People come back
after the first pizza.
Start with a free one
We know that quiet voice "what if it's not worth it?" exactly why your first pub pizza is on us.
No commitment. No catch. Just come and find out.
Sound Familiar?
If you've ever felt nervous suggesting somewhere new, in case the food isn't worth it
You want to go out. Try somewhere new. But there's that quiet voice at the back of your mind:
"What if it's not worth it? What if I suggest it to friends and it lets everyone down? What if we waste the whole evening on somewhere average?"
So you stay in. Or you go somewhere safe but boring. Or worse! you end up on Uber Eats reheating something disappointing, wondering why going out stopped feeling worth the effort.
Here's the thing most people don't say out loud: it's not just about the food. When you recommend somewhere and it disappoints, it's not the pub that looks bad. It's you. That quiet embarrassment. Like you chose wrong. Like you wasted everyone's evening.
We know that feeling. It's exactly why we built this place the way we did. And it's exactly why we made the first pub pizza free.
No commitment. No minimum spend. Just come and find out if we're the place you've been looking for.
Three things we had to unlearn
Before we could build something
actually worth visiting
01.
Big menus don't mean better food.
They mean average food.
You've been to this pub. Twenty, thirty, forty items on the menu. And whatever you order is... fine. Not bad. Not good. Just fine. You leave thinking: I could've stayed home.
Here's why. When a kitchen tries to do everything, it cuts corners on everything. The same person doing burgers is doing fish and chips, pie, and pasta. Nobody is exceptional at forty things. So everything is decent. Nothing is memorable.
But then there's the other experience. A street food market. A van doing one thing. The best taco I've ever had? Not from a Mexican restaurant with forty dishes. From a van. One person. Four tacos. The best burger? From a specialist who does nothing but burgers. We brought the Beefy Boys to the Towpath. 650 people showed up for that one day.
02.
The real risk isn't the food. It's the recommendation.
There's a very specific anxiety when you're the one who suggested somewhere. You've set the expectation. And now you're watching everyone's faces as the food arrives ,hoping it lives up, hoping you haven't wasted their evening, hoping you haven't lost your credibility as the person who knows good places.
That's what most pubs put you through. The food is probably fine. But "probably fine" isn't a feeling that makes you want to bring people back.
We built the Towpath to remove that feeling completely. Not just for your first visit. Every time you come back. One thing. Done properly. Every service. That's what makes you the person who always knows somewhere good ,without the anxious pause before the name.
03.
Discounts don't bring in the people you want. They bring in the people who want discounts.
We tried the offers. Happy hours, two-for-ones, voucher sites, percentage-off deals. And people came.
But here's what we noticed: the people who came on a deal weren't the people who were looking for somewhere genuinely good. They were looking for a bargain. The food was almost beside the point — if the discount was deep enough, anywhere would do.
That's not a criticism of those customers. It's just that they weren't our customers. They weren't the ones lying awake thinking "I wish I had a place worth going to." They were perfectly happy with average, as long as it was cheap enough.
The person we were trying to reach was a different person entirely. Someone who'd been burnt by places that looked good and tasted fine. Someone who wanted somewhere they could go back to, bring people to, recommend without crossing their fingers.
That person doesn't move for a discount. Their problem was never price. It was uncertainty. They didn't know if we were worth it — and no amount of money off answers that question.
The only thing that answers it is letting them find out for themselves. Completely free. No strings. No upsell waiting at the door.
Not cheaper. Something different entirely.
How it happened
We built the pub
we wished existed.
We took over the Towpath Inn for the same reason you're reading this. We didn't have a place we actually wanted to go to. Nowhere reliable. Nowhere worth the effort. Every pub felt like a gamble. Massive menus. Average food. That nagging feeling on the way home: "Was that actually worth it?"
So we thought: right, let's just make the place we'd want to go to ourselves.
We started with street food traders. Rotating vendors. We became Wales's first street food pub and it worked brilliantly. Until 2020. Lockdown hit. When we came back, everyone had copied the model. We weren't special anymore.
