnell's, but consistent in terms of quality.

"This building is over 200 years old, it's a pub," Glynn explained, so the focus will be "on good solid pub food," he continued, "with... I hate to say a twist, but the DNA of what we do at Purnell's."

Keep your eyes peeled for a fish curry, he said, "but there'll certainly be classics on there, like a cottage pie in the style of how we would do something [at Purnell's]."

2022, a year of great promise

The chef hopes that once we've seen the back of the Omicron wave, "it's going to be a great year, I think, 2022."

"I've always been a glass half full kind of guy so I always look at the massive positives of any situation. Being a chef patron for all the years that I've been open, you have to be resilient."

As he feels personally responsible to keep his team from the bistro on board, he said, "it's great that we're in a situation where Purnell's is thriving and that we can open somewhere else."

Watch Glynn Purnell making his iconic Monkfish Masala, his take on a fish balti:

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