IS that just a name, or are they real pigs’ ears?” I ask timidly, expecting Jonathan to laugh at my naivety and explain it’s just a clever label for one of the bar snacks.

“No, they’re actually pigs’ ears,” comes the reply. “The crackling is pig skin so we use the crispiest part – which is the ears.”

This is bar snacking at its most traditional; its most honest. It sounds like a good starting point for the new-look Lambton Worm pub in Chester-le-Street, which officially opens today.

New owner Tavistock Leisure has really gone back to basics with the food to accompany its ales, drawing on old traditions with a new twist. Bar snacks have seen a real resurgence in the last couple of years, their rising fortunes linked to the boom in high quality beer in the same way that the two are linked inextricably on the bar.

While favourites such as crisps and nuts will always remain in pubs, a new breed of light-tasting dishes has appeared, more about sophisticated beer and food matching than soaking up the alcohol. Now, you’re just as likely to find a cured meat and cheese tasting platters among pubs’ bar snacks as you are scampi fries.

Among the bar snacks at the Lambton Worm are reinvented Scotch eggs made on the premises in flavours such as smoked haddock, and black pudding and sausage meat, alongside oysters from Carlingford in Ireland.

This is only a small part of the £500,000 refurb that Tavistock Leisure has spent on the Lambton Worm, alongside a 75-seater restaurant and separate bar area, but it’s the most important in terms of beer; and with Tavistock Leisure’s own Sonnet 43 Brewery providing many of the ales, it’s an important part to get right.

“The snacks are very old- fashioned,” says director Jonathan Graham. “They’re traditional beer snacks and everything’s made in-house. We do a Ploughman’s Platter too. It was something we thought to complement the craft ale, and looked at some of the dishes that went with them and how we could reinvent them.”

As Jonathan points out, in previous decades convenience was the watch-word. Now, especially with recent food scares (and the endless accompanying horse jokes), provenance is king.

Future plans include refurbishing the 14 bedrooms upstairs, as well as spending a similar amount on Dougies Tavern, bought a few years ago, and The Kicking Cuddy, Sonnet 43’s home in Coxhoe, County Durham.

It sounds ambitious, but Tavistock Leisure clearly knows what punters want from their local: a beer and a friendly ear – especially when it’s crispy and delicious.