The family-run pub with a remarkable award-winning streak
The family who run the Stilton Cheese Inn at Somerby are celebrating yet again after remarkably being named the Melton area’s best pub for the seventh time in the last nine years.
Jeff and Carol Evans bought the historic High Street local back in 1994 and they have firmly established it as a go-to venue for great beer and pub food.
Daughters Lynne and Claire work alongside them in the business, along with grandsons, Lewis and Sam, and their other staff.
For 77-year-old Jeff, the joy of winning the Melton and District CAMRA award for top pub never fades.
He told the Melton Times: “We were on holiday when we heard we had won again.
"The thrill was just the same as the first time we won.
"I feel the hairs standing up on my arms just thinking about it. It’s nice to be recognised for what you do.”
Their run of success began in 2015 and has gone on to include 2016, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and this year.
The Stilton Cheese Inn also triumphed in the contest for best CAMRA regional pub for the Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland area in 2015, 2019 and last year.
On top of that, it has featured for 21 consecutive years in the prestigious CAMRA Good Beer Guide.
Carol (74) commented: “Our customers are mainly from Somerby and surrounding villages but we do get people from further afield and the awards do help to bring them in.”
The building dates back to 1666 – the year of the Great Fire of London.
"We have the deeds for 1717 and our solicitor said it was the oldest one he’d ever seen,” added Carol.
“It’s a lovely old building with thick walls, which is warm in the winter and cool in the summer.”
Jeff has been in the pub and catering trade all of his working life, starting off as a trainee chef at the Branting Hill Hotel in Groby in 1964.
Jeff and Carol, who married in 1969, managed hospitality businesses in Surrey for several years, with daughter Claire becoming head chef at the age of 20 in an 80-seat al a carte restaurant they ran.
Claire has been a chef for 30 years at the Stilton Cheese Inn with Jeff and Lewis also involved in cooking the pub’s food.
“There can’t be many pubs who have three generations of chefs,” said Claire.
Lynne spent 20 years living in New York but returned home to work in the family business – she is in charge of orders and is involved with cellar and bar work.
The Covid pandemic had a huge negative impact on hospitality businesses with people confined to home for many months and pubs and restaurants forced to close.
Jeff said the effects are still being felt from lockdowns: “Covid has made the biggest change for us in recent years.
“We don’t get many late night customers anymore.
“People come early. They have got used to being at home in the evenings.”
But he says there is nothing like spending a night at the pub with other people, adding: “Never a night goes by when we don’t have a laugh with someone in our pub.”