Football preview: Be on the ball
Offering food in your pub during football matches is a good idea, but it needs to be both quick and easy to eat and prepare - as Phil Mellows reports.
There is an assumption among many pubs that you can't show football and serve food at the same time. True, a three-course silver service meal does not sit well with the lively atmosphere at the screening of a big match, but the right kind of food can add to the occasion, give you an edge over the all-wet pub up the road and encourage customers to stay longer.
Footie food has to be easy to prepare, easy to serve and easy to eat. The hot dog, with its long association with sports events, is perhaps the epitome of the cuisine.
When Euro 2004 kicked its way onto the big screen Adrian Rose-Belcher and Sarah Metson, tenants at Greene King pub the King's Head in Great Cornard, Suffolk, saw food as an important value-added crowd puller.
"At the time, we didn't have a restaurant or bar menu, and therefore no kitchen staff," Adrian says. "The food needed to be straightforward enough for barstaff to cook and serve quickly with nominal training. We also wanted hand-held snacks so that customers could concentrate 100 per cent on the match."
So they trialled a community pub Herta Frankfurter package from Nestlé. At a cost of around 50 pence per hot dog, including roll and condiments, and a sell-on price in the pub of £1.80, it represented good profit margins while also fulfilling the "eatability" criteria Adrian and Sarah demanded.
Herta beermats and posters were put up throughout the pub to encourage the trial.
"We served the hot dogs at half-time and as soon as the first five customers were spotted with them others began ordering them as well," says Adrian.
The frankfurters take a minute to heat in boiling water - roller grills and microwaves are other options - and the pub was able to cook them to order.
"We didn't need to waste time defrosting them, nor did they take up valuable fridge space," Adrian explains. "We served everyone quite easily during half-time just by heating them in a pan of boiling water."
But if hot dogs are a little too trad for your clientele, there are plenty of exotic alternatives.
The Authentic Food Company is, for instance, targeting football pubs with its range of Indian foods, basing its strategy on the fact that spicy ethnic dishes are growing in popularity and go well with a beer.
Curry clubs and curry-and-a-pint deals are already proving successful in pubs, it points out, and could be tied in to match days, or you could offer a range of Indian snacks to be served at half-time.
Authentic has a couple of quickly prepared snack packages including things like lamb, chicken and vegetable samosas, onion bhajis, vegetable & spinach pakoras and sachets of pakora sauce for dipping.
Or you could go Mexican. Authentic offers a selection of soft flour tortilla-wrapped burritos in three varieties - chilli beef, chicken and cheese and vegetable and salsa - which can be cut into slices and served as a snack with guacamole and sour cream dips. They can be microwaved from frozen or defrosted and deep-fried to create chimichangas.
"On match days, pubs need to provide tasty and filling food that is quick and easy for chefs to prepare," says Nik Basran, group marketing manager at Authentic.
"The link between food and drink is key to boosting profits. Many outlets are looking to develop customised menus and today's consumers are opting for international foods that are a popular alternative to sandwiches to hit the spot on match days."
Pictured: Vegetable and salsa burritos
