Beer Matters: Bucking the trends
The draw of the beer at Hertfordshire pub the Woodman is so strong that drinkers propping up the bar while the Craig family has been in charge have included a former England footballer, a Lord Mayor of London and tradesmen of all types.
"Locals know they will always find someone among the broad cross-section of customers we have in here to do a job they need doing, whatever that might be," jokes Tom Craig, who took over from his father Graham in 2006.
The Arsenal and England legend is Brian Talbot. The political mover and shaker is Sir Clive Martin. He wasn't one of Boris Johnson's predecessors as Mayor of London but occupied the lesser role of Lord Mayor of London, with responsibilities in the capital's business district. Nevertheless, they are some esteemed customers.
Talbot, Martin, the brickies, plumbers and landscapers all come for one thing: beer served to them in a homely atmosphere. Food only accounts for five per cent of the Woodman's sales. There's no fruit machine, music or "thousands of pounds spent on chrome and fancy lighting", as Tom says. Nor is the Woodman blessed with an accessible location - buses swing past the pub's front door just twice a week from towns a couple of miles away.
There for the beer
What it does have, however, is a range of well-kept and well-served beers, a sun trap beer garden and a small room that the Craigs have made to feel like someone's front rooms. Drinkers will find a couple of Greene King brands, some beers from McMullen Brewery and ever-changing guest ales.
"Many publicans at the moment believe you have to serve lots of food and diversify, but we are bucking that trend. We style ourselves on an old-fashioned boozer. Someone's front room is exactly what we want to be. We welcome anyone and there are no frills here."
For all its lack of frills, 25-year-old Tom has been charged by his father with making some tweaks to attract younger customers.
"Dad's fear was that a lot of our customers were coming to the top of the escalator," Tom says.
The Woodman has picked up a lot of customers nearer the bottom of the escalator under his tenure, many switching from lager to cask beer as their regular drink.
In June, the pub ran its first ever beer festival. Tom says: "Dad built the pub up into the cask house it is without ever doing any kind of big promotion, but once I'd been in charge for a few years, we decided it was time to take the plunge with a beer festival."
Pubs like the Woodman, succeeding through something as simple as offering beer served well and little more, are a dying breed.
The straightforward cask offer has therefore become a strong selling point for Tom, who says: "We are becoming more and more unique without actually doing anything ourselves, but are proving that traditional country pubs can really work."
