War of the roses

Gastro pubs offering glitzy menus at restaurant prices gobble up an increasing slice of the pub food market. Can a simple publican still serve traditional fare at rock bottom prices and make a living? The answer is a resounding 'Yes at two pubs where you can tuck into a two-course meal for less than the price of a starter at many swankier competitors

The Commercial, Cleckheaton

Viv Laycock is the vivacious landlady of the Commercial, a spotless west Yorkshire local. In her time, she's taught catering, been a butcher, and she still owns the cafe in Cleckheaton market, so she knows plenty about wresting a profit from giant platefuls of delicious food priced at £3 to £5.

It helps that she's a terrific cook. As one diner, who had eaten there three times in 10 days, said: 'I've followed Vivien around for years from the Packhorse down the road where she used to be, to here. She's a fantastic cook.

This lady was enjoying a big bowl of freshly made soup, but her friend was tucking into the full Monty three thick slices of roast pork with crackling, sage and onion stuffing, apple sauce, roast and new potatoes and two fresh vegetables with a separate gravy boat; home-made down to the apple sauce, at £5.15.

You pay the same or less for prime steak and Black Sheep ale pie, roast beef with all the trimmings, their butcher's Cumberland sausages with huge Yorkshire pudding, mash and gravy, a big gammon steak with fried egg and Viv's famous chunky chips, or her own recipe chicken curry with salad and rice.

Some eat even cheaper a plate of the hand cut chips topped with home-made chilli or melted cheddar and ham for between £3.45 and £3.75, or simply two home-made Yorkshire puds with lashings of meat gravy for £2.15. How on earth does she do it at the price?

'We do it all ourselves. I have built up my own recipe book over the years and we make everything in the kitchen here, said Viv.

It often means long hours of preparation, but she firmly believes home-cooked is not only far better than bought in but also far cheaper to produce.

Even so, at these prices, cost control is crucial. 'We used to do leg of lamb as one of our roasts at £5.25 (10p more than the beef and pork) but the price of lamb went up too much.

'I didn't want to put it on the set menu at a higher price so now I just put it on as a special from time to time, said Viv. At £5.75, the generous platter with fresh mint sauce is still a bargain.

Viv's profit calculation is slightly unconventional because she doesn't really count her own time. 'I know how much I've paid for the ingredients, and when we've covered that we're into profit, she said.

So the other part of the equation is ingredient spend. 'We buy wisely and stay local, our suppliers look after us, she said. 'We use seasonal ingredients and if tomatoes become too expensive, then we use red cabbage in salad instead.

'I get ten pounds of mince for £9, and you can make an awful lot with ten pounds of mince. In any case, her beef supplier is her brother, so she can expect a good deal!

With food served at lunchtime only, and wages for two mealtime helpers, food profit across the board is around 70%. Averaging 350-370 covers per week, 80 of them for Sunday dinner, food takings are around £1,500 per week.

But it has an added value: it increases the drinks trade. When Viv and her husband, John, took over the Commercial as tenants six years ago, it was only doing around £600 a week. Today it's nearer £7,000 overall, so the pub is certainly living up to its name.

John has built a huge trade for his well-kept real ales, with three guest beers, and says wet to dry sales ratio is around 70:30. 'But the food attracts people and they buy drinks. If we didn't do food at lunchtimes, we'd be empty.

The Crown, Croston, near Preston

It's just gone noon in Croston near Preston and the lounge bar of the Crown is already filling with, shall we say, the more mature diner.

In a small village with five pubs, you need a gimmick in order to stand out, and at the Crown it's a pensioners' menu with one course for £3.50, two courses £4.50.

This special offer was inherited by Tony and Rachel Carr when they took over the pub at the beginning of August, so they've kept it on while introducing new budget deals.

Winners of the Morning Advertiser National Cask Ale House at the Ivy Mill in Greasby, the managed house they've just left, this is their first time as tenants so they are very excited.

'As a manager, I was used to being told what to do and now I have to keep saying to myself 'It's my decision, I'm in charge', said Tony, chef and landlord of this Thwaites tied house.

The Senior Citizens' menu features smaller portions than the main menu, so a 4-oz fillet of fresh cod in beer batter with chips, mushy peas and little bowl of tartare sauce, steak pie simmered in real ale with puff pastry topping and chips, or 4-oz rump and gammon steaks all a satisfying plateful are all £3.50.

The previous tenants also put on a pensioners' daily roast dinner at £3.50 and one said she missed it, but these are early days this was only the Carrs' first full week of food and they'll be reassessing.

If you don't yet qualify for a bus pass, prices are still very moderate. Regular cod in ale batter is a whale of a catch at £5.50, while Cumberland sausage with mash and red onion gravy, the popular chicken breast and bacon cheese melt served in their last pub, or hand carved ham with two fried eggs and chips, are all around a fiver. A starter of locally-made black pudding with apple sauce and salad is still £2.95.

'We didn't see a need to put up prices in fact we've lowered the cost of the mixed grill from £10.50 to £9.45 so that all the steaks are under £10, said Rachel. 'You can still make a profit if you're not greedy and now we are tenants and able to source our own produce, like the superb cod, we can get better deals. It pays to go local.

Food takings at their previous pub averaged £1,800 to £2,200 a week, ratio 80:20 wet to dry, but they expect to improve on that.

Jewels in the Crown:

Special offers blackboards out front announce two steak dinners for £9.95 on Mondays, two curries for £8.95 on Wednesdays, two fresh battered cod 'n' chips for £8.95 on Fridays and Sunday roasts with all the trimmings at £4.95.

New extended meal times OAP menu now 12-5pm Mon-Fri, general menu 12-9pm daily, on signs around the pub