Wine and food promotion
Where: The Fishes, North Hinksey, Oxford
A Peach pub, the Fishes at North Hinksey already has a reputation for its good-value wine list, but head chef Corin Earland has been tempting customers to increase their spend and try the more expensive bottles of wine on the list.
He's done this by running a special promotion where customers effectively get two meals for the price of one if they order a specified top-end wine.
He says: "We started this purely because we've got so many great wines on our list that we don't sell enough of. A lot of people go for the cheaper wines on the list and not enough were ordering the ones at the top end. We decided to give people an incentive to order the more expensive wines and make it worth their while.
"It's basically a two-for-one offer so, for example, if the bottle of wine costs £30 and a main course is £12, the offer is two main courses and a bottle of wine for £42 so it's basically buy one meal, get one free. It's still on the board for £12, but they can see the value in the saving they make.
"We've done it with all sorts of things, including lobster thermidor with a bottle of Champagne. One of the most successful offers was a whole rabbit - a roasted saddle, braised legs and the belly crisped up like crackling - with vine tomatoes, fennel chips and rocket salad. We did that with the wine of the month, which was a Riesling, and we sold 10 whole rabbits in a day.
"We've found that if one table orders it, the next table decides to order it, too, it's the domino effect. I take the hit on the food costs, rather than on the wine. I still achieve my GP, but it just means I have to badger my suppliers for even better prices than I normally do!"
