Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2009 | Page 44
life
OUT & ABOUT
Left to right: Meg, Andrew, Jane, Steph and Neil
The Midas Touch
By Roz Whistance
The Gibbs family have a rare instinct for success, and the
whole community benefits, finds Roz Whistance
“THE ideal opportunity is a fickle
its 10 years, carved out its own niche
Ventnor sea front. So it is hard to believe
mistress,” says Neil Gibbs, grandly.
around good gravy dinners and folk
that when Neil and Steph Gibbs put in
And though everyone guffaws at his
music. And The Dairyman’s Daughter,
their application to licence the Spyglass
mock-pomposity, his wife Steph, brother
at Arreton Barns, has perfected the
Inn on Ventnor esplanade, an objection
Andrew, brother-in-law Meg and
balancing act between attracting both
was received from the only other pub
sister-in-law Jane all know he is absolutely
tourists and locals. And that’s just three.
on the Esplanade, the Mill Bay, on the
right.
The Gibbs family own some of the
Clearly, then, the Gibbs family have not
grounds that there wasn’t sufficient trade
waited for that ‘fickle mistress’ to wink
for one pub, let alone two. (By a sweet
landmark pubs on the Isle of Wight. The
her suggestive eye. This is the story of
turn of events the family now own the
Spyglass Inn is marketed as synonymous
DIY opportunites, created from husks and
Mill Bay.)
with the Needles as a visitor attraction.
shells, and turned to good.
The Bargeman’s Inn in Newport has, in
44
It is the end of a frantic summer on
Twenty years after that objection was
seen off, over a thousand meals can be