WHEN Milly Davenport bought the Roadvale Hotel a year ago, she had a simple aim. And a year later, she feels she’s achieved what she set out to do.
Milly said, “We’ve taken pub food to the next level.”
That sounds fancy, but Milly said she and her chef had not aimed to make food that was unrecognisable. Instead, they’d refashioned pub fare with local produce.
“It’s honest food,” she said. “The flavours are really honest.”
Those flavours come from local producers – about 25 of them. The hotel is huge advocates of Scenic Rim food. Chef Daniel Groneberg is a Scenic Rim food ambassador, as is his offsider Kate Raymont, a recent recruit. They’ve both had careers in the area and know where to source the good stuff.
That doesn’t make them pretentious though. Milly said, “It amazes me how hard they work. And from the first dish to the last, from beginning to end, they keep the same quality coming.
“It’s honest cooking. We make everything from scratch.”
The idea is to create the kind of gastro pub that you often find in the English countryside, which is apt given Milly’s origins in the Old Dart. There it’s very common for pubs to showcase the local food. Given her and the team’s great passion for the Scenic Rim, that means that the hero of their cooking is the local produce.
It was something the area needed, according to Milly. But she hasn’t created something that feels out of place. The pub has a relaxed country vibe and attracts people from all walks of life, whether it’s to have a pot and a yarn or to eat a delicious meal.
