Exclusive: Historic Lewes pub The Snowdrop Inn to change owners

Current owner Dominic McCartan has announced his retirement after almost 17 years in charge and more than 25 years of running pubs in Brighton and Lewes.

He will hand over the keys of the 186-year-old pub to Harry and Sally Fields – owners of boutique Italian restaurant Squisito in the Needlemakers building.

Dominic employed Sally when he owned The Roebuck in Laughton back in 2015, and he told us that now feels like the right time to take a break.

He said: “It's been an incredible journey all these years of doing this, and I just think that now is probably a good time to hand it over to people who might not be quite as jaded as I am!

“The nice thing is that Sally and Harry have come along and I've known Sally for some time. It's nice to be able to hand the business over to people who I know will look after it.

“And that speaks volumes for Lewes as well. It's a highly regarded institution, and therefore it needs to be in the right hands.”

He added: “I think it's great for Lewes that a pub with such a reputation can keep going because, in this environment, pubs are very vulnerable. And I think for Lewes, this is great news.

"The more support that Lewesians can give to Harry and Sally in their venture here, the better. It's so important that we look after pubs, and we keep them dear to our heart because they are part of our social fabric as people, as humans.

“And to lose that to housing developments, to dereliction – we have to fight against that. This is a great opportunity for Harry and Sally to carry that beacon.”

The Snowdrop, established in 1840, sits beneath the cliff that saw a deadly avalanche on December 27, 1836, and was built on the site of the cottages destroyed by the snow.

It carries quite the legacy and Harry and Sally, into their fourth year at Squisito, admitted it’s ‘exactly the sort of place we’ve wanted for years.’

Harry said: “Best pub in Lewes by a landslide – literally. A freehold pub, two gardens – an institution.

“Everyone in Lewes has a story about The Snowdrop, whether they can remember it or whether they've heard it second hand.

“It's got the perfect layout for what we want to do. It's a great location for what we want to do. We’ve sort of built ourselves into the Lewes town and we're only interested in doing things in Lewes because we don't want to pull ourselves away massively.”

And on their plans for The Snowdrop, Sally added: “I think the point of when you go into a pub is it's supposed to feel like it's been there forever. And we don't want to change it and make it modern or anything like that. We just want to keep it as this really cool place that you come to.

“You want the pub to feel like you're coming home. You want people to come in and feel like they are welcome here and they belong here. We don't want to change.”

While Dominic bids a fond farewell as owner, he will be staying in Lewes and visiting with his beloved dogs. Other than the ‘seven-day weeks’ and the ‘very early mornings’, he shared what he will really miss most about the pub in his retirement.

He said: "I think what I’ll miss most is the company that pubs provide. I've always tried to create pubs that I would be happy to go in myself, and I am my biggest critic.

“So, I will miss the great atmospheres that you can create in pubs, and the buzz you get from just knowing that people have had a really good time. That's worth an awful lot.

“And I’ll miss all the people. I've worked with so many people over the years, some great people who work in hospitality or who have worked in hospitality and have gone on to do other great things. That would be a change – not having that degree of company.”

Dominic’s remarkable contribution to the town will live on as The Snowdrop Inn enters a new era, and as Harry remarked – if he gets bored of retirement, he can always ‘buy another pub’.