Lewes pays respects to popular pub landlord
and live on Freeview channel 276
Tony Leonard, remembered as a bon viveur who was fiercely fond of pubs, passed away unexpectedly on April 2, at the age of 53.
His husband, Dominic McCartan, said: “He touched so many people in so many different ways.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad“I always thought it was down to his bright and beaming smile, and the gentle sparkle behind his eyes.”
Tony’s lifelong passion for pubs was fated from the very start of his life.
Born in 1968 in Swansea, he spent his first 18 months living in The Scotch Pine, a pub run by his grandparents, where he was a ‘quite a fixture at the bar’.
“That formed the basis of his understanding of the role of a pub at the heart of the community,” Dominic said.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdIt was a pub where the couple first met – the Coopers Cask in Hove – and a pub where they got married ten years later, on 29 June 2011 at the Snowdrop Inn.
Dominic said it was ‘a beautiful sunny day’ and ‘the best day of our lives’.
Together, the couple ran the Hop Poles in Brighton from 1999 to 2001, and the Eagle Bar and Bakery in Brighton from 2001 to 2012.
They took over the Snowdrop Inn in 2009, when it was in a poor state and on the verge of closing down.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdSince then, they have transformed it into a thriving, multi-award winning pub, revitalising that corner of South Street.
In 2015, they also took over the Roebuck Inn in Laughton, where the couple lived together, winning freehouse of the year for the business was ‘one of the pinnacle’s of Tony’s pub career’.
Tony was involved in organising beer festivals and also ran an alternative ‘Miss Snowdrop’ competition at the pub for several years.
He was a key member of the South Street bonfire association, whose home is at the Snowdrop Inn, and was ‘never happier’ than when an opportunity to dress up came along.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdA passionate campaigner who was always keen to back the downtrodden and those without a voice, Tony was ‘fiercely fond of pubs’ and supportive of various groups.
He was involved in the fair pint campaign and was invited to share his expertise in the pub industry at various conferences.
Over the years, Tony and Dominic enjoyed many adventures together – from sailing in the Mediterranean to indulging Tony’s love of food by learning to make tagliatelle al ragu in Bologna.
Tony was passionate about wildlife and nature, and many of their trips contained a conservation element – visiting a dolphin research project in the Ionian Sea, or working behind the scenes at a safari park in South Africa.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad