Food tips: How to make your pub more male-friendly

Roundabout way​

Brian Whiting, managing director of Whiting & Hammond, has a different take on how to attract men into a pub — be female-friendly instead. “We would rather be more female-friendly because women make more decisions about where to go and men go where they are told for an easy life,” he explains.

“We’re not on the male drinking circuit anyway and don’t get groups of lads in, but we do get groups of girls.” The group introduced carafes of wine about a year ago, which work well given the group’s lower wine sales of late. If men fancy a pint or two rather than sharing a bottle, their partners can order a carafe rather than drink glass by glass.

“Whiting & Hammond generally does more male-oriented food,” says Whiting. “In the winter we sell a lot of game and offal is very popular too. Generally people have stopped cooking dishes like whole mackerel, liver and tripe, so I think they are more inclined to order it when dining out for something different. But women don’t tend to enjoy offal so that is more of a male dish.”

The company has witnessed big growth in lunchtime dining, which now accounts for 50% of its sales. “It has become normal for people to have lunch out on a day-to-day basis,” says Whiting. “Over the past five years lunch has become less special as a meal out, whereas dinner, I think, still has an element of going out for a reason.”

Upping the steaks​

Sam Cornwall-Jones, of Greene King tenancy the Red Lion in Hunningham, near Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, believes that pubs need to cater for both sexes to be a success, but doing so is an art as men and women — generally — go for different dishes. The pub enjoys a healthy 50:50 gender mix, which is down to his attempts to get the menu right.

“While pubs have always been a predominantly masculine environment, we’re at the stage now where if you just cater for men, especially from a food aspect, you’re going to be in trouble,” he explains. “When putting the menu together you have got to consider both sexes.”

Cornwall-Jones concurs with Whiting that it’s often women who decide where to eat, with men happy to comply as long as there’s good ale on tap.

“Traditional British fare, particularly winter food, is pretty stodgy or else served in massive portions and this can alienate women. Pubs always put a few salads on the menu for women, but when it comes to winter that doesn’t quite compare to sitting around a fire with a nice stew and bread.

Male pubgoers are most likely to order an 8oz steak burger (£11.95) at the Red Lion. “Steak is man all the way through,” says Cornwall-Jones. “When we have a mixed grill on men love that too — basically anything with far too much meat on the plate. We are predictable, almost Neanderthal.”

It’s in the marketing​

“The most wonderful thing about the style of operation I run is that it has the biggest cross-section of people from farm hands finishing work to ladies who lunch and couples,” says Cornwall-Jones. “It is about making everyone feel comfortable.”

The host thinks what will appeal to men is in the marketing, as much as the menu. Where a 10oz rump steak will appeal to the boys, a 6oz fillet steak will look good to the girls. Sharing platters can work well depending on the description.

“They can be good for keeping people in the pub and drinking, but it depends how you advertise them,” he says.

“By ‘combo’ a man will think: ‘Lots of meat and fried stuff — great’, whereas a sharing platter doesn’t say that so much.

“Lastly, I’m old school and still believe in plates. Men don’t want mashed potato in a little pot or peas in a dish — they just want it all on a plate to eat it all together.”

Ounce by ounce​

Pete Napier-Clark, head chef at Whiting & Hammond’s Mark Cross Inn, Crowborough, East Sussex, says men always go for the burgers and steaks. The pub buys in whole fillets and trims them to order at £2.95 per ounce. “It is not uncommon to have people ordering 13oz or 15oz steaks and the biggest ever was 20oz,” he says.

The steaks are served chargrilled with a roasted Portobello mushroom, vine plum tomatoes and green peppercorn sauce and the popular Mark Cross steak burger is served medium with Emmental cheese, beefsteak tomato, baby gem lettuce, smokey barbecue ketchup, coleslaw and skinny fries for £10.95.

Last month’s beer festival at the Mark Cross was a record breaker for the company with more than 700 meals served on the Saturday alone, inside and outside the pub. Napier-Clark was inventive with the dishes available to customers, with good results and hardly anything left over.

More than 100 lamb burgers were sold, along with more than 200 beef burgers and 100 ringed Cumberland sausage baps with onions. Other dishes on offer were king prawn skewers, a hog roast, gyros and salads including Greek, pesto and pasta.

The average price of food was £6, with burger patties made to 5oz rather than the 8oz that guests ordering from the normal menu would receive. The group has also swapped 1p paper plates for more rustic 8p ones to up the value of the meals.

Whiting added: “We have really upped the menus at our beer festivals this year. We had been dumbing them down rather than making them more elaborate, but the new stance has gone down well.”

Orchid Group introduced a burger to share for the summer. The giant O burger can be served for four people or tackled alone and was designed as a food to eat during the summer of sport. It comprises a healthy 2lb of meat with beef tomatoes, lettuce, onions, gherkins and Cheddar with “huge chunky chips”.

“The burger is huge — eating it is a sport in itself!” says head of food Sarah Thomas. The burger is sold at the group’s Independent Local, Modern British, and Free House Dining brand until the end of August.