It’s a bit obvious but people are the heartbeat of what we do. We need to like the people we work with (generally) and we need our guests to like them too. And one of the founding stones of EATDRINKSLEEP is the ethos that we can play a role at the heart of the community. That means being a place local people can have a real career and a proper 12 months a year job.
The beating heart of our Mousehole enterprise is Our Team, while our Friends of EDS (near & far) and our network of suppliers fill The Coastguard to the brim with unbridled conviviality.
Our Team
Most of our team come from the area around us. We invest in training, giving them specialist qualifications for use throughout their career.
Our Suppliers
We try to be a hub of the community. Even if provenance is as much about husbandry and quality as geography, we champion local suppliers and encourage them to bring their produce to our kitchen door. We work with people who do things the right way.
Our Friends
Our aim is for The Old Coastguard to be an institution. We price our beers well, welcome families and the doors are open all day. Although the towns and villages around us are thinly populated, our local eaters & drinkers are as important as our wider network of Friends.
Meet our crewmates
The heart of our operation and without them our buildings in rather beautiful places would be bleak & soulless.
General Manager, Louis Vanhinsbergh, runs our team here with the panache you’d expect of someone with such a glamorous surname. He’s been with us for 15+ years. Keeping him in check is his right hand woman, and site’s 2 i/c, Lauren Howard (currently on Maternity Leave).
Head Chef, Danny Garland, brings to our menus a passion for the foraged and the sustainable, having cut his teeth in the kitchens of Yotam Ottolenghi and Theo Randall.
Our Floor team keeps our keel even at all times. It’s led by a crew of what we call House Managers who are responsible day in, day out for our guests being beautifully looked after.
Who we work with
Our relationships with suppliers matter hugely. So we list most of them below. If you’re a creator of wonderful things which you think might be right at home at The Old Coastguard or elsewhere in our group of inns, please do be in touch by clicking below.
Food Sourcing….
We started sourcing our food sensibly in Wales long before it became fashionable. Here are a few of our more established suppliers here in Mousehole.
Meat & Fish
Harvey Brothers Butchers
Primrose Herd
Forest Produce
Local Game Dealers
Cornwall Fish Direct
Real Cornish Crab
Greenery & Herbs
West Country Fruit Sales
Bosavern Community Farm
Slight Hill Farm, Penzance
Specialist Foods
Two Farmers Crisps
Baker Tom’s
Dairy
Mount’s Bay Dairy
Hanson Fine Foods (cheese)
Coffees, Teas & Hot Choccie
Yallah Coffee
Trumpers Tea
Cocoa Canopy
..and drinks
Giving commercial and promotional support to our drinks producers is as important to us as long as their product is brilliant. We’re blessed to have so many here in the South West.
Beers
Verdant
Firebrand Brewery
Harbour Brewing
St Ives Brewery
Spirits
South Western Distillery
Pocketful of Stones
Chase Distillery
Penderyn Distillery
Apple Drinks
Heartsease Farm (and juices)
Polgoon Cider
Skreach Cider
Marketing
A nod to those who help us shout about what we do. We wouldn’t look half as pretty with out them.
Paul Massey (photography)
James Warbey (photography)
Dewsign (website)
Christine Foulds (email marketing)
Friends, family & locals
Our Friends near & far are our raison d’être. And we recognise the importance of the reciprocal relationship that exists between those propping up the bar in the winter months and those that visit in sunnier ones. Without our locals, we’re just another hotel. Without our Sleepers, we wouldn’t be here in those quieter months.
Whether you’re a close friend or a far away one, do check out what’s going on here over the coming months and beyond.
Or follow the links below to see our latest newsletters. If you’d like our newsletters to land softly in your inbox, leave your details in our Become a Friend box below. When we’re doing our job properly, they tend to come every 4 – 5 weeks with details of events, competitions, offers, and more. We promise not to bombard you. And of course you can unsubscribe at any time.
Letters for Friends
| 05/02/2025 | Win an EDS Stay |
| 14/01/2025 | Winter Escape, BYO & Lunch for a Tenner |
| 16/12/2024 | Online Booking Now Open |
| 01/11/2024 | Beaujolais Nouveau, 25% off drinks and a Winter Offer |
Become a Friend of EATDRINKSLEEP
We send our Friends a monthly email with news from The Felin Fach Griffin, The Old Coastguard and The Gurnard’s Head. These include events, offers or competitions that aren’t always available to the general public, including our annual January lunching offer, Lunch for a Tenner.
Once subscribed as a Friend, you can unsubscribe whenever you like through various obvious links.
Find us on the Gram. And on The Facebook.
If you’d like to see more stories, posts & reels (?!) of daily life here at The Old Coastguard, do follow us via our social media channels. Our content tends to be organic and on-the-fly but is intended to keep you most up to date (for example how the fickle Mousehole weather is affecting the open/closed status of The Crab Shack). And so we make no apologies for any aesthetic shortcomings.
