‘We’ve done a canny job’ - Toy Dolls’ Pete Zulu celebrates 20 years of running a West Boldon pub

Pete Zulu, who is originally from Sunderland but now lives in East Boldon, is celebrating two decades of running The Black Horse pub with his wife, Sarah Reid.

The rocker-turned-chef took over the pub, on Rectory Bank in West Boldon, 20 years ago when he and Sarah were looking for a house together.

When speaking to the Shields Gazette, former punk Pete, who achieved UK chart success with The Toy Dolls, revealed that the pair never originally planned to take on the business together.

He said: “I met Sarah 23 years ago and I originally moved up to Bedlington to live with her but all of our friends were in Sunderland.

“So we started looking for a house closer to them and while looking at houses, we saw that the pub was up for sale and just thought that we’d go for that instead.

“We never went out looking for it, we just ended up with it - it was dropping to bits at the time and the food wasn’t great but we took it on and 20 years later, we are still doing it.

“I feel like I’ve aged about 40 years since then and I think I worked 18 hour days for the first five years but I’ve worked with some really great chefs over that time.

“It has been good, we make everything, including the bread, here from scratch and we’ve always done that - we’ve never changed our ways since we started.

“We’re constantly developing the menu to keep things fresh for us and when we first started doing that, it wasn’t something that a lot of places were doing so we really were head and shoulders above most bars and restaurants.

“To this day we’ve got regulars in all the time, we’ve had celebrities and Sunderland AFC managers in over the years and we still haven’t changed.

“We’re plodding on and the pub is still here which when you think about how many pubs close a week in England, it’s good going.

“I think we’ve done a canny job.”

The couple are hosting a celebration at The Black Horse on Saturday night (September 7) to mark the achievement, with more than 200 people already set to attend.

Pete added: “We thought that we’d host the celebration around the date that we originally opened the restaurant and we’re going to butler about 1,000 canapés to everyone that comes along.

“We’ve got around 200 people coming so far so it looks like me and the lads will be really busy in the kitchen on Saturday.

“By the end of it, I’ll no doubt want a lie down but it will be good.

“We’ve got the Sour Mash Trio playing who are a really good band and there is a drink on arrival for everyone as well.”

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Tickets for Saturday’s celebration at The Black Horse cost just £5 per person, with all visitors receiving a drink on arrival and canapés served throughout the evening.

The event starts at 6pm and last orders are at 11pm.

A few tickets for the celebration still remain. You can get them and keep up to date with everything going on at The Black Horse by visiting: https://www.facebook.com/TheBlackHorseBoldon.