ELITE – Exceptional, Loyal, Innovative, Talented & Empowered.
2023 is a huge milestone for Elite Pubs as we’ll be celebrating our 20th year in business.
It’s been a wild ride from opening our very first pub, The Great House, Hawkhurst in 2003 to now having a group of 11 – soon to be 12 pubs and 2 cocktail bars in Kent and Sussex. It’s been a roller coaster ride, to say the least.
We pride ourselves on giving every customer an Elite experience and hope to continue that for the next 20 years and beyond.
Here are some of our favourite moments and hurdles we’ve made it past throughout the years.
Elite's 20th Year in business party
You’re invited to Elite’s 20th year in business party! On Friday 19th May, you can expect decorations, live music, food and drinks at our very first pub, The Great House, Hawkhurst from 3pm onwards. Our theme is early 2000’s so our music will be pretty iconic and our beer prices will be dropped for one day only to those of 20 years ago!
Celebrate the last 20 years and toast to the next 20 with us!
Supporting Charities
Supporting Charities
We’ve always prided ourselves on working closely with local charities. Through our events, live music, giveaways and raffle contributions we’ve supported charities including; Stand Up 2 Cancer, Aspens, Demelza, The Be You Project and a whole lot more. We’ll always keep supporting charities at the heart of our ethos and are continuously innovating new ideas to help fundraise and support. Our live music and face painting will be raising funds for Demelza – head on down to support and enjoy the music!
We’ve also supported many local Parish’s over the years and donated several defibrillators to local schools.
Summer Weekend of Music
Summer Weekend of Music
We’re into our music at Elite and always want to celebrate local talent. We previously celebrated the summer with Shackfest at select venues. We had live bands, a face painter, food and drinks stalls and more. It was enjoyed by all and the weather was on our side too!
In 2022 we held Elite’s Summer Weekend of Music where at most of our venues we had musicians, singers and bands over a weekend and had our customers celebrating with cocktails and pub food in the sun. This year we’re bringing it back with more artists than ever before! Keep an eye out on our What’s On page for details coming very soon!
Covid-19
Covid-19
Covid 19 hit the entire world extremely hard, as well as the hospitality industry in general. It led us to have to think on our feet. We started offering takeaways and also participated in eat out to help out and adding our marquees to allow for social distancing in the garden areas.
While all of this was going on, we managed to open 2 brand new pubs in 2021; The Pheasant Plucker, Ide Hill and The Lazy Fox, Mark Cross. We are so proud of this achievement, these 2 pubs are much loved by locals and newcomers alike.
Supporting Local
Supporting Local
It’s no secret that our company ethos is to support locally with 85% of all of our food being sourced within 25 miles of our pubs. Not only that, but we love to support local schools, parishes and businesses by contributing to raffle prizes by business and events who are raising money for a good cause.
We also recently partnered with J&B’s Barkey (based in Sittingbourne) who supply us with delicious homemade, no-nasties doggy treats and biscuits that can be found on our bar. We hope to continue to work with amazing local suppliers going forwards to offer the freshest, most delicious food and drink for you to enjoy! Check out our supplier map to see who we’re currently working with!
The Wishful Thinker
The Wishful Thinker
Our newest pub, The Wishful Thinker, Lenham is our biggest adventure so far. Previously known as The White Horse on Lenham Road, our newly acquired pub is currently undergoing a huge refurbishment and extensions. The Wishful Thinker will soon be home to 15 bedrooms, an impressively large dining room, internal bar terrace overlooking the dining room and even a stage for the ultimate live experiences! We’re looking to open our doors 4th June.
Head to our website The Wishful Thinker or our Instagram to keep up with updates!
Innovative Menus
Innovative Menus
We’re constantly re-inventing our menus with exciting flavours and dishes to make sure that every time you visit, you’re getting an Elite experience. You never have to worry about our delicious staples like our Chicken Thigh Kebab, Wood-fired sourdough pizzas, Fish & Chips and King Prawn Linguini coming off the menu, sometimes we’ll just tweak the flavours and salads!
Every day, our talented chefs come up with daily specials. Giving our chefs creative freedom in some dishes means that we always have new and exciting dishes coming onto the menu. Not forgetting the puddings… our indulgent puddings change seasonally also!
Rebuilding the Dirty Habit
Rebuilding the Dirty Habit
In October, The Dirty Habit, Hollingbourne suffered a devastating fire. All staff members and customers were evacuated safely and accounted for however the pub suffered substantial damage.
All of our pubs are extremely special to us, but with the Habit being 11th Century, this hit especially hard. In true Elite fashion, we picked ourselves up and immediately began plans to restore the pub to its former glory plus some exciting extras like boutique bedrooms and a brand new open kitchen so you can see our expert chefs at work.
Follow our social media and keep checking our page for updates on the restoration progress.
These are just some of the milestones over the years, there have been many and definitely more to come! We wanted to say thank you to each and every person who has been on this crazy journey with us and continues to support us through the good times and the bad.
We’re celebrating even further by running competitions and giveaways throughout the year on our socials channels. From hampers to vineyard tours and discounts, you don’t want to miss them! Follow us on Instagram to be the first to hear.
