Fresh inspiration

You've got the pub, the staff, the food and the drink: what else can you do to create a gastro goldmine? Jo Bruce, Max Gosney and John Harrington offer some ideas

Takeaway service

The owners of Michelin-starred pub the Olive Branch in Clipsham, Rutland, operate a takeaway service, delivering dishes available on the pub's menu to customers' homes.

The team at the Olive Branch and its sister pub, the Red Lion Inn in Stathern, deliver pre-cooked dishes so that all their customers have to do is follow the instructions to heat the dish up. Typical warming-up time is 15 minutes.

Customers can also pick up takeaway meals from the outlet.

Marcus Welford, a director of the Rutland Inn Company, which owns the pubs, says: "The service is very popular. It's a cheaper way for customers to enjoy the pub's food and ensure they get quality."

The pub's team will also prepare dishes in a customer's kitchen as part of a dinner party service. One of the pub's chefs will make a personal visit to the customer's home and cook a meal for them ­ and the pub even supplies a waitress. It has also extended this service to weddings, with prices varying from around £11 to £23 per head. A sample menu includes a starter of chicken liver and foie gras parfait; a main of braised shoulder of lamb, ratatouille & herb crust, gratin potato; and dessert of vanilla pannacotta and balsamic strawberries. The pub has also branched out into supplying hampers for customers who are going to the races or want a hassle-free picnic.

Food themes

Focusing on one particular style of food at your pub can prove a hit with customers.

Nava Thai at the Hamilton Arms in Stedham, West Sussex, looks like a classic English village pub from the outside. But Bangkok and Kashmir born licensees Mudita and Suhail Hussain have introduced an Asian-style ambience and menu to the 75-cover pub. The duo bought the pub as a freehold 15 years ago. The venue is split into a bar area serving casual Thai dishes such as Thai tit bits, a blend of dim-sum (£7.75), and a more formal restaurant with dishes such as Chu Chi Gung (dried prawn curry with coconut milk).

Mudita Hussain says: "I taste the food and it must be authentic. A lot of Thai restaurateurs add English ingredients like carrots to dishes for colour. Some of our customers who have visited Thailand comment that our food is more traditional than the things the ate out there!"

A focus on French food has proved good for business at the Half Moon at Cuxham in Oxfordshire.

Limousin-born chef/proprietor Alain Madoui, formerly of the Mirabelle restaurant in, Mayfair, London, refurbished the fire damaged Half Moon as a classic French bistro three years ago.

Sourcing cheeses, meats and breads from Calais in France, the chef pioneered a Gallic-inspired menu at the Brakspear-owned pub.

Sample dishes includes duck's liver and wild mushrooms wrapped in filo pastry, red wine & truffle sauce (£7.80) and calf's liver with sage and white wine sauce (£17.50).

Madoui says: "When I first took over some locals said I was far too expensive. But I source high quality ingredients and I think that many of my diners now realise they are paying for premium French cuisine."

The pub has an average spend per head of £50 to £70.

Placing a big focus on a specific dish can also prove a winner with customers.

At the Cock at Hemingford Grey in Cambridgeshire, sausages are something of a speciality and customers can choose from a selection of over five types of sausage and four types of mash.

Cookery school

If you have got a talented chef then why not bring them out of the kitchen to help boost your profits?

Chef cookery days are helping bring in extra week-day daytime trade at several UK pubs.

Massive Pub Company hosts "Learn with Laurent" cookery days with executive chef Laurent Malnuit at its L'Auberge at the Onslow Arms in West Clandon, Surrey.

Customers pay £50 for a cookery demonstration with Laurent and athree-course meal.

A cookery school is helping Sherri Singleton, proprietor of the Mistley Thorn in Mistley, Essex, perk-up profits.

The Californian-born chef runs cooking classes from a former bed and breakfast opposite the pub in Mistley.

Masterclasses in Spanish, Italian, vegetarian and Indian cooking are available at £50 to £70.

Singleton says: "The classes are for 14 and its just about learning and having fun. We do a couple of active workshops and also do some food tastings."

She also invites aspiring chefs to sample dishes from the pub's menu during lunch breaks. "While the bread is rising we'll bring everyone over to the pub for lunch. It's a fantastic way of promoting the business and we often have people attending the course staying in accommodation at the Mistley Thorn."

Farmers' markets

With more and more pub chefs sourcing fresh produce from local suppliers, it seems only natural for gastro pubs to expand their business by holding their own local produce markets.

Farmers selling their produce at markets is hardly a new concept and there are now more than 500 of them throughout Britain. Somerset pub, the Canal Inn, was one of the first pubs to get involved with this and it now holds a monthly produce market in the bar, or outside when the weather allows. The Canal Inn's produce market features between 10 and 20 stalls offering local meats, fruit and vegetables, cakes, bread, honey, eggs, pickles and preserves and cider. These Saturday morning markets have proved successful, with people making a special journey to the pub to buy produce, and often staying for a drink or lunch.

Old favourites

The best of British is the theme for a sharing platter devised by Michelin-starred chef Phil Vickery.

The Ready Steady Cook chef aims to introduce a selection of English anti pasti to his King of Prussia pub at Farnham Royal in Berkshire later this year.

Vickery says: "This country has some superb foods and I've always wanted to do a mix of English favourites like pork pies, piccalilli, smoked mackerel and local cheese."

He also plans to promote another national favourite on the 80-cover pub's desserts menu. "I've discovered a superb ice-cream producer and am going to offer a combination of varieties to share. We're having customised boards with six holes, one for each scoop of ice cream, manufactured at the moment."

Guinea pig night

Don't worry this is not a trendy new ingredient but a novel way of doing some market research and making money.

Food sales at the Shibden Mill Inn at Shibden, near Halifax, have rocketed since the introduction of its guinea pig nights.

The promotion is held twice monthly, with a blind set menu being offered to customers who pay £14 for a three-course meal.

Customers don't know what they are eating for each course until it is served.

"It's absolutely flying. It is a really good money spinner," says licensee Glen Pearson, who also runs the same deal at his other pub, the Bull in Broughton, near Skipton.

The promotion, which was the brainchild of assistant manager Ian Blenkinsop, was launched around 18 months ago.

It was originally intended to boost sales on quiet weekday evenings and to test new dishes. But the deal became so popular that in December the amount of covers for the event were increased from 70 to 120, with more space for guinea pig customers created in the bar.

Pearson also increased the price of the offer from £12 to £14, with £1 now going to charity.

Some intriguing dishes feature on guinea pig night menus and customers reactions to dishes are gauged from a questionnaire which they complete during the meal.

Pearson says: "From these questionnaires we can see what is a real winner, and maybe try it on the main menu."

Items that have made the transition to the main menu include Thai chicken soup, chocolate rum cake and elderflower pannequets.

Pearson added: "Customers are really getting into the sp