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You don’t have to wait until the warmer weather and the lighter evenings to enjoy a break in the countryside. Even in Winter, the vale of Belvoir is a stunning place to visit. Great scenery, interesting towns and villages, and, of course, some fabulous pubs to settle into for a pint by the fire.

We’re offering a couple of great deals at the moment, for the remainder of February and March, to help make a mini-break in the countryside a relaxing one for your wallet as well as for you.

You can book a double or twin room for a week night (Monday to Thursday) for an inclusive dinner, bed and breakfast stay at the Geese and Fountain for just £100 per couple. A big saving from our regular prices, it’s an ideal way to enjoy a relaxing night away, a short break in the delightful Vale of Belvoir. Whether you come to explore Belvoir Castle and the other spectacular properties in the region, walking the quiet country lanes, visiting Melton Mowbray, the ‘rural capital of food’ with its cattle market, cheese shops and the new Round Corner Brewery, there is something for everyone on our doorstep.

And for only £100 you can enjoy a three course dinner (ordering from our pub classics menu, our pizza menu or our evening specials, with no exceptions or supplements), a relaxing night’s sleep in one of our seven comfortable rooms, and round off your stay with one of our traditional breakfasts. The only additional costs will be for whatever drinks you consume while you’re here.

This offer is only available by telephone. Please call the pub on 01476 870350 if you would like to book, and quote our ‘Spring Escape’ offer to get the special price. The offer is, of course, subject to room availability, is not available for ‘special event’ dates, and will not apply after the end of March 2020.

Alternatively, if you would rather stay a little longer, we are offering a FREE THIRD NIGHT with any two night stay. So book a Friday and a Saturday night, we’ll let you stay on Sunday night for nothing. Or take a mid-week break and explore Melton’s market day or the antique shops of Oakham or Newark. We’re convenient for Leicester, Nottingham and Lincoln too. Just call us and book a three night stay (dates before the end of March 2020) and you will only pay for two nights.

Valentine’s Day is getting closer and our delicious Valentine’s Menu will be available this year on Friday, February 14th and Saturday, February 15th. The full menu can be found here, and you can book a table here.

But why not make a proper night of it? Combine a Valentine’s Dinner for Two with one of our lovely B&B rooms for the night, complete with a luxurious lay-in the next morning, and breakfast back in the pub at a time of your choosing.

Double rooms at the Geese and Fountain are normally £75 or £80 per night, but as a special offer for Valentine’s, if you call us directly on 01476 870350 and quote the ‘Valentine B&B offer’ you can book a Valentine’s Dinner for Two and a double room for just £120 including breakfast. That’s a saving of £24 – enough to get you both lunch the next day!

The offer is available on both Friday 14th and Saturday 15th February, subject to us having a suitable room available. This offer isn’t available on any other night, and cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or deal.

Kate, Nick and everyone at the Geese and Fountain would like to wish all our customers a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. To get 2020 off to the best possible start, why not join us for a special family lunch on New Year’s Day?

All lunch guests will receive a glass of mimosa to toast the start of the new year, or orange juice if you prefer.

The New Year’s Day lunch menu will be served slightly later than usual, from 1pm until 5pm, so everyone can have a gentle start to the year. Bookings are now open – call 01476 870350 to book your New Year’s Day lunch table.

 

New Year’s Day Lunch Menu

Mimosa or orange juice

☙ • ❧

Chestnut, pumpkin and Bramley apple soup V

Crab ravioli, crab bisque, crostini

Chicken consommé, crispy chicken skin

Pear tart, stilton, pistachios V

Salt-baked beetroot, smoked aubergine, goat’s cheese, walnuts V

Spinach and ricotta gnocchi, sage butter V

Chicken liver pâté, toast, cornichons

☙ • ❧

Slow-roast Dexter brisket (from D Wiltshire, Croxton Kerrial)

Roast chicken breast (from Gerald Botterill, Croxton Kerrial)

Honey glazed gammon (from G Skinners and sons, Barrowby)

Salmon fillet in Champagne, fondant potatoes

Pan-fried wild duck breast, blackberry sauce

Mushroom, spinach and pumpkin pithivier V

Celeriac and sweet garlic open pie V

All the above served with roast and mashed potato, Yorkshire pudding,
chestnut stuffing, roasted carrots, leeks au gratin and seasonal vegetables.

