Lichfield-born chef Liam Dillon developed a love for cooking from a young age, cooking stews and baking with his grandmother. He went on to work in some of the world's top kitchens, including Eleven Madison Park in New York and London's Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley, before returning to his hometown to open The Boat. Dillon converted the old roadside pub into one of the area's top restaurants – which went on to secure the coveted 3 AA Rosette status.
The Boat is also home to its own micro-farm, as well as a recently introduced aquaponics system, a closed-loop practice which utilizes aquaponics.
"When I first took over the site in 2017, my mentality was that I can create the best restaurant in the area. I was very quickly humbled to the fact it's not that easy. I think that the goal was always to cook the food that I wanted to cook, and that's predominantly fine dining, but The Boat was in no way fit to do that, to be honest. At the time it was a proper old school pub, and the dream was always to change and reinvent it."
"The menu is helped along with what we've got going on in the gardens. We're not self-sustainable as of yet – as much I'd like to be – but year on year, we're expanding the space."
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