Minor miracles

They call the area we’re in, on the Northcote Road, ‘Nappy Valley’ because there are a huge number of young families with children living here. With this in mind, we make sure that we always have things like plastic glasses, jugs of squash and crayons and colouring-in books.

Lunchtimes all week are the main times we get kids in. I guess that if people are relaxed in a place with their kids then they’ll stay longer and spend more money, so it all works really well.

It’s £4.50 for a kids’ meal and £2.50 for a dessert, so £7 for two courses for children. That’s pretty reasonable.

One extra thing that we do, which has been a great success, is let children decorate their own fairy cakes. So, they get a fairy cake and the icing and the hundreds and thousands, chocolate buttons and marshmallows, and they can make a mess and do it all themselves. We’ve found that it’s a fun, novel idea that everyone really enjoys.

Our own farm​

Now that we’ve taken on Locks Drove Farm in Pill Heath, Hampshire, it has become a big thing for us. We have bought whole pigs in and it’s allowed the chefs to begin creating different dishes and try new things — it has also given them more inspiration. In turn, this has given the pub more interesting specials on the menu.

In terms of marketing, we send out a fortnightly e-newsletter telling people everything we’re doing. This is possible because we give people bill folders at the end of the meal and ask for a few comments and details and their email addresses.

We then use that information to create a database and send out an e-newsletter. It’s been very successful in the past year or so in getting customers to return.

Attracting customers​

In January we ran a 2012 offer. If you ordered your food before 8.12pm (or 20.12) then you received 50% off your food bill.

It’s great to be able to give people an offer and January is traditionally a bit of a tough month, so it was a nice thing to do.

There was a Northcote Road festival last summer and we advertised in the brochure that went out. Our pub is not really at the hub of the Northcote Road, but slightly more down at the residential end of it rather than where all of the other shops and businesses are, so we offered a glass of Prosecco for anybody who turned up at our pub on the festival day.

It was very successful. I think we gave away 60 glasses of Prosecco. So, an extra 60 people rocked through the door and people were spilling out onto the street. We’d managed to move a whole load of people from one part of Northcote Road to the other, which was quite an achievement.

Parental advice​

My father was in the industry and taught me to never turn anyone away. It was an important lesson. Even if you’re fully booked and your pub is spilling out onto the street during a Sunday lunch and someone comes in and wants a table, you’ve got to hold onto them.

You can do that by getting them a Bloody Mary, or whatever they’d like to drink, or standing a table who have just eaten and offering them drinks back at the bar to free up the table for the person who’s just walked in. However you do it, it is always worth it.

Best-selling dish​

Something that’s selling very well at the moment is our loin of rabbit, which is stuffed with spinach and hazelnuts. It also comes with Dauphinoise potatoes and honey-glazed carrots. I think we’re making a GP of about 68% on that.

But what’s our secret to retaining and incentivising staff? We pay well. We look after them too. We do trips to the farm every six months. Near the farm there’s a kitchen area where they can make their own sausages and burgers and then cook them. It’s a good day for the pub managers and chefs to get out of London and see where their produce comes from. We do trips up to Timothy Taylor in Yorkshire. We do wine trips every year. We take them to Spain, Italy and we’re going to France this year.

More at the grass-roots level, with our other staff we send in mystery diners every month and get them to fill in a questionnaire to find out how their service was, whether they were offered additional drinks and if their bill was brought to them within two minutes — things like that. If staff members do very well we send them to our other pubs for free meals out, to give them a good experience beyond where they work.

Support from suppliers​

Diageo has always been quite good in supporting us. The company gives us cocktail training and provides us with Pimm’s glasses and cocktail shakers and pourers. In terms of training the staff and back-bar support, it’s very good.

Our trips to see Timothy Taylor are always very productive. We have overnight stays there once a year. The company is also very good with glassware and training. It’ll come in and make sure the ale is being served at the right temperature and that there’s no haze on the beer. It’s a big help for quality.

Boutinot Wines, our biggest wine supplier, has been very supportive as well. We run wine tastings every month or two and the company provides a lot of the wine for the evening — we don’t pay for it. So, we get about 30 people coming in to taste the wines and eat canapés, and we normally do that on a Monday night.

Who we admire​

The best pub within 30 miles of ours, I think, is the Canton Arms in Stockwell, south London. It’s just a great pub and very laid-back. It concentrates on really good food too.

It does quite a lot of sharing dishes, so there’ll be a shoulder of lamb, which has been roasted for around seven hours and comes with roasted carrots and potatoes, and it serves five people. So you just walk in, there’s the shoulder of lamb, at say, £50 for four to six people to share, and I think that’s a lovely way of eating that gets everyone involved.

From the welcoming bar through to the relaxed dining room, elegance reigns supreme and the emphasis is on high-quality British food and traditional pub values.

Facts ’n’ stats​

Tenure​: Freehouse (Renaissance Pubs)

Annual Turnover​: £1m

Wet:dry split​: 50:50

Favourite brewers​: Timothy Taylor, Sambrook’s

Number of staff:​ 20 (from eight to 12 on at any one time)

Opening hours:​ Mon to Fri 11am-midnight; Sat 10am-midnight, Sun 10am-10.30pm

Busiest time:​ Lunchtimes

Price of a pint:​ £3.60

Children’s drinks:​ Molly’s juices, cordials served in plastic cups and jugs

What’s on the menu:​ Pub classics and ‘foodie’ dishes. Good burgers, fish and chips, steaks and interesting specials.

Farm:​ Locks Drove Farm, Pill Heath, Hampshire