News

£1.5m gastro-led refurbishment for York pub

08-Sep-2015 By Nicholas Robinson

More than £1.5m will be pumped into a former Punch Tavern pub’s kitchen and dining area, following its new owner’s plans to raise its reputation as a gastropub, creating 10 new jobs.

Vegetarian food in pubs set to rise

07-Sep-2015 By Nicholas Robinson

Vegetarian and vegan food will become more mainstream, a new report has claimed, following statistics showing meat-free food accounted for 31% of new dishes on UK menus.

Chef Shortage

Great British Menu star Dom Chapman: "I want a civilised bunch of chefs in the kitchen"

07-Sep-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

Training from the grass roots up and nurturing talent is fundamental to combatting the chef shortage, according to BBC2 Great British Menu star Dominic Chapman, chef patron of the Beehive, White Waltham.

M&B brand Toby Carvery to attempt roast dinner world record

07-Sep-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

Mitchells & Butlers brand Toby Carvery is attempting a Guinness World Record for the largest photo album of roast dinners.

DIGITAL FEATURE

Hail to the chef

03-Sep-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

Whether you’re an established restaurateur looking for the next step or a dedicated upstart wanting to make a name for yourself, taking on a pub is no minor feat. In this exclusive feature, Daniel Woolfson looks at the particular challenges faced by chef-patrons...

Menu trends

Number of new vegetarian menu items rises whilst number of beef dishes drop

02-Sep-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

Vegetarian dishes now account for 31% of new menu items across the eating-out sector, up from 18% last year, according to M&C Allegra Foodservice’s New Menu Item Analysis report.

VAT campaign

VAT Club proposes staggered tax reduction

02-Sep-2015 By Mark Wingett, M&C Allegra Foodservice

The hospitality VAT cut campaign has put forward a plan to the Government for a staggered reduction in the level of the tax for hospitality businesses.

FSA releases new proposals for serving rare burgers

28-Aug-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has published the details of a proposed approach to the preparation and serving of rare burgers in food businesses.

Consumer trends

London diners want more healthy options when eating out, claims new survey

26-Aug-2015 By M&C Allegra Foodservice

Customers in London are twice as likely to be motivated to eat out by the desire for a light or healthy meal than those in the rest of the UK.

Freemasons at Wiswell tops Good Food Guide’s Top 50 Pubs 2016

26-Aug-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

The Freemasons at Wiswell, Lancashire, has come top of the Good Food Guide's Top 50 Pubs for the second year in a row.

Chef recruitment crisis

Could training prison inmates help solve the chef shortage?

26-Aug-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

Training convicts in chef skills could help solve combat the critical shortage of skilled chefs affecting the hospitality industry.

Urban Pubs & Bars to launch new pizza concept in Hackney

21-Aug-2015 By Mark Wingett, M&C Report

Urban Pubs & Bars, the group led by Realpubs founders Nick Pring and Malcom Heap, is to launch a new pizza concept in London’s Hackney.

New opening

Second site for Southwark licensee

21-Aug-2015 By Ruth Williams, M&C Report

Publican Jim Banks has opened his second London pub - The Grove at Battersea – as an eclectic family-friendly bar.

We Want Plates founder: bad presentation in pubs is "epidemic"

21-Aug-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

Pubs are by far the worst culprits when it comes to bad presentation of food, according to We Want Plates founder Ross McGinnes.

Chef recruitment crisis

“Fancy chefs don’t want to drop down to our level” - top London pub chef talks chef shortage

21-Aug-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

The current shortage of skilled chefs and the problems caused by it are “never ending”, according to Jesse Dunford-Wood, chef patron of Parlour, in Kensal Green, London.

Chef Recruitment Crisis

Industry will need 11,000 new chefs by 2022 to combat chef shortage

17-Aug-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

The hospitality industry will need to recruit an additional 11,000 chefs by 2022, according to workforce development charity People 1st.

Street Food

The Cat & Mutton to host Mother Clucker pop-up residency

17-Aug-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

Southern-style fried chicken pop-up traders Mother Clucker are set to take over the kitchen at Columbo Group site the Cat & Mutton, in Hackney, East London.

MY PUB

My Pub: the Gloucester Old Spot, Bristol

17-Aug-2015 By Michelle Perrett

Amy Devenish had been running the Gloucester Old Spot in Bristol for less than a year when she won the top accolade at the Bristol Good Food Awards 2015 for Best Pub Food. Michelle Perrett reports.

