Attract families

Mark Taylor continues our series with a look at how to encourage families to use your pub.

The Priory, Tetbury, Gloucestershire

As parents of young children, Tanya and Dave Kelly understand the problems families face when they eat out in pubs.

Since transforming the Priory into an award-winning gastropub with rooms, the Kellys have focused on making it family-friendly, with plenty on offer for youngsters. As well as a special family room and coffee bar, the pub also has an extensive children's menu, all of which is prepared on the premises.

Rather than serving the bought-in, frozen options considered fine for children in many pubs, the Priory's meals for youngsters are all home-made, healthy and prepared using fresh ingredients. The range of dishes available includes spaghetti with home-made Bolognese sauce, sausage and mash with carrots and peas and a fresh fruit bowl for pudding.

Tanya says: "As we have children ourselves, we understand families and we know what we want when we eat out with our children.

"One of our main priorities is a decent children's menu. Many people are opposed to kiddies' menus and think that children should just eat the same food as adults. However, we find that most children don't like this, so we offer them a high-quality kids' menu with

home-cooked, rather than frozen food.

"Another important issue to take into account is the speed of service. When a table of people place an order, we ask whether they would prefer their children's food to be served first as we know this can make a huge difference. You can see mums thinking 'Phew, they understand!' Prioritising service for children allows parents to feed their kids and then enjoy their own meal.

"It's also a good idea to offer some form of alternative entertainment, such as colouring books at the table or a toy box, to amuse children and distract them while their parents are eating.

"And of course, it's vital that the staff adopt the right service attitude towards families - otherwise they won't take advantage of any of these special facilities."

Home comforts

Mooli, an Italian bar and restaurant in Clapham, south-west London, has introduced an innovative service for parents and child-minders.

Customers dining at Mooli can send a Mooli pizza home for their children and child-minder. Parents can pre-order the pizza prior to dining and pay for it as part of their bill.

Three Tuns, Biddenham, Bedfordshire

With a non-smoking dining area, lounge bar and children's play area, the Three Tuns ticks the boxes as a family-friendly pub.

A Greene King tenancy, this thatched village pub west of Bedford boasts a large garden and decked terrace, allowing parents and staff to keep an eye on the children.

Tenant Kevin Bolwell says that attracting families is a growing part of his business, but it's a development that requires increasing attention.

He says: "Some parents don't supervise their children closely enough when they take them to pubs, so we have to keep safety in mind."

Kevin provides a safe, enclosed children's area and ensures that staff do regular checks.

"Of course, safety is not just our responsibility, but unfortunately parents often turn up at a pub with a garden, allow their kids to run off and play while they go to the bar - and before you know it, one of their kids has fallen out of a tree.

"We've developed our play area over the years and we're continually adding to it. It's quite an investment, but you don't have to spend a lot of money to entertain children.

"It's important that families know they can come and sit in the garden to have a meal while the kids find plenty to distract them. It's not about introducing a 'Hungry Horse' type of play area - it's about creating an environment for families, not just for children."

Kevin provides a short children's menu offering five items, all cooked on the premises.

He says: "Children shouldn't have to eat rubbish - it's essential that we serve smaller portions of proper, healthy home-cooked food.

"But personally, I don't think children should be allowed in bars. These days many pubs allow children to come in, but that isn't the right environment for them, or for adults who have gone there to relax away from their own children.

"It's a fine balance, but more families are visiting pubs - it's a growing part of our industry."

The Buck, Thornton Watlass, Yorkshire

Having grown up in her parents' pub, Jenny Fox is in a perfect position to comment on families' use of the Buck over the past 20 years.

The free house, still run by Michael and Margaret Fox, has a sheltered garden with a well-equipped play area, which Jenny used as a child.

She says: "It has always been popular. I was only allowed to play there when customers' children didn't want to use it!"

The Buck's children's menu of home-made dishes includes sausages from a local butcher, distinguishing it from pubs that buy- in children's dishes.

"More parents are aware that children should eat healthier food, especially since Jamie Oliver's school dinners campaign,so offering home-cooked children's meals does make a difference," she says.

Woodman, Chapmore End, Hertfordshire

Since taking over the Woodman five years ago, Greene King tenants Danny Davis and Alex Yates have made an extra effort to attract families.

The Victorian pub has a large, fenced play area and the special added attraction of pet rabbits. While the Woodman has no specific children's menu, the kitchen happily offers children's portions of all the pub's main meals and sandwiches.

Danny Davis says: "When we arrived, the pub's garden was not child-friendly, so we extended it, adding an enclosed, safe play area.

"Many places have play areas next to main roads, but when I take my children to a pub I want to be able to relax in the garden and let them get on with whatever they want to do, without worrying. Being parents of young children ourselves helps us become aware of children's needs.

"It's also important to make sure that people who go to a pub to get away from children aren't put off by having them around.

"It's important to strike the right balance."

Old Inn, Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Dartmoor, Devon

The Old Inn's stunning location, in the middle of Dartmoor National Park, attracts many families.

Although this busy pub doesn't have to run special offers to bring in families, its large garden is perfect for children, and its extensive children's menu offering child-size portions of main meals makes it an ideal destination.

One of the pub's selling points is an all-day food service, enabling families to eat at

non-traditional times.

Manager Jenny Heard says: "The entire pub is family-friendly - we stay open for food all day, so many people enjoy bringing their kids here for meals in the early evening.

"The Old Inn is about seven miles from civilisation - it's a very remote location, but our local trade comes from a 20-mile radius. Families with kids have normally left by 9pm so they don't tend to mix with our regular drinkers, many of whom have young children of their own anyway."

If music be the food of pubs...

Peach pubco outlet the Fishes in North Hinksey, Oxfordshire, held a food and music festival to attract families to its pub in July.

Around 500 people turned out for the festival, held in the Fishes' four-acre garden.

The charity event included a jazz band, Bellini cocktails and Pimms for the adults, and Innocent smoothies for children.

A children's cookery competition was also held, with teams of children raiding the festival's stalls for exotic fruit and vegetables, cheeses, charcuterie, seafood, olives, and artisan breads. The children then picked a chef to help them turn it into an amazing salad bowl and deli board. The winning dish was a tower of pineapple decorated with edible flowers.

The event also included fine-food stalls and sampling of foods that in