Harryween November 1st 2023

From this day forth the day after Halloween is now renamed HARRYWEEN

Our very first taste the movie night was a great success thanks to all the wonderful students/guests who dressed up and joined us for this magical evening. The kitchen team excelled themselves with a tailor made menu fit for a wizard and all of team gun made me so proud with their creativity to make this vision a reality.

The film started promptly at 7.30 surrounded by everyone from Harry himself to Hagrid even a howler, the best efforts were made.

The menu was accuratly timed after us rewatching the movie several times and all sticking to a stopwatch!

We started off our culinary journey to Hogwarts with a Pigtailtini, a welsh rarebit canapé followed by something from the trolly dear… teacup pumpkin soup & pumpkin pasty. Dumbledore’s feast was next when the enchanted ceiling came on. We continued with a troll bogey jelly shot palette cleanser, rounding off events with a salted caramel torte, nutty crumb & golden snitch, butter beer & chocolate frog.

Diners were full and content all captivated by the ending of the film with a rousing cheer and round of applause. We thank everyone for joining in and making our first Harryween such a great night. We are already planning the second film on the lead up to Christmas…watch this space.

The Gundies

On Monday 5th of December we held our second (not quite annual) staff awards. The last one being a mere 12 years prior.

It was a great opportunity to celebrate with Team Gun and our first ever staff do before Christmas.

What a beautiful festive event it was mainly due to the majestic Findon Place in all its December glory but also to the effort made by our fantastic sparkly team.

The night began with fizz on arrival as well as the obligatory snowball!

Grazing boards were provided by Gracefully Grazing and were a visual feast as well as an actual one.

Gracefully Grazing board.

It was then time to take a seat and be greeted by our host and local comedian Johnny Wardlow.

Awards were presented to 16 lucky winners as seen below for honours such as

The super supervisor, above & beyond, KP award, employees choice, and many more.

Once all the awards had been presented concluding with a special Gun-time achievement award to Head chef George The team presented me with a huge bouquet and a voucher to pamper myself with it made me very happy and weepy!

The evening then continued with live music laid on by Frankie (from the kitchens) band “Salt & Pepper Hill”

Dancing commenced and fun was had. So many thanks to so many people (but mostly Caroline & her team for going above and beyond exceeding all expectations)

Please enjoy our photo gallery. Photo’s by the talented www.cuttlebone.co.uk

Movember Quizzing

The second attempt at quizzing by novices Sally & Tim.

This time with a Movember theme encouraging players to adorn a ‘tache!

Nacho’s for the Macho’s were enjoyed by our quizzers.

Bravo to all those who came with a lip warmer, the evening consisted of 7 rounds of hairy inspired fun.

A picture round, trivia, food & drink, the wooly willy drawing round, music, geography & film & television rounding off with a few anagrams can you get these moustached famous folks?

Internet Isabel

Dorry sunbelt

We appreciate everyone coming out to support us on such a damp November night. The next quiz is entitled “The awkward bit between Christmas and NYE” and is on Thursday 29th with nibbles & the last chance to wear your Christmas jumper. £6 entry and a chance to win £100 Gun voucher to enjoy at The best Pub in Britain…

Party at The Pub

It seemed only fitting to share our win with the community that make this the award winning village pub it is.

We understood the assignment and that is why our celebration included Findon sheep fairs favourite Murdoch’s Crazy eyes and they delivered! So lovely to see so many smiley faces dancing in our beer garden on an unseasonably warm November evening.

We invited everyone to dress up as a pub and the village excelled, prizes were given for best dressed and team effort with the ‘three fishes ‘and a very local ‘Snooty fox’ taking the crown.

All those in fancy dress were lavished with shots!

a big thank you to our community for making us so welcome and putting the pub amongst the heart of it.

Happy Halloween 2022

This Halloween we had our first spooky themed quiz hosted by Tim & Sally supported by Freya, Chloe & Sam. All dressed as Disney villains… they were a bonus round.

Quizzers were invited to dress up for extra points and my goodness they understood the assignment.

The evening began with terrifying trivia, horrific history and guess the murder weapon, It continued with whats the tv or movie music round, serial killers, film & television trivia and ended with true or false Darwin awards.

As the first “in house'“ quiz we learnt a lot and the feedback was amazing, thank you all so much.

The next one is 27th November and will be a “Movemeber” theme so watch this space…booking is essential.

Teams of 2-6 people only, spaces limited, dressing up encouraged!

