We know that Christmas in 2020 is not going to be like other years. But we want to help everyone have the best possible Christmas celebrations, even if you can’t come to the pub for the time being.

So we’ve put together some spectacular deals on beers, wines, and more for all your Christmas and New Year drinking needs. As you’d expect from the Geese and Fountain, these are not run-of-the-mill drinks, far from it. Great craft beers from some of the best little breweries in Britain and around the world, wonderful organic wines made with love by family-run vineyards caring for the soil, the vines and the finished product, carefully compiled selections of artisan small batch gin and whiskey – whatever your tastes and budget, we have something for everyone.

We’ve put all the deals together into one Christmas Drinks Offers booklet – download it and choose your drinks for the festive period. Fill in the order form and drop it in to the pub, post it back to us, or email / facebook message / WhatsApp your order to us and we’ll arrange everything.

Extra Christmas Discount

If you want a more personalised beer selection, remember we stock over 100 different beers in our cellar, from barley wines to low alcohol options, from lagers to barrel aged stouts. We currently have an extra discount available for all Christmas beer collections and deliveries. You can download  an order form, to browse our stock and make your choices, then just return it to us, and we will put together a box of beers just for you.

Perfect Christmas Presents – free gift packaging

We also have Christmas gift packaging available. Pick any three beers from our stock list, and we will put them into a Christmas gift box free of charge.

Give your cook the night off

Remember that you can combine any drinks order with either picking up a take-away or collecting a ‘cook at home’ version of our Christmas menu.

We’ve just put out a press release announcing our ‘cook-at-home’ Christmas meal boxes. If you’d like to download a PDF of it, here it is.

Can’t go to the pub? Bring the pub to you!

Cook-at-home restaurant quality meals launched by Leicestershire pub

Even the government announcement that Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire are all in the toughest Covid Tier from December 2nd isn’t enough to ruin Christmas in one small Leicestershire village. The Geese & Fountain, the award-winning pub in Croxton Kerrial, Leicestershire, have found a new way to keep the Christmas spirit alive – selling three-course Christmas dinners throughout December as both TAKE-AWAY and COOK-AT-HOME options.

The pub, which has been serving take-aways throughout lockdown based on its regular menus and also special theme take-aways including a “Kerrial Fried Chicken” night, has launched a Christmas menu which can be ordered either as a ready-to-eat take-away or as a cook-at-home kit, which will include all the elements of a restaurant-quality meal, carefully prepared and packaged with full instructions so that customers can complete and present their Christmas feast to perfection.

Chef at the Geese & Fountain, Kate Ahrens, explained, “This has been such a difficult year for everyone, and the latest round of restrictions are going to have a massive impact on everyone’s Christmas celebrations. No work parties, no trips to the pub, no extended family get-togethers. We wanted to make sure that we were helping to make the Christmas period as special as we can, and offering a cook-at-home version of our restaurant quality meals is one way to do that. You can order a box for your house, and one for your friends, family, or work colleagues, and eat the meals together over a Zoom call. Or you can pick up a box from us on Christmas Eve and save yourself all the stress of Christmas dinner preparation.”

The menu, available on the pub’s website (www.thegeeseandfountain.co.uk), features geese and turkeys raised in the same village as the pub itself, by Gerald Botterill and his son Richard, as well as prawn, chorizo and chicken paella, oven-baked sea trout, beef wellington (using beef reared on the nearby Belvoir estate), and leek, mushroom and lentil Christmas pie. Starters include goose liver pate and lemon and garlic king prawns, while alongside traditional Christmas puddings, there are brandy clementines, a whisky and honeycomb parfait, and even a stem ginger and clotted cream baked Alaska – supplied frozen for you to pop in the oven for a few minutes just before serving. All dishes come with their own specific instructions, making sure the experience of cooking the meal at home is as simple as can be.

Kate continues, “We know that Christmas this year won’t be the same for anybody. But having a meal cooked for you, with all the care and attention that we always bring to our menu when the pub is open, and made with the fantastic quality local produce that comes from the Vale of Belvoir and the surrounding countryside can still be a wonderful part of the festivities. The Government restrictions mean that all take-aways must be pre-ordered, but we can take orders by phone (01476 870350), through our website or our facebook page, or even by WhatsApp to 07593 782662.”

The Geese and Fountain is recognised as the best pub in the Vale of Belvoir by CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, so it’s no surprise that you can add to your cook-at-home box (or your take-away) a huge selection of great quality beers, or bottles of organic wine. Beers available include those from local breweries like Brewsters in Grantham, or Round Corner in Melton Mowbray, and also international offerings and beers from leading breweries all over the UK.

ENDS

Further information:

The cook-at-home boxes are available for collection from the Geese and Fountain, or for free delivery within six miles of Croxton Kerrial. Delivery from 7 to 20 miles away can be arranged, but will cost £5.

Alongside the ready-to-eat versions of the meals, collection and delivery can be arranged on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in December, from 2nd December until the 24th. Collections available from 5pm to 8pm.

Cook at home boxes will be good for 36 hours if stored appropriately, which means boxes collected on Christmas Eve will be perfect on Christmas Day.

Both cook-at-home and ready-to-eat versions of the menu are charged at £21 for two courses, £25 for three, with children’s portions available at £15 and £18 respectively. Full details are on the pub’s website at http://www.thegeeseandfountain.co.uk/

Contact Nick Holden at the Geese & Fountain for more: 01476 870350.

With Christmas around the corner we are once again offering our specialist Craft Beer Advent Calendars for December 2020. For only £75 you get 24 beers from some of our favourite breweries, both UK and international, with a wide selection of styles from IPAs and sours to stouts and porters. What’s more, we can also offer a personalised selection – so if you want 24 dark beers, or 24 lagers, or 24 vegan beers, or even 24 gluten free beers, then we can do that for you at no extra cost. Or we can go ‘all out’ and put together an even more specialised selection at an agreed price.

Pick up your advent calendar from the pub during the last week of November, or have one delivered to you if you live within our delivery area (FREE delivery within six miles of Croxton Kerrial, £5 p&p for between seven and ten miles, all of Melton Mowbray, Grantham, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Manchester. Please note this is a personalised direct delivery service, NOT a courier.

To order, please contact us now – either by completing this form, phoning 01476 870350 or by emailing nick@thegeeseandfountain.co.uk

Merry Christmas!

Christmas this year is likely to be very different.

But at the Geese and Fountain we are determined to help you have the best possible Christmas, even if we can’t host big parties or the usual extended family get-togethers.

What we can do is provide you with the best ingredients for a family Christmas meal at home. And if things change, and we are allowed to open, we’re ready and waiting to serve you.

So for Christmas 2020 we are delighted to launch our Christmas meal take away options and ‘cook at home’ packs for the very first time. Exactly the same quality ingredients, prepared by us to our usual high standards, but then packaged in one of two ways:

• Take away meals are cooked to perfection, all set for you to collect or us to deliver piping hot and ready to eat.
• Cook at home packs are prepared by us, and then packaged, chilled or frozen (as appropriate) for you to take home (either collection or local delivery available) and finish off at a time that suits you. Full instructions will be supplied with your pack, and the contents will be great even 24 hours after your booked time, which means for the first time ever you can pick up a G&F Christmas meal on Christmas Eve and cook it yourself to perfection on Christmas Day itself.

Both options can come with additional drinks, from our extensive selections of beers, wines, ciders and more. Just talk to us about your preferences, and we will be happy to help make your Christmas 2020 extra special.

You can use our usual booking system to reserve a slot for either a collection or a local delivery, on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays throughout December. Delivery is free up to six miles from Croxton Kerrial, and just £5 between six and fifteen miles.

