The Petrou brothers' versatility has brought them to the top of their game. Lucy Britner meets the dynamic duo
It's not every day you find a pair of brothers who own two pubs and also run Britain's best fish and chip shop (2006/07). But the Petrou brothers aren't everyday guys. Despite their coyness when it comes to talking about hard cash, it's clear they're not short of a bob or two. Pete's love for fast cars and knack of making money rewarded him with a Lamborghini by the time he was 23 and a Ferarri when he was 28. The pair also hint at property developments and the possibility of purchasing a cinema - on the market for a cool £1m. Clearly they have their fingers in more than just Pukka pies.
So it may seem odd that Pete still wants to work in a pub every Friday and Saturday night or that Mark would choose to slog away in a chip shop. But on meeting the Petrou brothers, their passion for the business started 25 years ago by their father becomes clear.
All-round appeal
Mark, 36, is a master fryer. This year, his fish and chip shop in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, beat 11,000 others to become Britain's best. Six years ago the pair decided to diversify. Vaguely driven, they admit, by Pete's desire for a pint on a Saturday night, the brothers bought the freehold of the Men of March in March, Cambridgeshire.
Mark says: "After we bought the freehold, we closed it for 12 months to do some research. Fish and chips was our thing and we wanted to go to the trade shows and look at what was revolutionising the industry. We realised that because of the location, we couldn't do anything revolutionary, but we could certainly evolve the scene within our own community.
"We wanted to appeal to females and career-minded people, without alienating the locals."
The pair ploughed £476,000 into refurbishing the suburban site and changed the name of the pub to Bar 23 - their lucky number.
"Despite having 44 windows, the pub was always very dark because it had lots of
different rooms," says Mark.
Several years ago the pub appeared in the news as an alleged brothel - but now it's light, airy and full of squashy brown leather sofas and funky artwork. Lunchtime diners from local businesses are dotted around and a few locals are gathered at the bar.
"We made mistakes during the refurbishment," says Pete. "We spent £4.50 on each piece of hand-made cutlery and lost 30 in a week. But we wanted a premium offering."
"We also went straight onto 35ml measures, which helped with a lot of social sieving. The people who wanted to go out and get bladdered just thought it was expensive and couldn't work out that it was a larger measure.
"The commercial mistake here was we didn't tell people what we were doing and didn't have enough regular customers to carry us. But in the long-term, we've ended up with a trouble-free environment and a better quality of customer."
The pair maintain that the success of Bar 23 is down to its food offering. During the refurb, they knocked a hole in the wall to enable customers to see the kitchen. The menu includes a 15-minute deal: lunch-time diners can be served a meal in 15 minutes or get it for free.
Booming business
The pub also has enough kitchen space to operate as a takeaway.
Pete says: "This was one of the safety nets that we built into the design. We're able to deliver food from Bar 23 if the market demands it. We make all our own pizzas from scratch.
"If necessary, we could set up a deal with Blockbuster to deliver DVDs with our pizza, but, commercially, we have never needed to do that. Occasionally, people bring in their own plates and we plate up a Sunday lunch for them."
Business was booming for the brothers when a pub exactly four miles from both the chip shop and Bar 23 came onto the market a year ago. For the Petrous, the best thing was its location, but its name - the Anchor - was a bonus.
Pete says: "We've spent a lot of time building the Petrou Brothers brand in the area. As the Wimblington village pub is called the Anchor, we couldn't miss the opportunity to combine it with our reputation for fish and chips. It's the last pub in the village and presented an entirely different offering. There was a customer base to support it. "With this site, we're leaning more towards the food and family market. Instead of white-collar customers, we're geared towards mature,
family customers and have kept the real ales."
The kitchen team at the Anchor consists of Pete - a 706 City & Guilds 1 & 2 qualified chef - and development chef John McGinn, who has appeared on TV's MasterChef and cooked in 30 countries around the world - not bad for an ex-civil engineer with no cheffing qualifications. Pete and John cure their own meats, make their own ice cream and plan to grow vegetables.
So far, the brothers haven't invested in the Anchor. Planning permission has been obtained for four to six letting rooms and a larger kitchen. In the next six months, they plan to turn what Pete describes as "Frankenstein's monster" into a bona-fide food pub with a deli-shop and chickens in the back-yard. Although Pete plans to grow his own, he doesn't believe local sourcing is always the most responsible solution. He says: "At the Anchor we source everything locally. At the bar, we source locally where we can, but use other suppliers too.
"Chatteris is in the middle of spud country, so we source our potatoes locally. Our fish comes from sustainable stocks. It's not always possible to source locally at the pub - for example, we get our Australian barramundi fish from the New Forest, where it's farmed organically. You can source responsibly, but not always locally."
Multi-tasking
Despite their local reputation for fish and chips, the brothers waited until they had won the award before putting the dish on their pub menus. Now 150 customers a week at each pub enjoy the award-winning dish at the modest price of £5.99.
As the country's top fish-fryer, Mark represents the industry. Recently he ran a frying masterclass at Fortnum & Mason. As if that wasn't enough, the duo also run an outside catering company specialising in hog roasts and an adult-toy vending company. And then there's that plan to buy a cinema. Mark was also approached by a TV company to appear on Take on the Takeaway with Gary Rhodes, but, according to Mark, the celebrity chef opted for a more "run-of-the-mill" outlet. "I'm confident I would have won," said Mark. And he had every reason to be confident.
The Anchor
Wet:dry 70:30
Average spend per head: £12
On the specials board menu
Starters: home-cured beef served with beetroot and horseradish £4.50; grilled langoustines £4.99; curry scallops salad £4.99. Mains: scallops, bacon, black pudding, peas and bubble £12.99; confit duck in cherry sauce £9.99. Dessert: white chocolate and cardamom mousse £3.99; French apricot trifle £3.99
Fact: Development chef John McGinn fought off 6,000 chefs to appear on MasterChef's Great British Menu challenge
Refurb budget: £200,000 initially
Mark Petrou's tips for better pub fish and chips
1. Source the best raw materials. For us this is high-quality sustainable cod and locally-grown Maris Piper potatoes for 11 months, and Maris Bard or Premier for new potato chips.
2. Make your own batter and keep it simple - all you need is self-raising flour and water.
3. Fry at the correct temperature. We have a high-efficiency pan in the Anchor kitchen. It cost about £5,000, but it's worth it if you're serious about fish and chips. Otherwise, fry at 180°C-185°C.
4. Use real potatoes, not frozen chips.
5. Serve with mushy peas, tartare sauce and a wedge of lemon.
Bar 23
Wet:dry 60:40
Average spend per head: £9
On the menu : spaghetti carbonara in home-made sauce £4.99; home-