The Great British Pub Of The Year Awards

On Tuesday 4th October Myself (Sally), George & Georgia made our way to Manchester to attend The Great British pub awards at Freight Island. We were joined by Tristan who once a front of house supervisor is now a Manchester resident.

We were amongst 100’s of our peers in the industry (including Neil Morrissey *see photo below, who is also a Landlord) The day started at 1.30 with a festival theme, street foods, roller disco, pub quiz, cocktail making and more.

The awards ceremony began at 6pm with Team Gun standing right at the back watching proceedings.

We hoped to win our category because it was a nomination by Marston’s and were thrilled when we did!

We never believed we would be overall winners!

When Russel Kane who was hosting called out “THE GUN INN” we were shocked and delighted. We somewhat staggered bewildered onto stage to collect our prize!

When asked how I was feeling I answered in my most internalised way “a little bit sick”….

A big thank you to everyone who has supported us and the wonderful judges who deemed it appropriate to crown our pub with this amazing accolade we are truly honoured.

Find out more here: GBPA Website CLICK HERE

Tapas Tuesday

TAPAS TUESDAY

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TAPAS TUESDAY 〰️

French night is having its annual summer break leading to the welcoming back of Tapas Tuesday starting this week.

The kitchen is developing a selection of seasonal small plates to compliment our homemade sangria.

Booking is essential as this theme night is already proving popular! With 3 plates for £12 and 5 for £20 its not only delicious but a pocket pleaser too.

Dishes include classics such as padron peppers, patatas bravas & gambas pil pil as well as Gun influenced Spanish inspired plates like hake croquestas, crispy squid and chorizo in red wine.

What do you want to see on the menu?

So don your sombrero grab your castanets and head down for a perfect staycation in El-Findon Casa del Gun.

Marston’s PUB Of THE YEAR awards

On May 5th Marston’s held their Annual Venture Pub of the year awards having been absent for 2 years.

Celebrations began in the sky lounge of The Park Regis Hotel, Birmingham and continued late into the evening.

From over 600 Venture Pubs 18 pubs were selected over 6 categories,

When we won our category we were both surprised and delighted, we were at the back so no way did we think we would win.

As the evening continued and more amazing pubs won their elected nominations we felt there was no way we would take home the coveted overall prize….

Queue confetti cannon! Wow what a shocker.

So happy and honoured to be recognised among our peers with such stiff competition.

None of it could have been achieved without the hard work, dedication & enthusiasm of our wonderful Team Gun - Well done everyone.

DECEMBER!

Here’s some news…..Christmas is coming!

We have a whole host of exciting events to celebrate the last month of the year with heaps of festive cheer.

Ticketed events go on sale from the 1st December.

More details to follow.

Grufts, Halloween 2021

Halloween at the Gun has always been a big deal, they say the pub is haunted, you have to respect that!

Over the years we have had autumn BBQs, children's parties, doughnuts on strings, apple bobbing, staff members dressed as zombie grannies, prom gone wrong, haunted cellar tours, a spooky barn experience, and last year we navigated covid restrictions by hosting a Who Gun it dinner party.

Not one to do things twice this year it was the turn of our four-legged pals! It seemed only fitting to shine some light (all be it spooky) on the furry friends who got us through lockdown and gave us a reason to get out of the house!

How did they feel about it...utter humiliation for some I do believe, but the masters really stepped up and made this event one of our all-time favorites.

Worthing's very own Cool Town crier lent his vocal talents (and by that, I mean sheer volume) to our premier dog show and we are so glad he did thanks Bob.

Local rubbish pet portrait artist Hercule Van Wolfwinkle who shot to fame drawing your pets in exchange for donations to charity "turning tides" was our judge alongside his wife Ashley and son Sam who was a great help to the event dishing out the treats for the small people dog owners.

Hercule not only judged the entrants but also donated the star prize of a Portrait of the winner! We can't express how happy we are that he and his family came along and made this wet Halloween evening a little extra special.

The effort that was made by all of our entrants was overwhelming, after all, there would have been no dog show without the dogs!

Registration was a £5 donation to Findon's local animal sanctuary PAWS which does great work in the community.

The variety of dogs was astounding from the smallest little sausage dog to the biggest beautiful Newfoundland and everything in-between, Cockerpoos, terriers, huskies, pugs, and Frenchies. One of my personal favorite team efforts was our Osbourne family and their pet dog bat Ozzy (hope he didn't get his head bitten off!)

