TWO businesses at Llangrannog have been named as finalists for the fourth annual Food Awards Wales 2018 after nominations came pouring in from across the country.

Both the Pentre Arms and Tafell A Tân have been nominated in the gastro pub of the year and best street food categories respectively.

The awards aim to recognise and reward the best of the Welsh Food industry from those who produce the ingredients to those who serve them.

It is a fourth successive nomination for Pentre Arms landlord Mike Rutherford, who won the mid-Wales section in the inaugural year and followed that up with overall national success the next year.

“The awards have been going for four years and to be nominated every year is fantastic and we are very proud,” said Mike, who has run the pub for the past 19 years and employs 10 full-time staff and as many again part-time at the height of the season.

“We have got great staff and great local support, with many visitors also coming back year after year.

“It’s all about the customers and the staff, and people want to see a happy, smiling face behind the bar. We work hard to try to get things right and look after the customer and to be nominated again makes me very proud.

“And to have two businesses nominated from a small village like ours is a great achievement.”

And while Mike might be something of an old hand at the awards game, it is a first for fledgling business Tafell A Tân and their wood-fired pizza business, which has been nominated in the street food category.

Kate Brice set up the business coming up to two years ago and it has gone from a part-time job to a full-time passion, operating at The Ship Inn at Llangrannog and also alongside the Plwmp Tart at Penbryn.

“We are so excited to have been nominated after such a short time,” said owner Kate Brice, who has four staff.

“I have been to the ceremony with Mike and hoped one day we would get there and now we have. It is a great achievement for us as we are in a rural area where there are no big street food festivals and you have to battle to find places to sell food.

“I started by selling pizzas from the front door at home and it has all grown from there and we now also do weddings, festivals and even a stag do. We try our best to use local Welsh produce, I am from the area and the support we have had from the local community has been incredible and I am so grateful for that.”

Both businesses are also keen to promote their ‘green’ credentials with the war on plastic waste a key part. The pub is doing all it can to get rid of unnecessary plastics and there is a two-minute beach clean board outside the pub.

All the takeaway packaging at Tafell A Tân is biodegradable and compostable and the stagff encourage people who walk the beaches to pick up rubbish.

“Think globally, clean locally,” added Kate.

The awards ceremony is held on April 23 at Cardiff’s Exchange Hotel.

Other local nominations include: El Salsa (best Mexican and best street food); Yasmins Indian Restaurant, Newcastle Emlyn (best Indian); The Hungry Trout, New Quay (best seafood); Bara Menyn, Cardigan (retail bakery); Pant Mawr Farmhouse Cheeses, Rosebush (dairy food provider); Cardigan Bay Fish, Cardigan (seafood supplier); Black Lion Hotel, New Quay (gastro pub); The Daffodil Inn, Penrhiwllan (gastro pub).