Big wins for ‘little pub’

November 7, 2025

Marius & Sarah Pretorius

The Dew Drop near Hurley calls itself ‘the little pub in the woods’, but there’s nothing small about the success achieved by business owners Marius & Sarah Pretorius (pictured above with dog Siya), and it’s unsurprising that they were named Best Newcomers in Brakspear’s Annual Awards this September. 

The couple, originally from South Africa, took on the pub in July 2024. It’s a credit to their attention to detail and warm engagement that, despite the pub’s remote location down a no through road, customers are happy to get lost on their satnav to find it, over and over again.

Widening pub’s appeal

Previously a high-end, food destination venue, Marius & Sarah returned the pub to local residents, families, walkers and horse riders – symbolically flinging the former incumbent’s ‘No Muddy Boots’ sign to the end of the garden on their opening night!

Despite the pub’s remote location down a no through road, customers are happy to get lost on their satnav to find it, over and over again.

Both have previous hospitality experience, Marius as a talented chef and Sarah becoming an accomplished front of house manager after they met in 2017. After running a pub and hotel in Hambleden, and then a ‘White Lotus’ style luxury resort in Indonesia, they were looking for the next move when Brakspear BDM Gavin Mansfield – a former colleague of Marius – approached them.

Marius says: “We knew The Dew Drop was ‘the one’ straight away. We phoned Gavin from the pub patio, and within a few weeks we were holding a launch party for 200 local people, grateful to be getting their pub back. The support has been tremendous for events like our first anniversary party in the summer and annual ‘Bring & Braai’ South African barbecues.”

Bring & Braai at The Dew Drop

Playing to their strengths for success

The couple have played to their strengths to develop the business. Marius’s food is outstanding: freshly cooked from mainly local ingredients, while Sarah’s marketing savvy has built a strong social media following.

She says: “The most successful posts are ‘behind the scenes’ stories – for example, our ‘hey Marius, what’s cooking?’ reels of him prepping a dish. Our posts aren’t super-professional, but they are real and relatable.”

Marius & Sarah’s Top Tips 

• Connect with your customers: learn what’s important to each of your customers – their dog’s name, their favourite wine – and use it to have meaningful conversations with them.
• Under promise and over deliver: we love surprising customers with the quality of our food: one guest told us our fish + chips was better than anything he’d had in Michelin-starred venues!
• First impressions count: if customers have to pick their way through weeds and litter in your car park, what confidence can they have in your food? We work hard to keep our pub immaculate and it pays off in terms of customer satisfaction.

The Dew Drop Inn