The Gun's very own lockdown basset cross puppy Morty made a flash appearance at the very end running down the dog walk terrified dressed in a yellow raincoat with a red balloon, in hot pursuit was Pennywise, of course, he couldn't win but he did steal the show!

There were 4 categories,

Cutest won by a couple of cowboy riding pugs/Frenchies.

Best team effort won by 2 griffons 1 sheepdog/Alsatian, Ernie the Newfoundland and their children handlers (plus a few adults).

Most original won by a Margot the cocker spaniel and Purdy the Spenglar disguised as flying monkeys joined by owner Caroline in full wicked witch attire.

Spookiest (and also most appropriate for a very foodie pub) was Hendrix the cockerpoo dressed as a lobster while owner Will was channeling his inner chef....chilling! They won a kilo of sausages donated by our Jolly butchers at Peckhams, Findon.

The overall winner was chosen from the final 4 and won not only a pet portrait by Hercule Van Wolfwinkle but the coveted Grufts Trophy.

Caroline The Wicked Witch with her flying Dog Monkeys were worthy winners, can't wait to see the portrait.

A big thank you to all those who came out and dressed up (their sometimes unwilling hounds). Lovely to see a return of New day coffee club providing the perfect hot drinks and treats as well as the fabulous Team Gun who make every day at work feel more fun.

What do you think should this be an annual event? Get planning your costumes for next year....

(disclaimer- Next year we will aim to get clearer pictures of the dogs we didn't anticipate how fast they would be or how dark it was!)

New for 2020 VEGANUARY MENU

Introducing our new Vegan Based menu which has been received really well and lucky no animals were harmed in the making of it!
If you are cutting back on meat products this year or just want to try this new yummy menu come join us, we are serving it daily along with our usual
menu. We always have Veggie and Vegan offers on our regular menu as well. Let us know if there is anything you are looking forward to trying or if there is anything you’d love to see on the menu?!

Happy Veganuary

Team Gun

REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2017

2017 A FEW OF OUR BEST BITS....

 

THE BARN OPENING

2017 saw the launch of our fabulous, fun and colourful Barn area.  We had a beautiful sunny April day with music Pimm's & cream tea lunch boxes. The Barn is available to hire and since it's launch has hosted weddings, family gatherings and sunny Sunday lunches.

MONTHLY QUIZ NIGHT

Our monthly quiz night has now been running for over a year and in this time we have gathered a steadfast following. Quizzers come not only for quiz master Gareth's witty repartee but to see what the food offering will be! For £5 per person you get quiz entrance and dinner in a box! We haven't repeated the same dish twice.....yet! Card Bingo is also not to be missed, lots of chances to go home with more cash than you came with.

BRUNCH CLUB

Our latest monthly offering is Brunch Club! Whats not to love? This new venture at The Gun is growing in popularity and tables book up fast! For the last Saturday of every month our usual menu is taken over by Brunch deliciousness! Boozy brunch or not? Our Brunch club will grow, we have a few new ideas for 2018 including a bottomless prosecco brunch....watch this space.

FRENCH NIGHT TAKEOVER

2017 saw our famous French night step down on two occasions! Summer graced us with a staycation to Greece with some tasty authentic Greek dishes and sharing meze. October brought us Mexican night much to everyones delight....I'm hoping for a revisit. We are all looking forward to where we will culinary visit in 2018.

GUNFEST

Our annual music event was a pirate affair this year kicking off with a few sea shanties from the Diablos, Potty the pirate for the children's delights and followed on by the vocal talents of The Purple Shoes, The Baby faced blues buskers and headlined by The Sonics. The sun shone the rum flowed a great time was had by all. We are planning 2018 already theme ideas welcome!

NATIVITY

This was the second year for this festive event. We were so happy Helena and the parish members marched their flock to The Inn to find there was no room so could stay in our Barn! Sheep, donkeys, children and carols. This is becoming our new favourite tradition! mulled wine, mince pies & hot chocolate....make sure you put it in your diary for 2018

Flickr Photo's for the Full Album Click Here!

NYE

Rounding off our busy year we welcomed in 2018 dressing like we were 18 and partying in the same manner. Following on from their Gunfest success we were thrilled to have The Sonics back to help us celebrate a new year. Watch out for the NYE 2017 blog post.

Brunch Club relocated to New years day for its December slot, perfectly timed for a few sore heads. 

2018 YOU HAVE A TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW