My Pub: The Boot, Sarratt
The pub
When the pub became available we leapt at the chance, despite it being very dilapidated and in need of an awful lot of love.
We took over in September 2010 and came with a business plan. In our second year we bought the lease, in our third we built the new kitchen and extended the restaurant, and in our fourth we did the terrace. We have expanded and grown every year since.
We just get so excited, as soon as we finish one project we think about the next.
The pub has been refurbished several times, with new flooring the most recent addition.
It was easier to find trade than a few places we’ve had, as Nick had a good reputation for being a great chef in the area and I had grown up in the village, so knew pretty much all the local drinkers.
It was fairly easy to lure them in, we just had to get the restaurant going and popular.
The publicans
Zoe: Nick and I met 10 years go in a pub where he was working as head chef.
Being in the industry has always been a passion for us. With Nick in the kitchen and me out front, it works really well.
We managed the Teddington Arms, near Kingston, before taking on the Boot.
We pretty much went in and saved that as well. However, it was a bit too close to London for us, we wanted to get into the family market and there was no garden there.
Nick: With this being Zoe’s village, where her parents met in the ’70s and where she worked from the age of 16, it was the obvious choice.
There was so much scope and so much more we felt we could to do with it.
The Boot has always been a massive part of Zoe’s life; it was so nice to walk in and know the place, the feel and the kind of customers it had attracted in the past, and how we could improve on that and make it more family-orientated.
The trade
The trade is literally across the board. Since we’ve had the baby, Zoe has made a lot of mummy and baby friends, and a lot of new people have come on board from ante-natal classes.
The garden is aimed at the children, and we have a lot of dog and horsey customers as well.
The spectrum of the business is everything from toddlers to grand-parents, business people to WW2 veterans, there is no specific market. We would say families make up 70% of it, though.
The community also uses us for many things. For example, the local pantomime has its AGM here and we get very involved with the Women’s Institute because all the ladies swoon over Nick, for some reason.
We have carol singers every Christmas. The vicar even brought the Bishop for lunch recently, we felt very excited about that.
The team
We have 31 staff members, not including the university students who came back in July. It goes up to around 40 in the summer and at Christmas.
One of the things that makes us special is the way we treat our staff. This industry is renowned for having staff pop in, pop out. They don’t really care, they don’t see it as a career.
Our ambition is to get these young people in, who mainly live locally, and give them careers.
We want to make people feel proud of where they work.
It sounds so cheesy, but we are the Boot family. We work hard and we play hard as well. We try to make this a good environment to work in.
The food
The biggest market here is our family market, so obviously the children’s menu is very big.
Our children’s pizza parties are huge. We do tapas as well, for families to share.
It’s Mediterranean-themed, with French and Italian influences.
When in season, we use local shoots who come down with their game.
We try to keep to seasonal food as best we can, with the freshest ingredients.
Nick goes to Billingsgate fish market every three weeks. We get the freshest fish, from squid to sushi-grade tuna and sea bass to tiger prawns.
We try to keep our food fun as well, so it looks quirky and is beautifully presented.
We keep the traditional pub grub but step it up with our own twist. Our specials boards changes daily. That’s our opportunity to really shine and show people we are better than everyone else. We edge on fine dining.
We want to be different, we want to make dining with us a whole experience – not just going out for fish & chips and a burger.
We have some talented people working for us. People say ‘wow’ and take pictures of the food when it comes out – we are always looking to stay ahead of the game.
The drink
We serve everything because we are free of tie. The Paradigm Brewery opened in Sarrat two years ago and they brew our own beer for us, which we’ve named Bootylicious obviously.
We’ve just revamped our wine list as well. About a year and a half ago I decided that instead of just having a wine list, I wanted every wine to have a story – and that has increased wine sales massively.
It gets customers excited and adds to their whole experience of dining and drinking with us.
We don’t do cocktails, we are too busy, but our Pimm’s is not to be missed. We grow our own mint and berries and serve it in a large wine glass.
We also have a gardener who grows fruit and vegetables on site for the flavoured vodkas we do – we even had a chilli vodka once.
The events
Our biggest event is our annual charity day, which is enormous.
We try to do it for two charities at least. More than 2,000 people come down, you can’t see the grass, and we raise a couple of grand.
There’s a different theme each year. We started with Caribbean carnival, and we’ve done Heroes v Villains where we had Banana Man pitted against Darth Vader on the tug of war.
This year we are going to do Around The World.
The future
We are in the process of creating a toddler and infant area in the garden. We are hopefully going to get a parents and grandparents decking area opposite as well, so they can sit and watch their children play.
We are also going to create a disabled and elderly shelter next to the exit with a ramp and stairs, so they can sit and wait for anyone picking them up or bringing the car around.
We are also going to be creating an outside catering events company this year, which is something that was always part of the business plan, to take to venues and children’s parties.
