The Dial House

Be pre­pared to be spoiled! The Dial House Hotel in Bourton-on-the-Water is the most pic­tur­esque build­ing in the pret­ti­est vil­lage in the Cots­wolds. Built in 1698 by local archi­tect, Andrew Pax­ford, from mel­low Cots­wold stone, it even pred­ates the iconic bridges over the nearby river Windrush. Ori­gin­ally called ‘The Vine­house’, it was renamed in the early 19^th cen­tury after the large sun­dial above the front door.

In turn, a house, doctor’s sur­gery and, for the past 30 years, a hotel it is the sort of build­ing you can eas­ily fall in love with. Present own­ers, Elaine and Martyn Booth did just that 18 months ago, fol­low­ing their return from Aus­tralia seek­ing new chal­lenges. In that short time, their vis­ion has turned The Dial House into one of the finest lux­ury exper­i­ences in the Cotswolds.

The hotel exudes coun­try house charm – mul­lioned win­dows, inglen­ook fire­places, low Cots­wold stone arches, beamed ceil­ings and poor boxes. The new own­ers regard them­selves very much as cus­todi­ans of a pre­cious jewel and priv­ileged to be adding to the building’s rich his­tory. They are gradu­ally devel­op­ing the interior with sump­tu­ous rich fab­rics in keep­ing with the char­ac­ter and splend­our of this ven­er­able old building.

Head chef, Jamie Forman, pre­vi­ously a rising Mich­elin starred chef, has also worked along­side Ray­mond Blanc before tak­ing the highly respec­ted Cots­wold House Hotel to 3 rosettes when he was Head Chef there. He and his bri­gade of chefs serve lunch and din­ner seven days a week. He delights in serving local pro­duce whenever pos­sible, such as Lighthorne lamb and Gloucester Old Spot pork, but is never afraid to seek pro­duce from fur­ther afield when qual­ity dic­tates, as evid­enced by the reg­u­lar­ity with which hand-dived Gair­loch scal­lops appear on the menu. His team’s efforts have been richly rewar­ded with two AA rosettes — the max­imum for a first assess­ment — with the prom­ise of a third at the next visit if stand­ards are maintained.

Elaine and Martyn first met their cof­fee sup­plier, Café du Monde, at a Condé Nast Johan­sens’ func­tion and they have since gone on to sup­ply cof­fee and equip­ment through­out the hotel. That includes stain­less steel thermal cafetières serving Kenya cof­fee in the din­ing room and lounge; a La Spaziale espresso machine with Fairtrade cof­fee beans to cater for the takeaway trade in the hotel’s new gift shop and deli and the eleg­ant Ser­vice en Chambre Petite bed­room bever­age ser­vice in all bedrooms.

“The per­sonal ser­vice we get from Café du Monde is impec­cable” says Elaine. “For sure, they know their bever­ages, but more than that, they have an in-depth under­stand­ing of what we are try­ing to achieve and help us at every stage along the way.”

| testimonial | Tags: cafetiere, espresso