Natalie Alden, new general manager at the Bull Inn, near Maidstone, will be a familar face to many regulars as her parents ran the pub for 15 years.
Natalie took on the running of the Shepherd Neame pub after it moved from being a tenanted site to a managed house earlier this month.
And she has such a fondness for the establishment, that she had her own wedding reception to husband Charlie there five months ago, with many of the guests being regulars at the pub.
Natalie, 39, said: “I am completely and utterly in love with The Bull Inn. I got married in September here, and all the customers came to the wedding.”
Her parents Kim and Bob were in the hospitality industry for more than 30 years and Natalie, who has two sisters and two brothers, describes running a pub as ‘in her blood’.
She said: “I have lived with the industry since I was seven; I have lived and breathed it. We used to come home from school and Mum was working behind the bar and the head chef would make us our tea.
“Whatever I have done in my life over the last 15 years, I have kept ending up back here. So when my parents decided it was time to move on, and it became a managed house, it made perfect sense to apply to become the general manager.”
She said of her parents, who are now enjoying well-earned semi-retirement: “My parents have been massively supportive of me doing this. After all, it’s because of them that I got into the industry in the first place!
“They have taught me that if you want something in life you have got to work hard for it. My parents are incredibly hardworking people, and are great role models for us to look up to.”