You can also make a provisional booking for a table at the pub, or for one of our Family Dining Rooms, for Saturday 19th December, Wednesday 23rd or Thursday 24th. We are hoping that Leicestershire will be moved down from tier three to tier two when the Government reviews the situation on December 16th, and we expect to be able to open from the 19th if that happens. If it turns out that we are not allowed to open, we will happily convert all table reservations into either take-away or cook-at-home orders.

Full details on the take away and cook at home options are on the menu below. Prices are £21 for two courses, £25 for three courses (children at £15 and £18 respectively), meal choices need to be submitted five days prior to your reservation date, and at that point a non-refundable deposit of £10 per person is required.

Please get in touch if you have any questions, or if you would like to book.

Christmas Menu 2020

Thank you

Welcome back to the Geese and Fountain!

It’s been a strange few months, but now we’re open again, we have three special offers for customers coming back to the pub this month. 

Welcome back meal deal

Firstly, our ‘Welcome Back’ meal deal, which is available whenever we’re serving food on Mondays to Saturdays during August, offers you a two course meal from our regular menu (either Lunch or Dinner) and a complimentary drink for just £20 per person.

Download the lunch or dinner menu and then call us on 01476 870350 to book.

Eat Out To Help Out

Secondly, we are taking part in the government’s Eat Out To Help Out scheme, which means that on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout August the government will pay half your bill – up to a maximum of £10 per person. Alcoholic drinks are not included, but pretty much everything else is. So whether it’s a three course dinner or a quick coffee and a flapjack the government will pay half, up to the £10 limit. You can use the scheme as many times as you like, so come for morning coffee, lunch and dinner in the same day – and save £30!

You can even combine these two offers together – and get a two course meal with a free drink for just a tenner! Order the ‘Welcome Back’ deal on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, and we’ll apply both offers, and charge you just £10.

Download the lunch or dinner menu and then call us on 01476 870350 to book.

Summer Staycation: One-night Holiday for £80

Thirdly, we have a very special ‘summer staycation’ offer. A night’s stay in one of our comfortable double or twin rooms, complete with dinner (two courses, options including specials) and a complimentary drink, and then a fabulous ‘Full English’ the next morning, for just £80 all-in. It’s the best value one-night holiday you can imagine.

The offer is available on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights throughout August, except August 31st. Offer is subject to a room being available. Full details available on request, please call 01476 870350 to book in.

American Express Shop Small – get a fiver back too!

As if these offers weren’t amazing enough, you can also get a £5 cash refund to your card account if you pay us by American Express at the moment. They have a promotional campaign called “Shop Small” which means if you spend £10 or more in a suitable small venue, American Express will refund you £5. So combine our Welcome Back deal, the Eat Out To Help Out scheme and the American Express Shop Small offer, and get a two course meal including a free drink for just £5!

For more details see: https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/benefits/shop-small/

And the beer is better than ever

It’s been a long and very strange three months of home deliveries, veg boxes and off-sales only, but we’re delighted to have the doors of the Geese and Fountain open once again.

Please book your table in advance if you can. Come to the front door when you arrive, and we’ll explain the new arrangements. All drinks and food will be served at your table. See below for full details.

Hours

We are taking it slow – for the time being we are open on reduced hours:

Mondays: 5pm – 10pm (food from 5.30pm – 8.30pm)
Tuesdays: 5pm – 10pm (food from 5.30pm – 8.30pm)
Wednesdays: midday – 10pm (food from 12.30pm – 2.30pm and 5.30pm – 8.30pm)
Thursdays: midday – 10pm (food from 12.30pm – 2.30pm and 5.30pm – 8.30pm)
Fridays: midday – 10pm (food from 12.30pm – 2.30pm and 5.30pm – 8.30pm)
Saturdays: midday – 10pm (food all day from 12.30pm – 8.30pm)
Sundays: midday – 4pm (food from midday – 3.30pm)

These are likely to be our hours for the remainder of July and August.

