The Fish Pond Matlock Bath features in our latest Love your local

Derbyshire Times

The Fish Pond Matlock Bath features in our latest Love your local feature.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:08 Pubs have been a cornerstone of our local communities for centuries,

00:11 offering a place for people to meet together and socialise,

00:14 as well as providing thousands of jobs and a cornerstone of the local economy.

00:18 Here we go behind the bar to meet the people who run our pubs

00:21 and say why it's important for you to love your local.

00:24 I'm Simon, I've been involved with the Fish Pond since 2018,

00:30 under the previous owner, I helped just do some consultancy with Trevor,

00:35 and then we took on the lease in 2019,

00:39 and then Covid came around a few months later,

00:41 and pretty much wiped out, decimated the trade or anything we'd built

00:45 for the following two years,

00:47 and then we actually bought the property in December last year.

00:52 Hi, I'm Lily, we're at the Fish Pond in Matlock Bath.

00:57 I've been here about seven years now,

01:00 I do events, so I'm the events manager.

01:03 I hold lots of events here at the Fish Pond, inside and outside.

01:09 Is there any popular events that you have?

01:12 We hold a few music festivals,

01:15 so we've been doing music festivals for about ten years.

01:19 The last few years we've made them quite a lot bigger than usual,

01:23 so over a two-day period.

01:26 We have three stages, inside and out.

01:29 We normally have about eight to twelve bands play inside and out.

01:33 Normally our pizza oven's open and we put on a grill,

01:37 so that gets quite lively and fun.

01:40 We have a lot of weddings here as well,

01:42 so not many people know, but we do hold weddings.

01:45 We've got two big function rooms upstairs,

01:48 so we can fit about 150 people in.

01:51 We can have ceremonies here and receptions,

01:55 so quite a few weddings booked.

01:58 Parties, we have tribute bands on in our ballroom,

02:02 so we can fit about 130 people in the ballroom.

02:06 It's self-contained with its own bar and toilets.

02:09 We've had a few comedy nights here,

02:12 so anything and everything we have upstairs in our rooms.

02:16 We do home-cooked food, so everything's made fresh.

02:20 Our menu changes seasonal.

02:23 Winter menu, we have pies, sausage and mash.

02:27 We have specials on weekly as well,

02:30 so the chefs come up with specials either every few days or weekly.

02:35 We're very known for our pizzas here at the Fish Pond,

02:38 so we do homemade pizzas in our pizza hut.

02:42 We've just refurbished that, so that'll be all ready and open for the summer.

02:47 So the public can sit on the terrace and watch the chef cook the pizza,

02:51 so that's very nice.

02:53 We've got quite a lot of offers on as well,

02:56 so we have pizza and a pint for £12 every Wednesday,

02:59 so that goes down well with the customers.

03:03 What drinks do you serve?

03:06 We do a lot of Cascades, and we like to source our beer locally too,

03:11 so loads of local breweries and microbreweries from around.

03:15 We have tons of gins too, and as well we try and get them local.

03:21 Lots of local wine and craft cans,

03:26 so yes, a wide range of drinks on the bar.

03:29 Any future events that you've got going?

03:32 We've got a tribute Fleetwood Mac in April.

03:39 We've also got a medium spiritual night,

03:43 so that's the first one we've had in a while,

03:46 so we're really excited about that.

03:49 And then we've got our festival in the summer,

03:51 so that's the first weekend in July.

03:54 That's bigger than we've done before, so that's over a two-day period.

03:59 And then every Thursday we have an acoustic night downstairs,

04:02 and then live music every Friday and Saturday downstairs on the bar.

04:07 And on a Sunday we have open mic, so lots to keep us busy.

04:12 How many people work at the Fish Pond?

04:16 I think we've got about 25 staff altogether, so that includes the kitchen.

04:22 We've got about six chefs, three or four potwashers,

04:28 and then out front staff make up the rest.

04:32 And then we've got obviously handymen, the boss, so quite a lot of staff.

04:37 The best part about working here?

04:40 Probably just be the range of things we do.

04:43 So when we get new staff work here, everyone says,

04:46 "Oh wow, it's so different to just working in a normal pub."

04:49 We have so many events on, like I said, live music every weekend.

04:53 It's just a really fun place to work, and obviously the festival's going on,

04:58 the food, weddings, it's just kind of a nice mix of everything really,

05:03 so you're never just doing one thing.

05:05 So all the new staff always say, "Oh, it's so nice, different to other pubs to work."

05:11 So that's why I like working here.

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