Craft Talk - New Licensing laws

Craft Guild of Chefs member Paul Morgan believes the new licensing laws, where pubs can apply to open around the clock, will offer some pubs new food-sales opportunities and will allow his customers to stay on longer after dinner

My honest opinion is that, for a local country pub like mine where the only passing trade at 2am is an owl, the 24-hour licensing laws provide little opportunity to grow food sales. For the larger town pubs there are some opportunities to take advantage of, for example, by opening for breakfast in the mornings. Pubs can also mop up some of the trade available when other pubs and clubs kick out in the evening by offering token food like hot dogs and burgers, things that can be easily prepared and served without the need for a chef, or even a kitchen. But be warned - if you are going to compete with the kebab shop on the corner, you will have to compete on price as well, if this is going to be a success.

On the whole, for pubs serious about food, nothing is really going to change. We're not like European consumers who go out at 11pm expecting to eat at midnight. In this country, 9pm is about the latest we will book a table for. And this isn't going to change all of a sudden. What it does mean, however, is that we don't have to kick customers out of the restaurant at 11.30pm anymore, which means they can stay on for a few more drinks.

I certainly don't think we will see pubs serving food 24 hours a day because it just won't be viable. It will mean three chefs, at least, working shifts, and extra waiting staff and cleaners. Food pubs would have to increase trade considerably to compensate for all these added costs and I just can't see them doing it. It presents further problems like having cash on the premises all day and night.

Remember that opportunities existed to grow food sales before the new laws came into play.

Paul Morgan is the proprietor of the Shears Inn at Collingbourne Ducis, in Wiltshire