This month Andrew Burnyeat looks at how concentrating on a speciality can help differentiate your pub's food offer and boost trade
A simple food offer, run either instead of or alongside fancier food, can work wonders for trade and build up the reputation of your pub.
Sometimes, the simpler the concept, the better. This month, we take a look at sausages, pies and burgers by focusing on a success story behind each speciality.
pies
The Guinea, Mayfair, London
Carl Smith, licensee at this Young's pub, began ramping up the pie side of his business in the early 1990s. Yet the pub sells just two: steak and kidney, and steak and mushroom. The steak and kidney pie has won the National Steak Pie competition three times - at which point Smith was asked not to enter again!
Smith says: "We were struggling at lunchtimes. We were proud of our pies and they were selling OK in the bar, so I entered them in the competition. After we won, the pies started to develop a real cult following."
He now sells about 20,000 pies a year - about 380 a week. Smith estimates 80% of these are steak and kidney, with steak and mushroom making up the remainder.
Both pies sell at £8.50 on the bar menu or £12.50 on the à la carte restaurant menu, making an average GP of 69%. They come with vegetables and potatoes.
The pies are hand-made at the pub. Ingredients include Young's bitter, Scottish skirt of beef from butcher Frank Godfrey and traditional spices and seasoning.
The awards have helped to spread publicity for the pies, which are now being made at other Young's pubs. A logo featuring a pieman appears on placemats and the pub's Christmas cards, which carry the strapline "Deep and crisp and even".
They have also earned Smith the moniker "Prince of Pies" from the Daily Star, and attracted praise from the Times.
burgers
The Fountain, Norwich, Norfolk
For a burger-and-steak joint, the Fountain certainly sells a lot of vegetarian food. In fact, the vegetarian menu is being expanded as its three veggie options can account for 30% of sales at peak times.
Three of its 10 burgers are vegetarian - the full list appears below. But two more are being added, and the pub is also adding a fish and a chicken burger.
Paul Cooke, who acts as a consultant to proprietor Lisa Breslin, says: "It was a surprise to us when we realised that the vegetarian burgers were doing so well. But it's a consequence of the upmarket approach we started out with. People feel they have had a meal when they come to us, not just a burger. We sell burgers for grown-ups."
The business, which has been trading in its current form for six months, began promoting itself through local radio. One promotion offered a stunning prize - dubbed the "999" competition, it offered the chance to come and consume £999 worth of food and drink. (The winner brought along a few friends!)
The pub has attracted some good PR from regional media and carries out leaflet drops to thousands of homes in its area. In 2006, it picked up Norfolk Eating Out's Burger of the Year award.
Working to a GP in excess of 65% for burgers, the pub caters for 600 covers a week. It is open from 5pm to 10pm weekdays and from noon until 10pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Prices at the Fountain vary from £5.50 to £8.00.
All the burgers are made at the pub and ingredients are carefully sourced - particularly for its best-selling Aberdeen Angus burger, and its popular ostrich and orange burger.
Burgers at the Fountain are all 6oz in weight except where stated and include ostrich and orange; veal and black olive with oregano; pork and maple syrup; Aberdeen Angus (8oz); 100% beef; beef and Guinness; lamb and mint; walnut and feta; Portobello mushroom; sun-dried tomato, olive and pepper.
Keys to All-day success
Foodservice supplier Brakes offers tips on all-day dining
Many licensees focus on lunch and evening menus but opportunities involving other lucrative occasions are growing.
Breakfast, brunch, afternoon snacks and late-night suppers all present options.
Suggestions can range from the traditional fry-up to a simple pastry offering served with hot beverages. Pastries can be baked from frozen in 12-15 minutes or thawed overnight. Victoria sponge and coffee and walnut cake are also popular with tea and coffee.
Don't forget to market your offer: it is worth attracting coffee-bar customers to a more comfortable pub environment.
Afternoon snacks should be light meals, such as sandwiches, soup, sharing platters or cakes from your morning offering. Keeping it simple is the key to success.
Prices should be reasonable to compete with coffee shops and fast-food outlets.
A easy-to-eat late-night food offer needs to be served quickly: hot sandwiches, pizza, burgers or curries are just the thing to satisfy your customers' appetites for takeaways.
sausages
Sussex Brewery, Emsworth, Hampshire
They started selling sausages at the Sussex Brewery pub in Emsworth after a conversation between a fisherman and a butcher.
The fisherman, a pub regular, said he knew where to source the best sausages on earth and recommended Bill O'Hagan, a speciality butcher.
O'Hagan won the British Sausage Appreciation Society's top award of Best Sausage Maker in London in March 1996.
Eighteen years on, O'Hagan's sausages are still sold at the pub, although they weren't successful right away. "It took us a while to get them off the ground, but once we developed a reputation for award-winning sausages, it really helped develop the business and we have won an Egon Ronay listing," says licensee Liz Roberts.
The main sausage menu comprises 10 varieties: real ale; pork, port and stilton; Cumberland; beef in Guinness; lamb and mint; Toulouse; game; drunken duck; Glamorgan; and mushroom and tarragon.
A selection of "guest" sausages also appears on a rotational basis.
All sausage dishes are sold for £8.00 or £8.40, except for game and drunken duck, which sell at £10. Two of the dishes - Cumberland and Toulouse - are gluten-free. Glamorgan, and mushroom and tarragon are vegetarian. "They sell amazingly well," says Roberts.
Sausages are also available as a platter for two, featuring four different sausages.
The best-seller is pork, port and Stilton. Roberts has recently reduced the number of sausages available. "Even with 10 basic sausages, we offer a lot more variety than most pubs. It's important not to confuse the customer with too many options. If you have too many, they won't all sell well and there will be waste," she says.
Roberts buys in about £500-worth of sausages every week.