About Willow & Stone
Built from experience. Driven by genuine hospitality.
Willow & Stone Hospitality was created with a simple ambition: to operate the kind of pub we would choose to return to—welcoming, community-minded, thoughtfully run and built for the long term.
MEET THE FOUNDER
Richard McGrady-Brake MCMI, MBII
Founder & Operator
Richard’s hospitality career began in 1999 when at 14, while still at school, he started washing pots in a busy kitchen. By 16 he had progressed to waiting tables, and at 18 he moved behind the bar. In 2009, after building experience across the day-to-day operation of hospitality venues, he stepped into management.
Richard continued managing venues until 2014, when a family bereavement led him to take his career in a different direction. He went on to spend a decade with St John Ambulance Cymru, serving as National Operations Planner. His work included the planning and delivery of medical provisions for major events at Principality Stadium and other high-profile events across Wales. The role deepened his experience in leadership, operational planning and remaining calm when the stakes are high.
In 2024, Richard returned to hospitality as a Hotel Duty Manager before progressing to General Manager Designate. He later joined Mitchells & Butlers as an Assistant Manager, returning fully to the frontline environment in which his career began.
In 2026, Richard launched Willow & Stone Hospitality to pursue the right pub opportunity and bring together everything he had learned across hospitality, operational leadership and public service.
That experience now shapes Willow & Stone’s practical, people-focused and community-minded approach.