Butcher's hook
Simon David talks to David Hancock about the growing success of the Culbone Stables Inn
Background
The David family butchery empire is well established across the West Country. Gerald David's name is synonymous with quality meats, notably well-hung Devon beef, Somerset pork and Exmoor lamb. With his wife, three sons and daughter, the business has expanded from a butcher's shop in Minehead and a slaughterhouse in nearby Porlock, to shops in Taunton, Topsham, Ipplepen and Weston-super-Mare, alongside a delicatessen, a fresh fish shop, and, for the girls in the family, a lingerie shop — all in Minehead. In 2006 he bought the Culbone Stables Inn, Exmoor's highest pub spectacularly located at the head of the Doone Valley.
Why buy a pub?
It has always been dad's intention to have a pub to showcase and serve his own steaks. He was fed up with going out and being served a bad steak or ending up eating fish. He loves eating steak, so when the pub came on the market he snapped it up because it's close to where we live and the business was dead. Since August 2006 we've turned it around, spending money on refurbishing the bar and bedrooms, and improving the food offering. Now the pub throngs with locals, plus tourists in the summer.
Why food is a success?
Dad's butchery business is well respected in the area for top quality meats and this alone draws discerning carnivores from every corner of Exmoor to the pub. Most come for our steaks, for they know they will be consistently good.
Our menu
Our main menu stays the same and is built around our fish and meat, with the addition of three or four daily specials. The menu showcases our meats, with headings for lamb, pork, chicken and steak, and individual dishes listed below. We don't do anything too different, adventurous or fancy with our fish and meat, we just offer good, honest pub meals, with everything made in the kitchen from local ingredients. In addition, we use fish from our own shop, landed at Minehead or Brixham, our home-made faggots, and we make our own chips.
Best-selling dishes
It's got to be our steaks, it's what we're famous for and why people come here. The best-sellers are the sirloin and rib-eye steaks, yet there are a good number of farmers in the area who relish tackling the 32oz T-bone steak. We also sell plenty of our home-made faggots and our thick-cut ham, egg and chips. The hearty pea and ham soup and filled baguettes are popular at lunchtime.
Best investment
The money we spent on the top-notch chargrill has been well worth it — it cooks our quality steaks perfectly. We invested a lot of money in creating and kitting out the five en-suite bedrooms and they have proved very successful. Our location close to the coast, the Doone Valley and Exmoor ensures a good occupancy year round. Creating the patio and garden area has proved a sound investment. With views down into the Doone Valley and across the moors, on a hot day we can have 80 people outside eating and drinking. The extra seating has yielded a good return on what we spent building it.
Marketing and PR
We haven't spent anything on marketing, we don't have to with the reputation my father's butchery business has locally. It's all been word of mouth, plus when we travel around the country doing all the county shows we give out the pub brochure, which has generated plenty of overnight stays. Also, people buy our meat at our shops and then they want to see how we cook it, so we have a great local dining trade.
Recruitment and motivation
Again, it's word of mouth within the butchery business as most of our staff are daughters of the local farmers we deal with for our meat. We have had chefs from the city, but they don't stay as we're in the middle of nowhere on top of Exmoor and they soon get fed up and leave. Our chef is local, he lives in Exford, so we don't have any problems.
Plans for the future
My father has just bought and refurbished the Dunster Castle Hotel in Dunster. He's spent a fortune on it. I think that six butcher's shops, a slaughterhouse, a deli, a lingerie shop, a hotel and this pub are enough to look after for the time being.
Pub facts
Address: Culbone Stables Inn, Porlock, Minehead, Somerset TA24 8JW 01643 862259
www.culbonestablesinn.co.uk
Owner: Gerald David; freehold
Covers: Between 480 and 700 covers a week
Turnover: £450,000
On the menu: Starters: pea and ham soup £4.25; smoked trout terrine £4.95; Mains: Exmoor lamb casserole £6.95; dry-cured ham, egg and chips £6.95; baked sea bass stuffed with mushrooms £17.95; steak and kidney pie £10.95; 32oz T-bone steak £24; 12oz rib-eye steak £17.95; Puddings: lemon tart £4.50; apple crumble £4.50