We tried a chef. Small plates. Really good food. But over twelve months the business was slowly dying. And I had to face a hard truth: either I learn to cook myself, or I close the pub.
We had a wood-fired oven in the garden. I started making pizza , a Neapolitan-ish style, outside, learning as I went. And then one evening, scrolling through Instagram, something stopped me.
DETROIT STYLE PIZZA
I searched for where I could try it. One place in London. One in Manchester. I wasn't willing to travel that far. So I thought: if I feel this way, everyone else does too. Twelve pans off eBay. Six months of testing we told nobody about. When I finally felt confident, I invited some content creator friends to try it. They did a reel. Raved about it.
That summer, it felt like the world descended on the Towpath.
Detroit got all the attention. And while that was happening, while Detroit was drawing people from across Wales - the round pizza was on the same deck oven, being made service after service, getting quietly better.
We'd pulled everything inside by that point. Got a deck oven that could handle both styles. Moved the round pizza from Neapolitan to New York, same ingredients but better suited to how we work. And for a long time, the round was the support act. The option for people who didn't want deep pan.
That changed recently. Not because we changed the pizza but because years of repetition finally got it where we'd always wanted it to be. It's the pizza we're most quietly confident about right now. And it's the one we want you to try first.
Why focus changes everything
When you commit to one thing, something happens that can't happen when you're doing everything.
You get genuinely good at it.
Detroit-style pizza is a very specific product. Rectangular. Thick base. Cheese baked all the way to the caramelised edge. Sauce on top of the cheese, not underneath. A weight and depth that most pizza doesn't have. It's not common in Wales. It's barely common anywhere in the UK. When that reel went out, the comments were full of "what is that?" — which is exactly the feeling I had when I first saw it.
The 14-inch pub pizza is different. Round. Thin-ish base. Properly crispy edge. The kind of pizza you'd recognise, made the way it should be — which sounds simple until you've eaten one that's been made hundreds of times by someone who's spent years working out exactly what right feels like.
Two styles. Both worth coming for. A lot of people end up ordering one of each.
We've made both pizzas hundreds of times. We know what the dough should feel like when it's right. We know the oven timing, what the edge looks like when it's done versus when it needs two more minutes.
That's what focus gives you. Not just a product — a standard. And a standard is what makes you the place people come back to because they already know it'll be good.
Reliable is the rarest thing in hospitality. We built the whole business around it.
What happens after the first visit
They never come alone for long.
Here's a pattern we've noticed. Week one, it's usually just them. By week two, they've mentioned it to someone. By week three, they've organised a group they've been meaning to see for months and the Towpath is finally the reason to make it happen.
One person. Four weeks. Four different groups of people who all left saying the same thing: "Why haven't we been doing this all along?"
Most people figure out how big the pizza is halfway through and start planning their next visit before they've finished this one.
That's what happens when somewhere is genuinely good. It doesn't just change where you eat. It becomes the place you're known for knowing. The place where you're not the one who suggested somewhere disappointing.
Some people come for Detroit every time. Some come for the round. Most end up trying both and mixing it up - one of each, split between the table. Either way they're back the following week. Reliable is rare. When you find it, you come back.
Before you say no
We've heard the questions.
Here are the honest answers.
Q. What if I don't like it?
It's free. You haven't spent anything. If it's not for you, you've lost nothing. But you'll know — and knowing is better than wondering. We're confident enough in what we make that we'd rather you try it than explain it.
Q. Is it really free - what's the catch?
No catch. No minimum spend. You can have the free pub pizza and two glasses of water. That's it. That's all we ask. If you want to add toppings — pepperoni, vegan cheese, build your own — you just pay for what you add. But you don't have to.
Q. What if it's not as good as it looks on Instagram?
That's exactly the anxiety the free pizza is designed to remove. Come in. Judge it yourself. We'd rather earn your trust on the day than ask for it in advance.
Q. I'm not really a deep pan person - is there something for me?
Yes — and actually the free pizza is yours. The offer is our 14-inch pub pizza: round, thin-ish base, properly crispy edge. It's the pizza we've been making since the beginning and the one we're most proud of right now. Detroit is brilliant and people travel a long way for it, but the round is what we most want first-timers to try.