Thai chilli and ginger hake, soy and sesame noodles, prawn crackers

☙ • ❧

Pears baked with lemon, bay and marsala wine

Honey poached oranges, Grand Marnier chocolate mousse

Champagne jelly, syllabub and frosted grapes

Whisky and chocolate cremeux, whisky ice cream

White chocolate and cranberry bread and butter pudding

Caramel panna cotta, gingerbread

Colston Bassett stilton cheese, crackers, organic port (£3 supplement)

Just a main course £16 • 2 courses £21 • 3 courses £25

 

We’ve got lots going on in December at the Geese and Fountain. We really do love Christmas.

Most importantly, we have our Christmas celebration menu available all the way through the month. It’s a perfect combination of classic Christmas dishes with creative new ideas, and the centrepiece of the whole thing is, of course, turkey or goose from Gerald and Richard Botterill’s family farm right here in Croxton Kerrial.

We also have some special family events going on. Everything kicks off with our Christmas Fayre on Saturday, November 30th. And two weeks later, Father Christmas himself drops in for Breakfast With Santa. After that we’ve got carol singing, a Christmas themed pub quiz, lots of festive live music, and then a succession of very special menus for the holiday period itself.

On Christmas Eve, we take a break from all the turkey and Brussels sprouts to bring you ‘Escape From Christmas’, which this year features an Italian theme. Our Boxing Day lunch is a dazzling selection of both traditional and more modern dishes.

New Year’s Eve this year will be a 1950s theme rock’n’roll’n’cocktails party, with live music from the one and only Mr Aron Fender. You can now book for the buffet, and take advantage of some great deals on cocktails by ordering one of our ‘package deals’. Or you can just turn up on the night and enjoy the party!

And then New Year’s Day will be a return to classic tradition with a family friendly New Year’s Day lunch menu. 

Whatever you want for Christmas this year, you will find it at the Geese and Fountain.

The 2019 Rugby World Cup is less than a month away. Preparation games are well underway, squads are selected, and the bookies have installed New Zealand as clear favourites to complete a hat-trick of World Cup titles. All that remains now is putting the games in your diary and working out where you want to watch them.

Unlike many recent major sports events, the timings aren’t exactly typical pub hours. With the games taking place in Japan, many of the games are kicking off early morning in the UK – especially matches featuring the southern hemisphere teams, whose games appear to have been scheduled for prime time viewing in their own countries.

That means that for us in the UK, we’re more likely to be eating breakfast than downing pints while we watch the games. Luckily, the Geese and Fountain has you covered for that too. With our regular opening for breakfast at 8.30am, we will also be opening a little early on those days when a home nations side is in action, and lots of the games finish just in time for us to serve you a pint or two to celebrate – or commiserate – over the result.

Breakfast Season Ticket Saves You Money

And we’re introducing a special breakfast offer for the Rugby World Cup – the BREAKFAST SEASON TICKET. Buy a season ticket and get ten breakfasts during the course of the tournament at a significant discount, including complimentary tea or coffee and fresh fruit juice.

There are a range of season tickets available, depending on the breakfast you want to enjoy while you’re watching the games:

• Farmer’s Breakfast Season Ticket (includes juice and tea or coffee): £90
• Veggie Breakfast Season Ticket (includes juice and tea or coffee): £72
• Full English or Breakfast Sandwich Season Ticket (includes juice and tea or coffee): £54

The full fixture list (with amended pub opening times) is as follows:

Friday 20th September 
Match 1: Japan v Russia – 11:45am

Saturday 21st September (we will be open, and serving breakfasts, from 8.00am)
Match 2: Australia v Fiji – 5:45am
Match 3: France v Argentina – 8:15am
Match 4: New Zealand v South Africa – 10:45am

