A HOLMES Chapel pub is celebrating scoring a hat-trick at this year’s Taste Cheshire Food and Drink awards.

The George and Dragon, on Middlewich Road, scooped up the gold award for the ‘Use of Local Produce in a Menu’ category.

The pub also came second in the ‘Best Pub’ award and were awarded a bronze award for ‘Family Friendly Venue of the Year” all of which were voted by the public.

Licensee Martin Barnes said: “We are absolutely thrilled to come away with three accolades. It is a testament to our hard working and committed team to achieve such success against the best that Cheshire has to offer.

“To gain this recognition, especially through our customers and industry experts, is particularly rewarding and makes us strive even harder to achieve high levels of consistency and to have a pub of which we – and our customers – are proud.”

More than 20,000 votes were cast in the 2015 contest, which was held at Chester Racecourse on April 8. This is compared to just 5,000 in 2014.

Hannah Lucy, Taste Cheshire manager, said: “The public have definitely voted and they have told us exactly who they want winning our awards. Right now the Cheshire hospitality scene has never been better”.