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