From coast to capital: the Cornwall Project at the Newman Arms, Fitzrovia

14-Aug-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

The Newman Arms, on Fitzrovia’s Rathbone Street, doesn't exactly look like a critic-wowing food pub. The inconspicuous free house is steeped in the history of the city, reportedly serving as the inspiration for the “Proles’ Pub” in George Orwell’s...

SMALL TALK

Daniel Clifford on new pub The Flitch of Bacon and Great British Menu

14-Aug-2015 By Emma Eversham

Daniel Clifford, chef-patron of the two Michelin-starred Midsummer House, speaks exclusively to Big Hospitality about returning to Great British Menu and opening his own pub, the Flitch of Bacon, in Essex.

Careers

Greene King reaches apprenticeship milestone

13-Aug-2015 By James Wallin, M&C Allegra Foodservice

Greene King has recruited its 1,000th apprentice this year, putting the company ahead of schedule in its pledge to recruit 2,000 apprentices in the year to March 2016.

Pub sales flat as public 'benefit from greater choice'

13-Aug-2015 By James Wallin, M&C Allegra Foodservice

Restaurants recorded like-for-like growth of 4.3% in July but pubs remained essentially flat, according to the latest Coffer Peach Business Tracker.

GBM

Great British Menu 2015: Kingham Plough chef makes surprise appearance

11-Aug-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

Emily Watkins, chef patron of the Kingham Plough, Oxfordshire, made a surprise appearance on this week’s episode of BBC2’s Great British Menu as a veteran judge.

Operator Profile

VIDEO: Dylan Murray, Drake & Morgan

10-Aug-2015 By PubFood

The group's operations director talks pushing breakfast and the benefits of an all-day menu.

Why more chefs are heading to the pub

05-Aug-2015 By Joe Lutrario

A new wave of chefs are moving into the pub sector as restaurant sites – particularly those in central London – become both prohibitively expensive and difficult to get hold of, writes Joe Lutrario in the August issue of Restaurant magazine.

More than 60% of diners want technology to play a bigger role

05-Aug-2015 By Emily Sutherland

Almost two thirds of diners (61%) think technology could play a bigger role in eating out, according to research by online restaurants, according to research by online restaurant booking service OpenTable.

Yorkshire licensee giving away 21,600 chicken drumsticks to raise money for cancer charity

03-Aug-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

A Yorkshire publican is giving away 21,600 chicken drummers to set up local ‘Man vs Food’ events in an effort to raise money for cancer support.

Oxfordshire pub named Good Food Guide's Readers' Restaurant of the Year 2016

31-Jul-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

An Oxfordshire pub has been named Readers’ Restaurant of the Year 2016 by the Good Food Guide.

Menu Marketing

Mark McCulloch: "a brand is a promise delivered"

31-Jul-2015 By Mark McCulloch

What does the word brand mean to you? Is it a badge, a logo, a name, a colour or a collection of these? For me it is something that runs much much deeper and the best way that I have heard it described is that ‘brand is a promise delivered’.

City news

Directors exit as Geronimo Inns restructures

28-Jul-2015 By Ruth Williams, MC Allegra FS

Stalwart Ed Turner leaves along with ops director Mark Ashley.

Sawday’s Pub Awards 2015: the winners

27-Jul-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

The latest edition of Sawday’s Special Places: Pubs & Inns will hit bookshelves on August 3, featuring a comprehensive guide to over 1,000 of the country’s pubs as well as the winners of Sawday’s Pub Awards 2015/16.

Young's rolls out Burger Shack at three London sites

27-Jul-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

Young’s has launched its Burger Shack concept across three of its London pubs.

JOIN THE PUB BRIGADE

Video: Emily Watkins of the Kingham Plough on hiring chefs

22-Jul-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

Watkins, chef patron of the Kingham Plough, Oxfordshire, says the problem is industry-wide.

JOIN THE PUB BRIGADE

Video: Andrew Fishwick of the Truscott Arms, London, on the living wage

22-Jul-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

The award winning owner of Maida Vale pub the Truscott Arms speaks on the benefits of paying staff a living wage and how it has affected retention and staff morale.

Join the pub brigade

Chef recruitment may be a thorn in the sector's side, but the industry is striving for change

22-Jul-2015 By Daniel Woolfson

The eating-out sector has fared enormously well since the end of the recession. In pubs, we’ve seen a food renaissance, with chefs across the industry pushing the boundaries of casual dining and a number of sites gaining coveted Michelin stars.