Nottinghamshire pub gets its own taxi for free rides home
Des and Trish Sweeney with cab, staff member Ellie Wrench and pub chicken Lady Lynn
No problem getting a taxi home after a night at the Cross Keys in Epperstone – the award-winning pub-restaurant has bought its own London cab.
The taxi, newly re-painted in the pub's mint-green livery, provides free rides home for drinkers and diners and ensures the darts team gets to away matches on time.
After rescuing the empty pub last year and renaming it The Kitchen at the Cross Keys, former Royal Household chef Des Sweeney and his wife Trish are now laying on what villagers say is a social service.
Des said: "I'm from London and my daughter was born in Chelsea, so having a cab for the pub is very much a 'London' thing.
"I'm quite happy to drop customers off on my way home to Mapperley and the darts team uses it for away matches. I quite like driving it – the ride is a bit bumpy but it will turn on a sixpence."
Said Trish: "It's bonkers but I love it. It's just a bit of fun but if can help the community it's a good thing."
For legal reasons there are no fares in the second-hand cab that was first flagged down in 2000, and after almost 17 years has clocked up 249,000 miles.
"I'm told they are good for 500,000," said Des, who paid £3,000 for the vehicle before sending it for a "wrap" – the paint job and marketing details – at Staffordshire firm Bri-Stor Systems, specialists in commercial vehicle conversions.
The first regulars to get a ride home in the taxi were village couple Rob Gunn and Lynne Peacock.
"It's a fantastic idea," said Rob. "It's great for the pub and the village. The pub is the heart of the village and when it closed we had nowhere to go. Now it has a taxi it's a bit like a social service."
The taxi is a mobile advertisement for the business and the artwork includes the pub's mascots – the laying hens who are a talking point in the pub's beer garden. The yard also has a "horse park" for use while riders drop in for refreshment.
Des cooked in the Merchant Navy, the QEII and for the Queen and the House of Lords. He was sous-chef at the Capital Hotel in Knightsbridge at the time it was awarded its first Michelin star.
He was head chef at Puncinello in Forman Street, then Woodborough Hall, before he and Trish moved to Epperstone.
They made an immediate success of The Kitchen at the Cross Keys, winning the Best Public House accolade at this year's Nottingham Post Food and Drink Awards.
Read more at http://www.nottinghampost.com/nottingha ... pWI3Gg8.99