White Hart, Henfield

The White Hart is a nice country pub. It is large, warm and with a good selection of beers. You can go there, sit down on a large selection of seating and have a decent beer with friends. The staff are polite and helpful, if a bit disorganised. The food is probably the best pub food in the village, but don't expect gourmet.

The issue for me is the consistency of providing the village with the service its sole purpose is to provide.
Too often you walk past the White Hart to closed doors and closed curtains. I understand that certain times in the day will be more quiet than others and there are certain costs attributed to keeping a pub open, but the costs to reputation of closing are much higher. A pub is a centrepiece of a village community and needs to be open to serve the community during the hours expected without exception. Being closed at 17:30 on a Friday is inexcusable, as is closing on a weekend evening to host a private function. If you host an event, include the community as well (Note that this is common behaviour in good, popular pubs).

The pub's attitude (which the above behaviour is a constituent of) leaves a slightly stale atmosphere and which, in my opinion, could be perceived that they are loosing interest in the regular business of the village community.

In summary, a decent pub which needs to be careful of the attitude it purveys to potential regular custom.

16 Nov 2013 15:49