Trade Secrets - The Mole's Goals - The Mole Inn, Baldon, Oxfordshire

Nigel Huddleston talks to Gary Witchalls, chef patron at the Bib Gourmand Mole Inn at Toot Baldon, Oxfordshire

Location

I know it's a cliché but it's crucial. Before I decided to come here, I spent four solid days eating in local restaurants, looking at house prices and the types of cars that were driving around, even though I already had an idea that it was an affluent area. We've got a proximity to the business parks on the Oxford ring road. On the face of it, we're a very secluded rural location, but, in actual fact, we're close to major trunk roads and businesses. We're doing about 800 covers a week and it's not a big pub, and a lot of lunch trade is made up of business lunches. If you're a 30-

minute drive into the countryside you're going to suffer.

Front-of-house staff

Obviously you want them to be efficient and know their products, but the most important thing is personality.

When we were setting up I really wasn't bothered if they had any experience at all - with the exception of the restaurant manager - because I was employing personalities. The service can be trained into them, but not that. Because we wanted the environment to be very relaxed, it was important for customers to have friendly, smiley service staff the moment they walked in the door. A good restaurant manager is the one position that's key: they've got to be able to control that whole department and allow me to concentrate on the food and some of the bigger financial issues of the business. Good time management is crucial for them because

the window to do all the little things that need doing can be so small.

Investing in the business

If you're thinking of spending time and money on marketing, invest it in the product itself: equipment, staff, developing the food. Make sure what you're actually doing is right, because if you do, people will come anyway. We don't advertise but people will go away and recommend us to their friends and come back themselves. I'd rather improve the experience of coming here than pay for an advert that more

often than not ends up in the bin.

Good beer and wine

About 90% of people who come here do so to eat, so we only have two real ales and make sure they're really well kept and that the beer's in good condition. I'd like to have more but I'd end up chucking them away. With wines, you need a selection appropriate to what your customers want. We have a mixture of New World and French. I'd like to see some English wines on because there are some very good ones around. We had some wines in the £60-to-£70 bracket but we sold so few it wasn't worth having them. The main thing is

not to get greedy on the mark-up because it can kill the place. People resent paying a big mark-up just to have a cork pulled out.

First impressions

External and internal tidiness is very important but frequently neglected. It starts in the car park, making sure there's no litter. It's part of the opening-up procedures and it's as important to check that as it is to make sure

the bar's stocked up. By the time people get out of the car they're already won over. The toilets are especially important - they have to be clean and tidy and checked regularly.

Staff welfare

I can't emphasise this enough. It's imperative to keep staff happy because they'll stay. Aside from the costs of recruitment, it means you get continuity and consistency

from a customer's point of view. Pay a decent wage and, if they live in, make sure the accommodation is comfortable - give them a little treat occasionally as well. I don't pay over the top wages, but it is above the average for the industry. If we get a great review, I'll get everyone together and we'll have a drink. After New Year, we close for a Sunday evening, go to a nice restaurant in Oxford and then come back here for a party. And when they take their

holidays, I slip them a bit of spending money.

Quality produce

Offer a wide enough selection of homeproduced, seasonal dishes. Make use of as much local produce as possible. We use two local butchers so we've got total traceability on what we use. I want to support local businesses and them to support me, but I won't do it just for the sake of it. If what they were supplying wasn't up to scratch I wouldn't use it. If my butcher said he could get better quality Argentinian beef rib than the English stuff, I'd go with

it. Also, you should be cooking food for your customers, not just because it's what you like cooking as a chef.

Reasonable prices

It's so important not to over-price. I look for a set GP across the board. An external stocktaker gives an independent monthly account of our wet and dry profit and loss, and end GP. Most pubs probably don't, but it saves however many hours it takes to do a full stocktake and gives

an unbiased report on stock movement. The GP is around 70% on food and 65% on wet, and I'm not going to put prices up as long as we're making that. It's still a pub, and price

means a lot to people when they eat in a pub.

Chefs

For pubs that need to recruit a chef, their passion is really important. Cooking for me is not just a job, it's my life. A good temperament is also very important. Having a chef shouting and screaming and chucking pots around doesn't get you anywhere. I've probably done it myself in the past, but it achieves nothing, least of all harmony between the front of house and the kitchen. Here, there's no conflict

between the two - they get on. The front of house doesn't have a chef screaming at them about what they see as unreasonable requests from customers. There's no point in taking on a chef who's only cooked in two or three-star

Michelin restaurants and wants to do little fancy dishes, because it's not going to go down well in a pub. You need someone who will keep it simple and not let their own ego get in the way too much.