Sunday 22nd September
Match 5: Italy v Namibia – 6:15am
Match 6: Ireland v Scotland – 8:45am
Match 7: England v Tonga – 11:15am

Monday 23rd September
Match 8: Wales v Georgia – 11:15am

Tuesday 24th September
Match 9: Russia v Samoa – 11:15am

Wednesday 25th September
Match 10: Fiji v Uruguay – 6:15am

Thursday 26th September
Match 11: Italy v Canada – 8:45am
Match 12: England v USA – 11:45am

Saturday 28th September (we will be open, and serving breakfasts, from 8.00am)
Match 13: Argentina v Tonga – 5:45am
Match 14: Japan v Ireland – 8:15am
Match 15: South Africa v Namibia – 10:45am

Sunday 29th September
Match 16: Georgia v Uruguay – 6:15am
Match 17: Australia v Wales – 8:45am

Monday 30th September
Match 18: Scotland v Samoa – 11:15am

Wednesday 2nd October
Match 19: France v USA – 8:45am
Match 20: New Zealand v Canada – 11:15am

Thursday 3rd October
Match 21: Georgia v Fiji – 6:15am
Match 22: Ireland v Russia – 11:15am

Friday 4th October
Match 23: South Africa v Italy – 10:45am

Saturday 5th October (we will be open, and serving breakfasts, from 8.00am)
Match 24: Australia v Uruguay – 6:15am
Match 25: England v Argentina – 9:00am
Match 26: Japan v Samoa – 11:30am

Sunday 6th October
Match 27: New Zealand v Namibia – 5:45am
Match 28: France v Tonga – 8:45am

Tuesday 8th October
Match 29: South Africa v Canada – 11:15am

Wednesday 9th October (we will be open, and serving breakfasts, from 8.00am)
Match 30: Argentina v USA – 5:45am
Match 31: Scotland v Russia – 8:15am
Match 32: Wales v Fiji – 10:45am

Friday 11th October
Match 33: Australia v Georgia – 11:15am

Saturday 12th October
Match 34: New Zealand v Italy – 5:45am
Match 35: England v France – 9:15am
Match 36: Ireland v Samoa – 11:45am

Sunday 13th October
Match 37: Namibia v Canada – 4:15am
Match 38: USA v Tonga – 6:45am
Match 39: Wales v Uruguay – 9:15am
Match 40: Japan v Scotland – 11:45am

Saturday 19th October (we will be open, and serving breakfasts, from 8.00am)
QF1: Pool C winner v Pool D runner up – 8:15am
QF2: Pool B winner v Pool A runner up– 11:15am

Sunday 20th October (we will be open, and serving breakfasts, from 8.00am)
QF3: Pool D winner v Pool C runner up – 8:15am
QF4: Pool A winner v Pool B runner up – 11:15am

Saturday 26th October
SF1: QF1 winner v QF2 winner – 9:00am

Sunday 27th October
SF2: QF3 winner v QF4 winner – 9:00am

Friday 1st November
Third-place playoff: SF1 loser v SF2 loser – 9:00am

Saturday 2nd November
Final: SF1 winner v SF2 winner – 9:00am

Except where indicated above, the Geese and Fountain will be open from 8.30am, with breakfast served from 8.30am until 10.30am (or until midday on Saturdays). Licensing hours commence at 11.00am (except on Sundays, when it is midday).

Breakfast Season Tickets are on sale now in the pub.

As the evenings start to draw in (sorry for mentioning it), the leaves turn golden, the children return to school and we wonder when it will be time to light the fires again, we’d like to invite you to enjoy a special autumn offer.

For September, October and November 2019, you can now book a double or twin room for a week night (Monday to Thursday) for an inclusive dinner, bed and breakfast stay at the Geese and Fountain for just £100 per couple.

A big saving from our regular prices, it’s an ideal way to enjoy a relaxing night away, a short break in the delightful Vale of Belvoir. Whether you come to explore Belvoir Castle and the other spectacular properties in the region, walking the quiet country lanes, visiting Melton Mowbray, the ‘rural capital of food’ with its cattle market, cheese shops and the new Round Corner Brewery, there is something for everyone on our doorstep.

