Culinary company Greedy Gordons has pledged its support for fellow food and drink stars in the county to inspire others to achieve award success.
As hospitality experts, Greedy Gordons are ardent ambassadors of the county’s offering of exceptional produce, pubs and places to dine and are proudly sponsoring a category in this year’s Weetabix Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards.
Having been successive winners of the county’s awards for their popular pubs, The Red Lion in Cranford, The Snooty Fox in Lowick and the Pig and Waffle in Grafton Underwood, the team at Greedy Gordons switched from awards winners to awards supporters, sponsoring the Restaurant of the Year category in the regional awards, taking place this month.
Richard Gordon, Director of Greedy Gordons, said:
“We are thrilled to sponsor the Restaurant of the Year award category, which demonstrates our ongoing support to champion the excellent food and drink available throughout our county.
“As industry award winners and finalists in these regional awards over the years, we appreciate just how important it is to receive recognition for all the hard work and dedication displayed in the hospitality sector for which Northamptonshire has become rightly renowned. It is incredibly important for us to support everyone who is dedicated to putting our culinary county on the map for its outstanding food and drink.”
For more than a decade Richard has been involved with and supported the local awards and The Red Lion has been successful several times, having scooped the accolade of Booker Pub of the Year in 2019 and also achieving awards for its work during the pandemic, receiving recognition for their community centric support, which won it the Covid-19 Local Hero award.
Another of the Greedy Gordons pubs, The Pig and Waffle, won Pub of the Year and the following year another venue in the pub portfolio, The Snooty Fox, was also named Pub of the Year, giving the company’s trio of pubs the hospitality hat-trick.
Richard recalled:
“It was an awards celebration crescendo, the culmination of winning awards four years running, so we decided it was time to support the awards in a different way and let everyone else have the opportunity to win. We support the awards in a number of ways, including sponsorship and hosting the opening launch breakfast earlier this year.
“However, we don’t see ourselves as better than everyone else, we are very humble to be supporting the Restaurant of the Year category because these are all our culinary competitors. We are very flattered to be able to stand alongside all these great businesses and support the county’s food and drink offering in an alternative way.
“These awards are very close to our hearts; they are on our doorstep and are all about Northamptonshire which is where we live, who we are and who we want to support. The awards are so well organised, to celebrate the best of Northamptonshire and the work that goes into it is immense and for what it does to profile the hospitality industry in Northamptonshire is above and beyond. So, for me, to be able to champion that and give the awards our support is very important.
“As soon as we opened The Red Lion in 2018 we entered the award, but we didn’t make the final cut in our first year and I was gutted. We got our heads down and decided the next year would be our year and we went on to win. I’ll never forget that night; it was just amazing after driving the business to achieve that accolade.”
That unforgettable award achievement spurred the team on and saw them triumph at every successive year at the Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards.
With an appetite for award wins, savouring success at industry leading ceremonies has become something that the dedicated team at Greedy Gordons are having to get used to, as they recently celebrated winning national awards at two prestigious pub awards ceremonies.
The Red Lion celebrated its roaring success at The Great British Pub Awards 2024, where the venue won the acclaimed Punch Pub of the Year Award. Richard and his business partner Sonya Harvey were also announced as winners of The Publican of the Year Award at the recent Punch Publican of the Year Awards.
As the Greedy Gordons team toasted their latest award wins they were thrilled to receive the news that they are finalists in this year’s Northamptonshire Business Excellence Awards.
Richard added:
“To hear that we are finalists in two categories in the forthcoming Northamptonshire Business Excellence Awards is another huge achievement; we are so proud and excited.”
The Greedy Gordons culinary collection of venues includes: The Red Lion in Cranford, The Snooty Fox in Lowick, The Pig & Waffle in Grafton Underwood, The Buttery Café and The Greedy Gordons Farm Shop in Woodford.
For more information go to the Greedy Gordons website.
