Root of the Oak's success

Mark Taylor finds out from Henry and Katherine Cripps what has helped to make their business grow at The Greene Oak, Oakley Green, near Windsor, Berkshire

Why our food side is a success

We attribute any success to offering good

value for money. Our aim is to provide the customer with an experience from the

moment they walk into the door to the

moment they leave.

This involves a good core product in terms of the quality of our food, as well as a clean, warm and welcoming environment, friendly and efficient staff who know the product and an attitude that is eager to please.

Without the customer we are nothing, so we aim to please them as best we can. We think that customers do not go out to eat just for good food, they go for an experience that includes every aspect of their visit - we try to think of all these aspects and when we have missed one we correct it.

Our best promotions

We promote ourselves daily by striving for a better product every day. That sounds corny but if we can improve every day then each time a customer visits it is a little bit better than the time before.

How we recruit and motivate staff

We initially recruited our head chef and

general manager through agencies we had used before and trusted. For everyone else, we wanted a local workforce and some of the

residents so we put a banner outside the pub for a month before opening. We were inundated with applications and we still have 80% of the workforce we opened with.

Our best-selling dishes

Our menu changes every month so the most popular dishes tend to have a core ingredient that is constant, but we change the garnish.

Our scallops (£5.90), the garnish of which we have changed four times since opening,

always sell well. They are currently served with a celeriac purée and chorizo. Our soup of the day, changes every day, is a top-seller and costs only £3.50. Our chicken liver parfait wrapped in Parma ham and served with melba toast and homemade cranberry compote is a very popular starter at £6.90.

Our best-selling main courses are pork and leek sausages with bubble and squeak, onion rings and a red wine jus (£8.90); homemade beef burger with hand-cut chips,

tomato chutney and salad (£9.90) and smoked haddock fishcakes with buttered baby leeks and tartare sauce (£8.90).

Of our homemade desserts, the best-

sellers are the Valhrona chocolate and ginger pot with mascarpone and wild berries; bread and butter pudding with a Grand Marnier glaze and crème Anglais, and lemon tart with a raspberry coulis, all at £4.50.

Our menu

Our menu is always evolving to suit the needs of our customers, but it can be difficult to try new things as you are unsure if they will be

received well.

Often it is in how they are described and spoken of by the staff as to whether they sell well. Recommendations are always a good thing in our view and we make all the staff try new dishes so that they can be knowledgeable when asked.

The menu has a lot of fish and meat but also tries to cater for the increasing number of

vegetarians.

Our daily specials help because if a customer came every day for lunch and

dinner for a week they would have at least four new choices each time.

Regulars like their favourites but also like to try new things. We also accommodate

customers who are on specific diets and those who fancy something else that is not

available.

We strive for a 65% gross profits (GP) and some dishes make a better margin. Often we feel you can make less on certain items if

others make up the difference.

GPs are always better when dishes are homemade and not made using purchased ingredients. Typically, the desserts make the best GPs.

Best investment in last 12 months

Our best investment was to not buy the

cheapest available items, such as kitchen equipment, tables and glassware.

Quality comes at a price and we sourced the best available so that it lasted longer, looked better and was more usable.

Overall, the one thing that we did invest in was the staff with food and wine tastings and a full week's training before opening.

We also held a garden party before we opened for all our local residents and this was a successful introduction for the area. All the food and drinks were on the house all night.

Marketing and PR

There has been a lot of local interest from the papers and our head chef, Daniel Faulkner, has a column in one of them. We've also had articles in local magazines. We will be in the guide books next year and hope to get into the Michelin Eating Out in Pubs guide.

Plans for the future

For the future, we plan to improve on a daily basis and learn from the mistakes we have made and turn them into strengths for the future.

Our top tips

Our top tip is very simple - the customer is always right. When there is a problem it is how you deal with it, as opposed to the problem itself, that will determine if they return.

Often, a problem solved well will create a staunch supporter and a problem unsolved will create a stern critic.

Pub facts

Owners: The Greene Oak is a Greene King leasehold.

Turnover: The estimated turnover when we opened in August was circa £10,000 a week but we have already exceeded our expectations.

Number of staff: We have seven members of staff in the kitchen and 10 front of house.

GP food and drink: 65%. We do have dishes that are below the target but only as specials and to show our value for money. For example, we do 'Surf and Turf' every Friday night that we make 55% GP on but they always sell out.

Covers a week: We do about 850 covers a week on average and we hope to increase this in 2007.

Food sales as % of turnover: Our food accounts for 60% of our turnover.