Last week, as I was collecting my younger son from playschool, one of the mums started to speak quite disparagingly about her local pub. She had apparently gone there for dinner, was pretty outraged by the whole experience, and wanted the whole room to know about it.
As her tale of woe unfolded I realised, with some relief, that she was talking about a pub in the next village. They had arrived late in the evening and the pub had clearly had a busy night. Several things were off the menu, including, she kept reiterating, all the vegetables. She settled for a steak and chips, which apparently was jolly good, but this is where it gets interesting.
She was genuinely appalled that the pub had run out of several items, that the steak and chips (which she liked) had cost her £13, and, most of all, that the landlord had dared to charge her for it, rather than offering a heavy discount by way of compensation for a "ruined" evening. The bottom line was she thought the place was rubbish, and had made it her mission to tell everyone about it.
Like you, I could see both sides of the argument. As a publican, to be so busy that you sell-out of half your menu means you are doing good business. Okay, I admit it is pretty bad to run out of vegetables, but I guess it can happen. They accommodated their customer the best they could, served her a decent plate of food and charged her its proper value. I can't say I would have done it any differently.
From the customer's point of view, she went to her local hostelry expecting to be able to choose whatever she wanted from the menu, and was disappointed by the lack of choice. I suspect this woman is typical of many pub-goers who instinctively believe they should be able to turn-up at a pub at any time without prior notice, often as a large party, and get whatever they want at a bargain price.
They would not dream of doing this in a good restaurant but, to them, pubs are different. This is going to be one of the hardest elements of public education the pub industry faces. Most of the large pubcos are looking to food as their main growth potential. Let's face it, there's little else. If pubs are increasingly going to offer restaurant-quality food, the public will have to start treating pubs like restaurants.
The thing that most upset me was this woman's belief that her bill should have been discounted. I know no other business where the public expects a discount because some of the other items the business sells aren't available. Why do people expect this of pubs?
Ian McKerracher is licensee of the Helyar Arms, in East Coker, Somerset.