Wolverhampton pub provides great pint and a sense of community for everyone

The role of a pub in a community can be a very important one as it provides a place to meet people, enjoy a drink and meal and feel part of something.

As well as the location of the pub and how accessible it is, an important part of a pub is how people feel when they walk through the door, who they are greeted by and how welcome they feel upon entry.

At the Chestnut Tree in Finchfield in Wolverhampton, the emphasis by manager Steph O'Donovan and her team has been on creating that community feeling and making people feel welcome.

The pub has been in the community for decades, having started life further up the road on Castlecroft Road West and been moved over time, and is currently operating as a Sizzling Pub and Grill pub.

Ms O'Donovan said she was a local who had been to the pub in the past, but had never intended to work in the pub trade, but said she just fell for it and realised the potential of it.

She said: "This pub has been here many years and the regulars will know much more about the history than me, but there's always been a pub here and I've been the manager for about six years.

"I live locally, but this was never meant to be my full time job as I had gone to University and done things outside of the pub, but I just fell into the pub trade and found that I loved this place.

"The pub has changed a lot over the years and it's very different now to when I started, but it's such a nice place and you meet so many different people, from the elderly people in the day to families and drinkers in the evening."

Ms O'Donovan said she wanted to make the pub the heart of the community and said the location on the fork of two roads helped, as well what the pub provided.

She said: "We want to be a nice little local where people can come to have nice food, nice drink and just a friendly place that people can enjoy their time at.

"We're quite unique in that we're a Sizzling Pub, but we also have eight cask ales on and we can have a wide variety of different ones on at any time.

"We can change our ales and swap them around, so we'll sell a lot of Tribute and we'll get Hobgoblin in and then, every couple of months, the ales change and and we have a collective list of what we can choose from."

Ms O'Donovan said a lot of the choice came down to the customers, with a lot of people saying they preferred lighter beers to the dark ales, with the average price being around £4 a pint or £2.20 on a Thursday evening.

The pub also offers a wide selection of lagers and ciders, with Corona, Madri and Carling being popular with regulars, as well as a large selection of rums, gins and whiskies.

Being a Sizzling Pub, the food is also a big part of what makes the pub, with Ms O'Donovan saying that the selection was very big and very varied.

She said: "We have lots of burgers, lots of steaks and ultimate plates and plenty of big meals like Fried Chicken, so it's all very big.

"That is one of the things that makes this pub for me, as well as the community as I want this to be a friendly, local pub where people can come in of all ages, have a meal and just feel comfortable.

"We've done a lot of work to make that feeling and I hope people enjoy coming here."