And for only £100 you can enjoy a three course dinner (ordering from our pub classics menu, our pizza menu or our evening specials, with no exceptions or supplements), a relaxing night’s sleep in one of our seven comfortable rooms, and round off your stay with one of our traditional breakfasts. The only additional costs will be for whatever drinks you consume while you’re here.

This offer is only available by telephone. Please call the pub on 01476 870350 if you would like to book, and quote our ‘Autumn Escape’ offer to get the special price. The offer is, of course, subject to room availability and will not apply after the end of November 2019.

Some exciting changes happening this week to the menus at the Geese and Fountain.

Over the last few months, we’ve been offering food on our ‘pub classics’ menu right through the day from midday until 9pm on every day except Sundays. It’s been such a success that we’re now making those our standard hours, at least for the rest of 2019. We might cut down again in the quiet months of the winter but for the time being we’re delighted to offer you a full choice of pub classic meals ALL DAY from midday to 9pm, Monday to Saturday.

And the really exciting news is that we are also launching our new, expanded “Pub Classics” menu this week, which means that several dishes which have previously only been available as ‘specials’ at dinner time are now available all day long. This includes some established favourites like our slow-roasted duck leg, rump and sirloin steaks, and the pan-fried salmon fillet. But it also includes some new dishes – a classic Prawn Cocktail is now available in the starters section, and Spaghetti alla carbonara is a brand-new main course option.

Alongside the newly expanded Pub Classics menu, we are also revising and improving all our other menus: adding some new options to the children’s menu, re-writing the breakfast menu to make it clearer, and also simplifying things on Sunday evenings, by offering the whole of our Pub Classics menu and the Pizza choices in place of the ‘Sunday Suppers’ menu we used during the winter.

So in short – more choices than ever before. Kate and her team in the kitchen are excited to be offering you even more of the meals you want to enjoy, at the times you want them. We look forward to seeing you back at the Geese and Fountain to try out the new dishes.

Full details of the menus and the mealtimes can be found on our Eat with us page.

We’re hosting four different food and drink festivals over the next three months at the Geese and Fountain, and we’re very excited about all of them.

First up, over the August Bank Holiday weekend (23rd to the 26th) we have our ‘Beer and Books‘ Festival, a beer festival with a reading theme. We will have a ‘writer in residence’ each day of the festival, with talks, readings and so on, as well as lots of book-themed beers for you to enjoy. Sign up to the Geese and Fountain library while you’re here, and settle down with a good book and a great pint in the beer garden or the sofas, and have the most comfortable beer festival of the year.

Secondly, we have our very first Wine Festival taking place on September 20th, 21st and 22nd. Some very special wines, some new wines, some surprisingly local wines, lots of opportunity to try wines that we don’t normally serve by the glass, and a couple of special events: a wine and cheese tasting party with a very special musical accompaniment, and a full-bodied wine paired tasting dinner menu.

Thirdly, we’re holding an Oktoberfest celebration from September 27th until October 7th. We’ll have some very special Bavarian beer imported from Munich for the event, and the kitchen will be producing some very special Oktoberfest bar snacks, from pretzels to roast chicken. Lots of live music each weekend, and you are especially encouraged to dress appropriately for the occasion, with traditional Bavarian costume.

Fourthly, our Traditional Cider and Sausage Festival returns for another year, between October 23rd and the 27th. Now with over 30 different sausages, and more than 20 ciders and perries, it is certain to be a huge event. Live music this year comes from Govannen, Lawrence County and The Cherribombz, who have all been big hits in previous appearances at the Geese and Fountain so we know it will be a lively weekend. We’ll be bringing back our famous “ten sausage platter” so you can try as many of the sausages as you can manage, and we will be awarding prizes again to the highest scoring sausage and cider of the festival.

Bed and Breakfast bookings are now being taken for all four of these events, and we really hope you will be able to join us in celebrating one or more of them.