Food

Our menus are a little less comprehensive than before. We have to follow social distancing and safety measures in the kitchen as well as in the pub itself, so we can’t do quite so many specials and sharing boards as we used to. We hope things will get back to normal soon, but in the meantime, we are confident that the food we are offering is up to our exacting standards.

Rooms

Our B&B rooms are available again. But also on reduced availability, because after each booking we leave the room for 48 hours before it is re-used.

Changes

We have removed approximately half of our tables, but also invested a great deal into our outdoor areas so that you can enjoy time at the pub, even if you can’t fit in the pub!

We are following government guidance to ensure that our staff and our customers are safe. We have a nine page risk assessment which we are happy to share with any customers who would like to see it, and a brief summary of all our changes are explained with a leaflet on each table. It’s different to how things used to be, but we hope the warm welcome and the great food and drink are the same.

Before you arrive

TABLE BOOKINGS are advisable, and preferable, as they help us to plan, even if you are only coming for drinks and not food. Use the booking tool on this website, send us a message on facebook or phone us on 01476 870350 and we will book you in. We will have a small number of tables inside and a larger number of tables outside. We will not be setting time limits to your visits, or imposing a deposit or booking charge. If you do not book, you are still welcome to visit the Geese and Fountain but we cannot guarantee that we will have a table available for you.

Please DO NOT come to the Geese and Fountain if you, or anyone you live with, have symptoms of Covid-19. There will be no cancellation fees. Just ring us and say you’re not well and can’t come, and we will be very grateful.

We will restrict bookings to tables of 6 for the time being. Government guidelines state that you can ‘meet with one other household or bubble’ indoors, or in groups of 6 from multiple households or bubbles outdoors – but that you should continue to practice social distancing. So if you are arranging to meet other households at the pub, please advise us on booking, so we can allocate the right number of neighbouring tables.

When you arrive

When you arrive at the Geese and Fountain please come in through the FRONT DOOR. We will greet you and tell you which table(s) we have available for you. Please go to your table before ordering. All your drinks, menus, food, cutlery and so on will be brought to you at your table. Make the most of the luxury and let us wait on you!

We don’t have ‘an app’ for ordering, all your orders will be taken at your table by our staff, but we do use the Real Ale Finder app to list all the beers, lagers, ales and ciders that we have available. If you download the app, you will know what we have available, and that will save time when you are placing your order.

Please wash your hands or use sanitiser on arrival, before leaving, and each time you use the toilets. There is sanitiser in several places around the pub for you to use.

There will be a ONE WAY system (the front door is IN only, the car park door is OUT only). There will also be one way systems in the garden at busy times.

Please fill in a paper slip with your contact details, so that we can provide them to NHS Test and Trace if necessary. These slips will not be used for any other purpose and will be destroyed after 21 days.

There will be a page of information on the table like this:

We hope it will help explain what we’re doing to keep you safe. Please read it while you’re waiting for your server to take your order.

The corridor behind the bar is now STAFF ONLY. The ladies toilet has moved to one of our B&B rooms. Please follow the signs. Both the ladies and the gents will be one person at a time only.

And finally…

There are a few signs around, and a helpful info sheet on all the tables. Please READ them, and follow the guidance, and the information provided to you during your visit by our team. It is all being done for your safety and protection. We know some of you will find it very different from your usual pub visits, but it is all about safety for customers and staff alike. If you’ve got any questions, we’ll be happy to answer them for you: we want you to be reassured that we’re doing everything appropriate to keep you safe.

So if you’ve missed your visits to the pub, whether for food, drinks or an overnight stay, please give us a call on 01476 870350 and we’ll be delighted to welcome you back.

To all our much-loved customers from the team at the Geese and Fountain

Kate, Sophie and Nick spent much of this morning working out what our approach should be to the changing situation regarding Covid-19. Then the Prime Minister had a press conference this evening, and made life much more difficult for us, so the planning has to start all over again.

