Focus on Grill Rooms: the flame game

Provenance Inns and Hotels recently launched a new steakhouse and grill concept at the Oak Tree Inn, in Helperby, North Yorkshire, installing a two-tonne, 400 degree wood burning oven at the site to produce a variety of chargrilled meat, fish and seafood.

“I’ve always believed that good food does not have to be complicated,” says Michael Ibbotson, MD and co-founder of Provenance Inns and Hotels. “Our aim is to produce a high quality, consistent product that we can deliver at speed that also produces a good rate of return.”

But, Ibbotson says, whilst provenance is at the heart of his concept, operators could do with a reminder that just because food is locally sourced does not guarantee its quality.

“There’s nothing downmarket about the offering and it fits in with a busy British pub atmosphere.”

He claims procuring good quality meat is fundamental. “The beef is very important,” he says. “Not just the type but the cuts. As well as fillet, rump and sirloin our butchers produce cuts like tomahawk that aren’t so typically popular.”

One of the biggest benefits of running a grill room is that it is considerably less labour intensive than a traditional kitchen, but hiring the right chefs with appropriate skills is still necessary. Ibbotson adds: “Those ovens can cremate things quicker than a frying pan.”

“Training, service and delivery are so important,” he says. “[Running a grill room] is not a gimmick – times are changing and people want to eat really well, really fast.

“If you can take a rump steak and serve it with really good homemade chips and béarnaise sauce and still make 65% GP then that to me is fantastic. It produces a good dynamic.”

He says his top tip for licensees planning a similar venture would be to do their research, planning every aspect of the business “from top to bottom”.

Experimentation​

The team at private lease the Talbot Inn, in Mells, Somerset, had a self-designed, Argentinian-style barbecue installed in the site’s function space when they acquired the pub.

“It’s been fantastic,” says Matt Greenlees, general manager of the Talbot Inn. “But there are always issues with having what is essentially an indoor barbecue.

“We had a bit of a trial and error period, experimenting with different wood and charcoal mixes and working out the right amount of extraction - you don’t want to get too much smoke out because it’s all part of the dining experience and customers want to smell the smoke coming off the grill.”

Diner engagement​

The Talbot Inn’s grill room only opens on weekends, but Greenlees says it has become a major attraction and a talking point for customers.

“Quite often if [the grill room] is full customers won’t go and sit in the pub because they specifically wanted the grill,” he says, adding that the social and theatrical aspect of the grill room has helped boost business by allowing chefs to engage with diners.

“It’s all open plan and we really encourage the chefs to get out there and work the tables,” he says.

The top selling product from the Talbot Inn’s grill is an aged back rib steak sourced from a small local supplier. “We wanted to dumb down the menu,” he says. “Take a good product and don’t mess around with it so the customer gets a simple but really tasty meal.”

Greenlees asserts that sticking to your guns in the face of implementing a potentially overwhelming operation is fundamental to success as well as taking advantage of customers seeing a grilled dinner as a treat. “People use it as a special occasion,” he says. “But don’t get drawn into putting menu items on the menu you probably wouldn’t have otherwise done so.”

He says profit margins from the grill are in line with industry standards, coming in at roughly 69%.

Investing in quality​

At West Yorkshire freehold the Shibden Mill Inn, owner Simon Heaton has turned a largely un-used upstairs weekend restaurant into a thriving grill room open four days a week, serving a specialist grill menu produced by a team of eight chefs.

Serving roughly 50-60 covers per day, the Shibden Mill Inn’s grill team use a £10,000 Kopa Chargrill oven to produce dishes such as Yorkshire pork cutlet, butter potatoes with a crispy duck egg and pineapple chutney, handpicked East Coast crab with burnt lime and crab sticks and peppered tuna steak with sticky rice, chilli, bean sprouts and coriander.

“It’s a fashionable concept and there aren’t many other [grill rooms] around here so we thought we should just go for it,” says Heaton. “We wanted to offer something different – we retrained some existing staff and also took on some new ones.”

On a particularly busy day the grill room alone can require 10 front-of-house staff and up to seven chefs on shift to ensure good service.

Heaton says being prepared to invest in quality is fundamental when running an operation like his. “Check out the local competition and be prepared to invest in quality equipment, produce, glass and tableware” he says. “Be patient in building up the new venture – and make sure dishes have some ‘theatre’ about the way they are presented.”

Heaton’s chefs also produce a range of sharing dishes, including the daunting Yorkshire Grill; rump steak, lamb cutlet, handmade sausage, cured gammon, black pudding and fried duck egg with garlic mushrooms, vine tomatoes and fat chips.

“We’ve had a very positive response from customers,” he says. “It’s been very busy – we have 11 bedrooms as well so we get a lot of people using it for business. We’ve done a lot of marketing and PR to get it off the ground.”

Profit margins for the pub’s grill room run at roughly 70% GP, with various measures in place to ensure they remain at this level.

“Our chef is tasked and his bonus depends on maintaining margin by buying correctly, minimising waste and using any leftover stock on our downstairs á la carte menu,” he says. “We also employ an independent monthly stock taker as an extra check.

“You got to keep at it, don’t you? And you have to get the steaks right. There are good steaks and there are bad steaks and if you do steak wrong you can expect serious complaints.”

Steak trends​

Steak is the undeniable king of the grill room, reflected in consistently high demand for it amongst customers despite its typically higher price tag.

So why limit yourself to rump, fillet and sirloin when there are a host of other cuts becoming significantly more popular amongst trend conscious carnivores?

“Those really trying to do [steak] now are moving away from the typical rib eye,” says Hugh Judd, foodservice project manager at Eblex. “I think the key thing is that people want to try a variety of different cuts.”

Sirloin on the bone is a prime example of this. “It’s a real American standard,” he says. “You get excellent plate coverage and the taste is exceptional.

“We’re also seeing much bigger animals leading to bigger strip loins, which can be split into sirloin cannons. Take the fat and gristle off a sirloin cannon and you end up with these cuts that look like fillets and make for absolutely stunning eating.

“The other thing we’ve seen growth in is secondary steaks and the premiumisation of the rump – growth in alternative cuts that require a bit more work but if butchered right will eat really well. The flatiron steak (cut from the shoulder and otherwise known as butlers’ steak or oyster blade steak) has been a phenomenal success.”

Onglet steaks, which are technically classed as offal, cóte de beuf and bavet “minute” steaks used traditionally in Parisian cafes are also seeing greater interest.

Beef prices​

Judd says operators shouldn’t fear a potential rise in beef prices due to lower supply this year. “I do not see beef prices going down but there is a lot of scaremongering,” he says. “That’s rubbish – the global demand has never been higher.

“Really good beef will always command a high price and it’s up to operators to decide what they want.”