A Yorkshire family has become a Benidorm institution attracting queues of British holidaymakers and expats desperate for a plate of their authentic, bargain grub. Tad Dawson is a man who will be familiar with many who have visited or lived in Benidorm over the years. The coal miner and amateur rugby player decided to swap his life Up North with then wife Lesley - who worked in a sewing factory in Castleford - for the sunny shores of Spain.
After trying to set up in Tenerife only to find the rents too high, the couple opted for Benidorm in Alicante. Three decades on, they have built a small empire of British themed pub restaurants that have been delighting and filling the bellies of English, Welsh, Scots and Irishmen and women abroad ever since. They brought along with them daughter Paige Dawson, who has spent almost all of her 31-years in Benidorm where she is now the managing director of the Yorkshire Pride chain and boasts a Yorkshire accent in English and an Alicante twang in Spanish.
"I was just a baby when my mum and dad set it up. It started off with Yorkshire Pride 1, which was half the size of what it is now. They were putting in loads of hours, but it worked out in the end.
It was always known for good, homemade, pub grub," Paige told the Mirror. It is that grub - and specifically the Pride's roast - which made the pub famous and saw it expand into two other premises. While some Brits might deem 30C a little too hot for a plate of meat, veg and gravy, it has become o.