Up front we want to say how much we care about our customers.

We’re genuinely very, very proud of our little pub and what makes it special is the people who work here, and the customers who visit. Without you it is just a pile of bricks and a few cans of beer. With you, it’s the best pub in the world. We are determined to find a way to keep it like that. It’s not too emotional to say ‘we love you guys’ but it does sound a bit of cliché, so let’s pretend we’ve not said it, and move on to the serious stuff…

The situation is changing so fast, it is really difficult to work out what the best thing to do is at any point, but we are determined to do everything we can to both keep the Geese and Fountain going, and also ensure the lowest possible risk to all our customers and staff.

The current situation is that the Prime Minister has advised people not to socialise and not to visit pubs, clubs and theatres. However, he has not instructed us to close. This puts us in a difficult place, as without a specific instruction to close we will not be able to access any business insurance payments for loss of trade or similar.

We are a small pub, in a very small village. In as much as it’s possible to know, the risk represented by a visit to the Geese and Fountain is a lot lower than most pubs in towns and cities. We are also a resource for the village of Croxton Kerrial, and in the absence of a village shop, we are the only place in the village that you can buy milk, bread and so on (we even have toilet rolls). We therefore think that for the time being at least, the best thing we can do is try to keep going – we will keep the pub open, but take further steps to minimise the risks.

We will try our best to communicate with all of you as openly as we can. But please bear in mind that we have no idea what is going to happen next. The Prime Minister’s statement tonight has made a difficult situation a lot worse, and tomorrow the whole situation could change again.

Last weekend we issued a ‘ten point plan’ to all our staff. That remains in place.

In addition:

1. We will be putting up regular communication on our social media. Please ensure you are following the pub on facebook, twitter and instagram, if you use them. As things change we will keep putting out new updates.

2. We un-set several of our tables tonight, and will probably physically remove some into storage. The intention here is to space out customers so each family/group is sitting at least 1 metre away from anyone else. Please respect this effort when you visit the pub, and if a member of staff asks you to move tables, please be understanding.

3. Please WASH YOUR HANDS ON ARRIVAL at the Geese and Fountain. Remember, it’s not just for you – it’s to help safeguard everyone else.

4. We are going to close out online bookings for our B&B rooms. Online booking systems don’t always pass contact details for customers on to us, and in the circumstances we must be able to get in touch with customers in advance of their arrival. We will continue to take BOOKINGS FOR ROOMS OVER THE TELEPHONE ONLY.

5. We will be contacting people who have booked for Mother’s Day lunch this Sunday over the next couple of days, once we have decided the appropriate level to cap bookings at. We will not be taking any more bookings for Mother’s Day at this point. We might ask you to come at a slightly different time as we try to space out bookings more throughout the day and around the pub, keeping everyone as safe as possible. For those who are not able to come this Sunday, we are already planning a “Mother’s Day Part Two” for later in the summer, once things are back to normal.

6. We encourage all our customers to continue to use the Geese and Fountain for take-away, even if you don’t feel able to enjoy a visit to the pub. And we could potentially offer delivery to Croxton and nearby villages – please ask us if this is something that you would find helpful. Remember that we sell several basic household essentials as well as hot and cold food, beers, wines, ciders and soft drinks, chocolate bars and even toilet rolls. Apparently some supermarkets had run out of potatoes this morning, so one customer left here with two pints of beer and a bag of spuds. This is how we survive.

It’s such a shame that the situation has deteriorated today, after what was a wonderful weekend in so many respects. Casino Night in particular was great. Let’s try to keep the positive stuff in our minds over the next few weeks – we have a very special pub, and we are part of a very special Croxton Kerrial community. We can pull together and pull through this situation, and come out of it stronger. In the meantime, wash your hands, and keep the faith!

Love and best wishes to all our customers. Please keep well.

Nick, Kate, Sophie, Greg and all the team at the G&F