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Yep, clearly, we didn’t have enough on this year, so we thought, why not throw another challenge into the mix? But honestly, I’m so  excited about this one. We’re going all in and diving into it headfirst. After 25 years, The Chester Food and Drink Festival was about to end. Proper end. And the minute we heard that, it just felt wrong. Chester at Easter without the food and drink festival isn’t Chester. It’s one of those traditions that’s quietly become part of the city’s ide

Yesterday (Monday) we did our first ever primary school hospitality workshop at Newton Primary School in Chester… and honestly, it was epic. This was our first one. The first proper test. The first time we’ve taken Bee Our Guest  out of our heads, off the page, and into a room full of real kids. And the children at Newton were brilliant. We originally connected through their careers fair and ended up securing a full workshop slot too, which meant the pressure was properly on.

Soul Kitchen Chester. You may or may not have heard of them before. Today I’m going to change that. They’re a local, volunteer-run charity in Chester supporting people experiencing homelessness, food poverty, and serious hardship. And before anyone thinks “that’s sad but it’s not my world” it kind of is. Because hardship doesn’t always arrive with a warning. It can be a job loss, a relationship breakdown, a rent increase you can’t keep up with, your mental health dipping, a s

New Year’s Eve is the hospitality Olympics. Full house. Big expectations. The bar is three deep, the kitchen is firing non-stop, and someone always tries to “just squeeze in” an extra six at 9pm. And do you know what NYE really does? It exposes the little guest behaviours that make a night run smoothly… or send it off the rails. I had a lovely New Years this year at The Titanic Hotel. A brilliant night with brilliant people. And even with great service, you still see the odd

I wanted to write a proper Hospitality Hero year roundup because hospitality people are terrible at pausing. We just crack on. We hit the next deadline, cover the next shift, deal with the next bill, and pretend the last twelve months didn’t nearly flatten us at points. But…. Hospitality Hero isn’t just “a nice idea” anymore. This year proved it. We didn’t just talk about change, we built things that pushed the industry forward, we created spaces where people could learn and

I’ve talked about the budget before, but I don’t think I’ve made it clear enough how furious I am about it. Independent businesses like mine are being completely screwed by this government, and the anger is so intense it’s hard to even put into words. Here’s what I worked out recently, around Business Rate changes..... our rateable value at our hotel in Wrexham currently sits at £87,000, from April 2026 it jumps to £171,000. Basically Double! In 2025/26 the rates bill was £87