When restaurateurs David Mooney and Paul Newman decided to open their first pub, they pledged to make sharing dishes a big part of the food offer.
Three years and six sites later, the New Moon Pub Company has built a reputation across the north-west for its sharing ‘planks’. So much so, in fact, that they typically account for 40% of all starter sales on a busy night.
“We sell hundreds of the things every week,” enthuses Mooney. “Whether it’s in our city centre or rural pubs, they are perfect for groups of any size who want a nibble with their drinks.”
As daily lives get busier and the traditional three-meals-a-day approach to eating becomes ever-more restrictive, it’s perhaps no surprise that sharing food is playing an increasingly significant role on pub menus.
More than just meeting the trend for daytime grazing, platters, boards and tapas dishes can also help to make the customer’s pub experience more ‘sociable’ and, vitally, encourage them to stay for that extra drink.
So if you don’t offer any sharing food at all, it may be time to reconsider.
Colour contrast
With a variety of different items placed together on one platter or board, the essence of a good sharing dish is that the food should contain a number of contrasting colours, texture and flavours, believes Scott Ferguson, head development chef at Wiltshire-based brewer and pub company Wadworth.
“Presentation is key and items on the same plate should always complement one another,” he suggests.
“Natural products such as slate and wood can make great surfaces for displaying a group of artfully displayed morsels to share,” Ferguson adds.
According to Mooney, it’s also important to not simply replicate what’s on the main menu.
“You’ve got to have a balance between hot and cold items, fish and meat, and so on,” he explains.
“Our Coastal platter plank contains a number of hot and cold seafood items, while the Charcuterie plank is a mix of cheeses, hams and chutney. It’s about working out suitable combinations, and that requires a lot of preparation.”
Tap in to tapas
Preparation is also the buzzword at the Shrewsbury Arms, in Albrighton, West Midlands. The privately owned pub operates a Spanish tapas night every Thursday, and the 11-strong menu includes king prawns with Tabasco, lemon and garlic; and chicken breast cooked with chorizo, white wine and cream sauce. Two dishes are available for £8.
“We thought we would give tapas a go when we reopened the pub a couple of years ago because nowhere else in the area was doing it,” says manager Katie Hughes.
“It can be a challenge to offer lots of smaller dishes in addition to the normal menu, but it’s never been insurmountable. We always ask groups of 10 or more to pre-order, so that can help considerably,” she adds.
Paul Toft, owner and head chef at the Millstone, in Newton-le-Willows, Cheshire, believes there is no easy way to making tapas work — but get it right, and it can really set you apart from the competition.
His tapas has a distinctly international flavour, with dishes as eclectic as chicken teriyaki, deep-fried Camembert and Thai fish cake on the 29-item menu.
“Whether it’s China with dim sum, or Greece with meze — every country in the world has some form of tapas. So all we’ve done is put all of that together and created our own,” Toft explains.
“There are no shortcuts — at the end of the day you don’t know what people are going to order. A table of four will typically order between three to four dishes each, so you could be doing between 12 and 18 dishes for just one table,” he suggests. “Success is down to the skill of the kitchen and the quality of the food.”
Toft claims to be in talks with Punch Taverns over the possibility of franchising his tapas menu to some of its pubs.
“It could act as a perfect bolt-on business for someone who has just taken on a pub and doesn’t have much cooking experience,” he believes. “The work is in the building of the recipes — training people how to cook them is the easy part.”
British tapas
In contrast to the Millstone, Lancashire pub — the Cricketers, in Ormskirk — has put an entirely local spin on its tapas.
Its five-strong list includes: Bury black pudding fritters, with wholegrain mustard mayo dip; mini jam jar-potted Morecambe Bay shrimp with toasted brown bloomer; and Goosenargh duck croquette. Customers can buy four dishes for £10.
Deputy manager Robert Smith’s biggest advice is to proportion the tapas to the size of the group.
“Obviously you can’t do it all of the time, but if say, three people are sharing the tapas, we’ll try and put a divisible number of items in each dish,” he explains.
Pork platter
Another pub making the most of local fare for sharing purposes is the British Larder, in Bromeswell, Suffolk.
A stone’s throw away from the farm that the dish gets its name from, the pub’s Dingley Dell pork sharing platter includes the winning egg from last year’s Scotch Egg challenge, which is held every year at the Ship, in Wandsworth, London. The egg is now sold in Selfridges.
“The dish is probably one of our best-sellers,” says Ross Pike, who runs the pub with co-chef Madalene Bonvini-Hamel. “It was a no-brainer for us to capitalise on being so close the farm, and it serves as a great sharing occasion at both lunchtimes and evenings.”
Cocktail matching dishes at TwoRuba
Some outlets have gone so far as to match their sharing dishes with drinks.
The TwoRuba bar, by London’s Tower Bridge, offers its own TwoRuba Taster, which pairs sharing dishes with cocktails that have common flavours.
One example is the French Fancy cocktail. Made with Calvados, lemon juice, Canadian maple syrup, and egg white, the cocktail is said to be an ideal “sweet cream soda” accompaniment to foie gras on toast.
“Our customers love to experience the pairing of delicious bites with cocktails that share common flavours,” says food and beverage manager James Ross. “Generally, sharing food keeps the offer interesting and customers can try a little bit of everything they like.
“It also limits any waiting time for starters, mains and desserts, as everything comes at once,” he adds.
Sharing food for special occasions
Occasions such as sporting events and Christmas present ideal opportunities to create sharing dish specials.
Owned by the New Moon Pub Company, the Lord Binning, in Kelsall, Cheshire, recently added a sausage-based sharing ‘plank’ as a special to coincide with an England rugby match.
“There were five different types of sausage on the plank, and it went down a treat with the rugby fans,” says co-owner Dave Mooney. “We also recently did a mini-pie plank at the Old Sessions House, in Knutsford, Cheshire – and that was equally popular.”
With Christmas on the horizon, Mooney believes seasonal sharing dishes are ideal for groups of people wanting to get into the festive spirit, but not be quite prepared for a full Turkey roast.
The company’s Christmas plank features gunpowder-smoked salmon, pub pâté, handmade pork pie, Cheshire cheese, carved turkey breast, stuffing, chipolatas, rum-soaked Christmas cake, and house bread and butter for £16.95.
“People tend to stay in the pub for longer in the run-up to Christmas, so the plank will be ideal for those who want a nibble while they are there,” he explains.