Ways and means

By Fiona McLelland

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Head chef King pub partners Peach pub company Pickling

Pubs all round the country are using simple - but effective - methods to generate extra income. Fiona McLelland looks at some of the ideas that could...

Pubs all round the country are using simple - but effective - methods to generate extra income. Fiona McLelland looks at some of the ideas that could work for you

Late-night delivery to office workers

Where:​ The Punch Tavern, 99 Fleet Street, London EC4

How it works:​ The Punch Tavern has been developing its food business for a couple of years. Besides a menu for sit-in or take-away meals the pub also delivers sandwich platters and appetisers to business meetings, does outside catering and makes up picnic baskets in the summer.

Now its latest development comes to the rescue of peckish city folk who are working late.

Anyone working within a five-minute walk of the pub can phone in an order from the menu, which includes: 7oz cheese burger with Emmental, tomato, lettuce and chips (£5.95); sirloin steak with pepper sauce and chips (£8.95), and sausage and mash with onion gravy (£5.95).

Whoever has two minutes to spare, whether it's joint partner Sunnil Panjabi or a member of the kitchen or bar staff, will deliver the meal to the office as late as 10pm.

'We'll page you when your picnic's ready'

Where:​ The Fishes, North Hinksey, Oxford

How it works:​ The Peach Pub Company, the new operator of the Fishes, a Greene King Pub Partners inn, is encouraging customers to make full use of its two-acre riverside garden by offering picnic hampers filled with a choice of food.

General manager Natalie Langman says: "The hampers are the brainchild of head chef Corin Earland, who, along with his staff, takes great pride in personally handing over each well-presented wicker basket crammed with plastic deli pots and wax boxes full of tasty food."

Customers choose their hamper at the bar while ordering drinks. They are given a pager and told to wander out to the garden to find a nice spot and wait. Once alerted they return to the pub, hand back the pager and collect their hamper.

The picnic menu comprises numerous deli items, including cheese, cold cuts, fish, pickles, dips, fresh fruit and a selection of breads. Items start from £1.50 and customers can spend as much or as little as they want, for any number of people.

Funny business

Where:​ The White Hart, Stockport Road, Lydgate, Oldham, Lancashire

How it works:​ The White Hart at Lydgate is packing them in for its popular "buffet and buffoonery" comedy nights.

Executive chef John Rudden - PubChef's Pub Chef of the Year 2006 - and restaurateur Charles Brierley built an extension to the pub last year to add a function room, the Oak Room.

They have teamed up with promoter Boss Comedy to stage a comedy night in the Oak Room on the first Thursday of every month from April to November, except July and August.

The main-course buffet followed by comedy costs £15.50 per person. In December there are additional nights with a disco until 1am for £25.00.

MC Alex Boardman, introduced Steve Gribbin and Australian Steve Hughes at this year's inaugural event last month.

Get into a pickle - or two

Where:​ The Alma, 59 Newington Green Road, London N1

How it works:​ The Alma has launched a range of pickles and preserves, hand-made by its award-winning chefs, to be sold behind the bar.

The pickles and preserves range is the first step towards creating an entire range of in-house products and includes piccalilli, tomato chutney, pickled red cabbage, pickled cucumber and a Seville orange marmalade. The jars are sold at £2.50 for 250g and £3.50 for 400g.

Head chef and joint owner Caroline Hickman, who was the founding head chef of Britain's first organic pub, the Duke of Cambridge in London, devised the range based on the pickles and preserves served up with the Alma restaurant's modern British-influenced, home-style cooking.

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