If you pour it, they will come
David Hancock finds out how wine buff Jonathan Dunne, owner of the Albert Arms in Esher, Surrey, runs his pub in tandem with a thriving wine business
Why our food business succeeds
It's simple - we make sure everything we order is in tip-top condition, keep it like that, and cook and present it well. If you do this and you maintain consistency, your customers will keep coming back. If you don't, they will go elsewhere.
Take our steaks, for example. We buy whole sides from a first-class butcher and they are hung for between 28 and 35 days, so that the meat's matured more fully and has more flavour and a better texture. Then you get the right potatoes to make great chips, buy other quality vegetables that are in season and treat them all with respect. We just look at the detail and take great care with what we are producing on the plate.
How we recruit and motivate staff
We look for people who are confident, with a pleasant personality and disposition, and then train them. We employ East Europeans who can speak good English, as they work hard and have a good sense of humour. We really look after them with good rates of pay, a structured working week, sufficient time off, uniforms, dental schemes and all meals.
Our best-selling dishes
It's got to be our classic dishes, like the home-made chicken liver pâté starter (£4.50), grilled Dover sole (£22) and our steaks. We offer sirloin, rump, fillet, T-bone, rib-eye (£16-£22) and Chateaubriand (£38 for two), which are well-presented and offered with a variety of home-made sauces, such as garlic and cream, pepper and Béarnaise.
If you ate a steak here and then went elsewhere locally, you'd find one for the same price that was half the size and certainly not of the same quality. Other dishes that sell well include starters of Mediterranean prawns in garlic butter (£6.50), smoked salmon and asparagus (£6.50), and scallops served with a lemon butter sauce (£6).
Best-selling desserts, which are all home-made at £4.50, include traditional cheesecakes and crumbles and favourites such as tiramisu and profiteroles.
Our menu
The main menu evolves every three months or so, yet many of the classic dishes, like the fish and steaks, remaining constant. It's split into three sections - grills, poultry and game, and fish. Good examples of what we offer are the rack of lamb in garlic sauce (£14), partridge wrapped in bacon with red wine sauce (£16), and our fish stew (£18).
On top of that, we have daily specials, a weekly special promotion, and soon we plan to offer all-day food, from 9am to 11pm. With our luxury accommodation and high-street location, we know we will be sufficiently busy with both residents and passing trade to justify employing staff throughout the day.
Best investment
It has to be Le Verre de Vin wine preservation system, pivotal in the service of wine by the glass. I spent over £2,500 on a decent one, but it has really paid off, as we now offer 38 wines by the glass and there's hardly any waste. It lets me offer an excellent range of wines by the glass to suit all tastes. Not everyone wants to drink the same wine if a group orders a bottle, and if you're in a round and everyone else is having expensive spirits, you can order a glass of Margaux for £5.50.
Marketing and PR
We have a growing database of customers, so we send out around 2,000 emails a week, We send out around 1,000 flyers to local businesses, detailing the week's offer (say, a free bottle of wine if you order the Chateaubriand for two), and customers can print the voucher off and bring it in with them. We don't need to advertise any more - even our rooms are running at 85% occupancy, thanks to our relationship with local businesses during the week, and also thanks to the vicar, who fills our rooms at weekends; there's a wedding most weeks.
Plans for the future
I want to promote my associate passion, the Albert Wine Company and shop, create an orangery restaurant on our flat-top roof space - which will maximise the limited space we have at the Albert - and, finally, find greater use for our function room.
It can be a false economy for local offices to maintain a rarely-used boardroom when office space is at a premium, so we plan to step in and offer our function room as a venue for monthly management meetings, supplying the necessary equipment and all the food and drink.
Our top tips
Do everything better than the guy next door. It's as simple as that! If you're in this business, do it to the best of your ability. Look at your demographics - don't try and sell foie gras to people who want steak and chips, just give them the best quality you can find, make it good value, and flash a big smile. If you do this, they will come back time and again, but you've got to maintain your standards.The Albert Arms, 82 High Street, Esher, Surrey KT10 9QS
01372 465 290; www.albertarms.com
Facts 'N' Stats
Owner: Jonathan Dunne (freehold)
Number of staff: 12 and 12 part-time
Turnover: £1.4 million; gross, £30,000
a week
GP Food: 68%
GP Drink: 68%
Covers a week: 400-500
Food sales as % of turnover: 64%
The Albert Wine Company
Launched in October 2006 by Jonathan Dunne, owner of the Albert Arms, the Albert Wine Company is currently a web-based fine-wine merchant, offering 700 top-
quality wines from large wine producers and smaller "boutique" wineries to buy online.
In addition to in-depth information about each represented wine region - from type of wine, to the variety of grape and the
individual vineyards - there are photographs of all 700 bottles and excellent tasting notes from sommelier Michael Harrison. Wines are delivered to the door within 48 hours - visit www.albertwinecompany.com.
Dunne plans to make all 700 wines
available to taste and buy at an innovative new wine shop, located just along the road from the Albert Arms.
There's a wine bar in the shop for weekly tastings and for sampling any of the 700 wines on the shelves, plus a tapas counter and an eclectic range of paraphernalia, from unusual bottle openers to wine buckets. So if you enjoy any of the 38 wines available by the glass at the Albert Arms, you will be able to buy a case on the way home.
