A property search can change your life, and for couple Joshua and Hannah Byrne they found exactly what they were looking for hidden in a peaceful spot nestled within the glorious Welsh countryside.
It was a relief because the couple’s wishlist was specific and detailed and there were times they wondered if they would ever find a property to fulfil their dreams of not just a home but as a place to develop as a realisation of their vision to create a celebrated business.
To any potential buyer the white-washed period property looked like a pretty little village pub but for Joshua and Hannah it was the chance they were looking for; a place to take on the next chapter of their lives.
Joshua remembers: “It was the right sort of combination of things that we were after – a beautiful place out in the country that we felt could support our ambitions, somewhere that had the potential for us to serve higher end food, and we could live above it, which we did at the time, and had a garden to grow stuff, and that we could afford it too. We absolutely thought that there was potential there.”
The property was The Black Bear Inn, found at the centre of Bettws Newydd near Usk, Monmouthshire. The couple were captivated and went ahead with the purchase. Joshua and Hannah were excited at what the business could become and after years of hard work and dedication they have created a food destination that has been recognised with multiple national awards and a full and bustling restaurant.
And yet they’ve decided they want to walk away from their home and business for the sake of their young family. “We’ve been lucky to have loads of great staff over the years, so that’s really good; you’re having fun working with the staff and you can get that nice balance,” Joshua reflects.
“We got to come into work every day and do something engaging, creative, that we’re passionate about, working with amazing people and seeing customers enjoying it – these are memories we will take with us.
“I know that I will miss it, I’m probably going to miss it even more than I think I will, saying goodbye to that side of things, but we’re selling because we have a young family and we want something that will better fit in with that.
“Rather than take on investors or business partners and fundamentally alter what we’ve done, and have enjoyed doing and have had success doing, we’d rather go out on our own terms, and enjoy it to the last, and then move on to something else.
“Hopefully I can be somewhere where I am clocking off at five and being at home with our kids, I’m looking ahead to the next stage of our careers and our lives.”
The couple had both spent many years in hospitality, with Joshua’s first job an impressive step into the world at Heston Blumenthal’s pub, The Hinds Head in Bray just outside London which undoubtedly sparked his future imagination and creativity.
Joshua says: “It happened to be on the doorstep, so very fortunate for me, and I sort of talked my way in there. Obviously I started at the very bottom but from the very beginning of my career I was working in a very good place with good people.
“I then worked in Sweden and the Netherlands in some Michelin star restaurants, and then worked for Heston in London for about five years, then moved to Paris, which is where I met Hannah. We then moved to Bristol for a couple of years because that had a good food scene, but we wanted something more rural then.”
The Black Bear Inn offered so much, not just the location but the history and the charm of the building, which is thought to date back over 300 years. “The character of the place was very much part of the appeal and still is part of the appeal to our customers now, even though we’re doing something very different.
“We had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted to do when we took over the place, a small menu and working with really good local suppliers, be sort of led by what’s best available from them and then let the menu sort of fall into place from there, and that’s what we’ve done since the get go.”
There have been changes and adjustments over the years since 2018 but Joshua says the core of the offering has always been the same – small menu with a choice of three starters, three mains, two desserts, plus cheese, ice cream, and a selection of snacks.
“That’s been the menu format since the very beginning and we decided not to do a roast on Sunday,” Joshua continues. “Not because I don’t like roasting it, but we just wanted to do less and do it better.
“We are putting to use our experience of working in really high-end restaurants where the food’s maybe a little bit more complex than what we’re doing, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t bring some of that precision and expertise and care into food that is still very elevated but slightly simpler than a Michelin star restaurant in London.”
The couple’s hard work and drive to develop the pub into a food destination gastropub has been recognised by the industry, with accolades including being named Time Out’s best gastropub in Wales, and ranked number five in The Good Food Guide (2026) across the whole of the UK and also named the best restaurant in Wales by the same publication.
The establishment has featured on the Estrella Damm top 50 gastropubs list for five consecutive years up to 2026, frequently ranking as the top gastropub in Wales, and has been awarded consecutive Michelin Plates in 2024 and 2025 for classically grounded regional cooking.
Joshua says: “That has been really nice recognition for us and the staff and great for business too because it’s something that resonates a lot with the public and helps to get bums on seats, which is always the main thing. We were on the long list, I think, in our first year and then since then we’ve been in the top 50, which is amazing, and we’re really, really proud of that.
“But outside of those sorts of markers, you’ve just got your head down, working so much all the time – you don’t necessarily take stock and think, ‘Oh, yeah, we’ve done this now or that now,’ you’re just busy constantly trying to move things forward and improve things.”
But not everyone was happy with the change in menu that came with the change in ownership and vision. Joshua says: “Broadly speaking people were really supportive but at the very beginning we did get some pushback from people who didn’t like what we were doing and, as I’ve always said, it’s absolutely fine if you don’t like what we’re doing.
“But it always confused me that people weren’t able to judge what we’re doing on its own merits, they’d rather put their own expectations on it, that we have to be serving XYZ at XYZ price. A month after opening we had a printed anonymous letter saying basically, ‘We hate what you’re doing.’
“I’ll always absolutely say if people don’t want to spend the kind of money we charge on food or just don’t like what we’re doing, that is absolutely fine, understandable, it’s par for the course, but then go somewhere else would be my suggestion, not bellyache about why we’re not serving exactly what your preferences are.
“We’re not serving a Sunday roast or serving the normal menu, you can imagine that threw some people off, we understood that, but pretty quickly we also started to get people in who understood what we were trying to do and appreciated it, and then, we just gradually grew the business over the years from there, and it’s not an issue anymore.”
Although the customer areas of the property are virtually all dedicated to diners, the couple also recognise the connection to the regular village customers. Joshau says: “We were, and still are, a pub that you can come into for a pint, but the food is always the main driver of the business and so we can’t always put aside tables for drinkers.
“A lot of times it does feel more like a restaurant when you step through the door, but that’s just because there isn’t necessarily the demand for just casual drinking out here, we’ve been limited in how we can accommodate it over the years. We do have our core group of village locals that come in on Friday nights for a drink and we set aside some space for them to do that.
“Outside there is space where people are welcome to do that, come for a drink, but a lot of the time the tables inside are all taken up with people eating.”
But now with a young family, the long hours of the hospitality industry have led to a decision for the future – the couple’s chapter as part of the story of The Black Bear Inn is coming to a close, with the property and business now on the market.
The new owner can continue what the couple have developed and move forward or, Joshua thinks more likely, will bring at least a degree of their own thoughts, creativity and vision to the establishment, so the menu may well be changing again in the future.
There has been keen interest in the sale of the property but the restaurant is still taking bookings and operating as usual until the last day of business is announced on the couple’s social media channels.
Building a business from zero to national and international acclaim has, of course, had its challenges, such as controlling costs while offering customers the best quality and value possible, but it is a period of their lives the couple will always cherish.
