Proving the brewery wrong

Related tags Crooked billet Public house Bangers and mash

When Paul Clerehugh took on the Crooked Billet in Stoke Row, Oxfordshire, the pub was on its knees, but he's made it a £1m turnover outlet by dint of sheer hard work, sticking to basics and listening to his locals

How I got here

I was in a punk rock band with John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett as their base guitarist. I adored it but couldn't earn the living I wanted to from it. I had worked in pubs and restaurants all my life doing things like washing up in school holidays. I went in to the Crooked Billet when I was 23 on 11 December 1989. I went to the bank manager and they refused to lend me money, quite rightly pointing out my lack of experience. I got the dosh from another bank telling them it was to buy a car. I took the Crooked Billet because it was the cheapest place in the south east of England. It was run down and I got the lease for £8,500. It was taking £500 a week and did no food, not even a pickled egg.

How I turned things around

It really was on its knees and I think Brakspears gave it to me knowing that I would fail and then they could go for change of use to residential.

I was young and had no experience. But I made a go of it and I don't think there is any scientific marketing or promotional science. We have just done it the old fashioned way. Worked really hard to get things good and right.

We still have gravity beer straight from the cask in the beer cellar and no bar and are really proud of that. I suspect we are probably one of the busiest pubs in Britain now, with turnover of more than £1m.

My tips on pub food

1. Keep it simple - Don't muck around with things too much. If I am going to a pub, what do I want to eat? Fish and chips, a nice grilled chicken salad, a sandwich, a bowl of soup, steak, jacket potato - give them pub food at whatever level you are doing it.

2. Price - By all means be a bit posh with the food and maybe on a Saturday night have a special that is expensive. But if I am going to a pub on a Tuesday lunchtime I don't want to be spending £20 on a main course. Preferably I want change from £5 or at the most £10. I actually work to low GPs I'm ashamed to say, but I make sure I can make the profit I need while offering good quality food at affordable prices.

3. Menu - Never let a chef write your menu - let your guests do it. Speak to them round the bar and ask them what they fancy for lunch next week? Don't ask the chef - he'll have something like pan fried mullet, crispy couscous and tangerine jus. When I write a menu I think, what do people want to see? Chicken, steak, chips, garlic mushrooms - its easy to do. Put on what the human race wants to eat. Who on earth really wants to eat smoky-bacon ice cream or nitrogen-gassed fruits?

4. Local food - Be sensible. Don't knacker your menu by putting something on it that's local but not that good. I think we have become too pedantic about it. We have a sign on the front door saying we will swap local produce for dinner. It is not quite the good life, though, as the VAT man and Environmental Health raise questions. The Crooked Billet now has its own farm and we are pretty well self-sufficient in beef and completely in lamb, hogget and mutton.

The best idea I stole

Bangers and mash. I deserve a medal from the sausage marketing board for single-handedly putting sausages back on the culinary map. The beautiful Kate Winslet held her wedding here. We got talking about what she wanted and we had lobster to start with and medallions of beef with foie gras and red wine jus and sautéed wild mushrooms. I said hang on that is what your guests will expect, why don't we take it right back. So we had bangers and mash and red onion gravy followed by Bakewell tart and custard.

She didn't sell the story so there was just one photo of the wedding - her standing in the doorway to the Crooked Billet. It was on the front page of every single Sunday newspaper. Bangers and mash have done me very well.

My music nights

One bit of marketing we do is to have a mailing list. I have a database and keep 2,000 addresses and trim it every year so I can keep in touch with them. I can't believe some of my nutter colleagues have music on the busiest night of the week. Its Saturday night and if you can't be busy don't run a pub. Do it on a dead night.

We keep the nights very eclectic so we don't become known as a punk pub, blues or a Mozart pub.

For the better artists, and we have had some good ones, we charge a £10 cover charge for their fee. Sometimes they donate that to charity. We had George Harrison play here and asked for sealed donations for a charity.

My training programme

We have a very structured training programme. We have evolved our own manual over the years but also managers take responsibility for training those below them. I still train most of the kitchen staff.

Also, my right-hand person and general manager of the Crooked Billet, Louise Jackson, is a sommelier. There is a vineyard close by which has a conference room where she trains our staff and staff from other restaurants and pubs. I have no problem at all in taking money from other licensees to train their staff. The revenue from the wine school provides a lot of extra money for our own training.

We used to do health-and-safety training ourselves, but it has become too much now and we use a consultant.

My tips for new licensees

1. Lifestyle - The only way it works is to look at your job as your life. If I looked on it as a job I couldn't do it, as it's completely self consuming.

2. Stick at it - If you do anything long enough, no matter how mediocre you are, you will be legendary. Just stick at it.

4. Keep good records - If you give beer away or waste some or whatever, write it down. Keep on top of your paperwork.

5. Rent - Every rent review I have had, has ended in arbitration. Never take the rent your pubco insist you pay them as gospel. Take professional advice. Even if you save a little it saves it being amplified further next time. My rent is five times the level it was in 1989.

6. Photo - Get a bloody good photo of your pub and send it to people. Ours ended up on the cover of The Good Pub Guide one year.

My plans for the future

I am looking to take on my third venue - I have also run the London Street Brasserie in Reading since 1999 - which is another pub. I think I would be stupid not to have something up my sleeve. It would mean taking my eye off the Crooked Billet a little, but I have a bloody good team there.

My Money

Paul Clerehugh, Crooked Billet, Stoke Row, Oxfordshire

Proving the brewery wrong

**PICS: Paul Clerehugh in bin. Pub pic on library no. 29553**

My Pub

Lease: Brakspears 15 years

Turnover in 1989: £26,000

Turnover now: £1m

GP on beer: 50%

GP on food: 50%

Staff: 26, 13 full-time

Wage bill: 30%