THE licensee at a popular Birdwell pub which was vandalised last month says he has a ‘new hunger and passion’ thanks to the support of the local community - and he’s set to reopen the venue next week.
Saleem Khandaker has, with his fiancee, been running The Cock Inn, on Pilley Hill, for the last two years.
He says he has loved every minute but was forced to move out of his home after the 264-year-old pub was the subject of an attack by vandals who smashed windows and daubed white paint across the frontage.
Saleem admitted at the time that he didn’t know if they were going to go back to the pub but thanks to the support of locals who have offered to help clean up the venue free of charge he says he’s hungrier than ever to serve the local community.
He says in the seven weeks since the attack it has been touch-and-go as to when they will be able to reopen - but they’ve finally set a date.
He told the Chronicle: “We now have 80 per cent of the windows in.
“We’re waiting for one of the panels of stain glass which was a big thing.
“We didn’t think that we’d be able to get that done in time but a generous local customer has said that they’re going to do that for us for free which is amazing.
“It’s been seven weeks since it happened.
“It’s been really stressful.
“But it’s so nice that we’ve been able to have the support from the local community.
“They’ve been great.
“Even now we’re getting messages asking if we need any help.
“We’re planning to open, just for drinks, on October 3 at 12pm and then next Saturday we’ll be doing our official reopening ceremony.”
Saleem says he’s hungrier than ever to serve the community which has helped him so much over the last two months.
He added: “We’ve got a new passion, a new hunger.
“So many people have been in touch.
“It’s given us that strength to do our best to reopen.
“We’re excited but we’re also a little bit nervous.
“We’ve had to do so much work to get where we are now.
“We couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help.”
And despite being closed, Saleem and his partner have been out and about supporting their locals.
He said: “One of our locals is called Frank and he’s 92 years old and blind.
“He’s a godsend and he’s been coming to that pub for over 70 years.
“He doesn’t live too far away from the pub but he’s about 85 per cent blind.
“He knows all the turns and how to get to the pub so we just wanted to do something to support him because he’s lost a lot with the pub being closed.
“At the start we were pouring him pints and putting cling film over the top to deliver to him.
“But since we’ve been fully closed and we have no beer we’ve been hand-delivering him some cans of beer instead.
“We’re just ready to go now.”