Q. We've got kids /dogs/ big groups - is it suitable?
Very much so. We're a pub, not a restaurant pretending to be one. Pizzas are generous and shareable. Kids do well here and well behaved dogs are welcome inside and out. The only thing to know is we're open Thursday and Friday evenings, and all day Saturday and Sunday — so plan around that.
Q. Do you have gluten free options?
Yes — we offer a gluten free 12-inch pub pizza base and a gluten free Detroit base. Both are made with gluten free ingredients and we follow best practice in the kitchen when preparing them.
That said, we're a small kitchen and we can't guarantee against cross-contamination. For that reason we don't recommend either option for anyone with coeliac disease. If you have a gluten intolerance rather than coeliac, please let us know when you book and we'll do everything we can to look after you.
Q. Do you have vegan options?
Yes. Both our pub pizza and Detroit dough are vegan friendly, and our sauce is too. We also offer a vegan cheese which works on either style.
For toppings, your best options are the Porcini & Chive, the Red Pepper, plain cheese or we make a great tomato pie — or build your own from our extras list, lots of which are veggie. Just check with us when you book if you want to be sure about anything specific.
Be honest with yourself
The Towpath isn't for everyone.
If you want delivery, we're not your pub.
If you want thirty options and something different every time, we're not your pub.
If you need somewhere open six days a week, we're not your pub. We do four services and focus on doing them properly.
If you want fine dining service, we're definitely not your pub.
but
If you've been let down by places that looked good on Instagram and tasted average.
If you've felt that nervous pause before recommending somewhere new.
If you want somewhere you can go back to and already know it'll be good.
If you've ever looked at a 40-item pub menu and thought "not one of these is going to be worth it."
That's exactly who we built this for. And your first pub pizza is on us.
The honest truth
Most places people want to try
stay on their list forever.
Somebody mentions it. You think: yes, we should go.
Then it's two weeks later and it didn't happen. Then it's three months later and you realise you've still never been. The intention was real. The follow-through just never arrived.
The pizza is free. The voucher is valid for 14 days. Your list stays a list until someone books the table.
Your first pub pizza is completely free.
No commitment.
No minimum spend.
Come in, have the pizza, and decide for yourself if we're the place you've been looking for.
The offer
Your first pizza is completely free.
No strings attached.
A free 14-inch cheese pub pizza. No catch. No minimum order. No small print. Come in, try it, and decide for yourself if we're the place you've been looking for.
The offer is the round pizza — the one that's been on the deck oven since we started, made hundreds of times, and recently got to a point where we're genuinely proud of it. If you want to add toppings, you just pay for what you add. If you want to try a Detroit on the same visit, brilliant — that's on you. But the free pizza is the pub pizza.
Free 14-inch cheese pub pizza - Round, thin base, crispy edge. The pizza we've been making since the beginning.
Add toppings if you want — you only pay for what you add Or have it as it comes. Either way works.
No minimum order or spend- Come in, eat the pizza, decide for yourself
Valid for 14 days - Book your table, show the voucher when you arrive
Canal-side · Gilwern · South Wales - Thu & Fri evening · Sat & Sun all day
Best pizza I've had in Wales HANDS DOWN.
I am from the States and have had pizza so many times, but the owner knows what he's doing. The sauce, my god. The crispy cheese edges.
How to claim your free pizza:
Fill in the form below — just your name and email. That's it.
Your voucher arrives in your inbox immediately — check junk if it doesn't show up.
Book a table — Thursday or Friday evening, or any time Saturday or Sunday. Links are in your email or at the top and bottom of this page.
Show the voucher when you arrive — we'll take it from there. The pizza is already covered.
Come and find us
We're on the canal in Gilwern, South Wales — a short drive from Abergavenny and the edge of the Brecon Beacons. The kind of setting that makes a Friday evening feel like it went somewhere.
We're not open every day. Four services a week. Everything goes into those four sessions.
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