Tom Gabbitas and his family moved to Eastleach to set up their own business and now run the tiny village pub.
One man made the life-changing decision to move his whole family from the city to the country to follow their dream.
Tom Gabbitas and his wife and two young children took a big step when they decided to move from Bristol to Eastleach to set up their own business.
The family now run the traditional pub The Victoria Inn which is based in an old house and dates back to the early 18th Century.
Before taking over The Victoria Inn, Tom had worked in bars and restaurants and has more than 25 years experience in the hospitality industry.
In fact Tom became involved in the industry at the tender age of just 14 when he began washing dishes and says he ‘hasn’t really stepped out of hospitality since.’
Talking about how the move came about, Tom said: “We moved to this area from Bristol. We spent many years there in restaurants, bars and cafes and there came a time, when we had children we wanted to move quite a distance between our two families.”
He went on to say: “A couple of properties came up in this village. We had never heard of it before but we got to know the locals a bit more and saw what a wonderful pub it was and saw how much potential there was.”
However when Tom and his family moved to Eastleach, they didn’t dive straight into owning the pub.
Tom explained: “Both me and my wife worked at a small inn nearby for two years then the owner of the property decided he wanted to try and sell it.
“We had just been talking to people saying that if the opportunity was available there then we would like to own The Victoria Inn and we had obviously talked to the right people. As soon as it became available we found out.”
After they took over the pub, Tom and his wife went about making ‘improvements’ to the food menu as they both have backgrounds in food.
Food is available at the venue from noon to 2.30pm Monday to Friday, 6.30pm to 9pm Tuesday to Saturday and noon to 3pm on Saturday and Sunday.
And visitors can expect to tuck into burgers, fish and chips, macaroni cheese, steak and much much more.
Tom explained that one of the best things about owning the pub is ‘bringing people together.’
He said: “It’s lovely just to bring people together and we get to know people that we probably wouldn’t get to know otherwise. Having been in this industry for such a long time if I didn’t get any satisfaction out of making people happy then I would be in the wrong industry.”
Story taken from https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk
