The Mill House tale

By James Wilmore

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Newcastle upon tyne Menu

"The Mill House? Great, that's on my way home," says the cabbie at Newcastle Central station. "It used to be a right dive - it was where the local...

"The Mill House? Great, that's on my way home," says the cabbie at Newcastle Central station. "It used to be a right dive - it was where the local gangsters drank."

The pub now gets a more varied, and far less intimidating, range of customers, he concedes. And has the driver eaten there himself? "Yes, once or twice. Very good, as it happens."

The Mill House, at Chester Le Street, just outside Newcastle, is the flagship pub in a growing empire operated by Carl and Deanne McDonald. The couple run six pubs in the North East.

The Mill House was their first, leased from Scottish & Newcastle Pub Enterprises (S&NPE), since 1997, and remains the proving ground for any evolution of what is proving to be a successful, food-led formula.

"When we took over it was a real spit-and-sawdust one-bar pub," says Carl. Having grown up in the trade with licensee parents, and trained as chef while still a teenager, Carl took on his first food business at 19 and his first pub at 21.

He and Deanne could see the potential for developing a food trade at the Mill House, and the pub has benefited from two major refurbishments, backed by S&NPE. The first saw the addition of a restaurant and the second added the Orangery, a conservatory-style food area. However, the wet/dry split is held at around 50:50 in order to maintain a genuine pub feel.

The pub operates a daytime table d'hote menu which includes a starter, main course, glass of wine and coffee for £6.50. There is a fuller menu which runs alongside this until 6.30pm, when it takes over. The focus is on fresh seafood, such as mussels, oysters and lobsters in season, with chef's specials every day. All the food is sourced through local suppliers.

"I encourage the chefs at all the pubs to develop their own specials, but I like to approve everything on the menu myself," says Carl.

Regular promotions such as twice-weekly steak nights, or Fridays' fish and paella night, allow customers to have a starter, main course and glass of wine at £19.99 for two. These are deliberately not positioned as 'two for one' offers and, like the daytime menu, help to keep a varied customer mix. With a 120-cover capacity, careful table management means the pub also serves around 400 Sunday lunches a week.

The wine list is a mix of New World and French, with one-litre house carafes also available. Staff, who all multi-skill between bar and table service, are encouraged to match wines to the menu through weekly training sessions. However, despite this clear focus, Carl is realistic about the type of business he runs. "The food is good quality, but it's certainly not the best in the world. Our beer and wine isn't really any different to what you'll get elsewhere. I really believe it's all about the atmosphere - the lighting, the music played and the staff attitude. That's what keeps customers coming back."

Arthur Wilson, operations and sales director of S&NPE, says: "Carl has great attention to detail. He keeps revising the food menu with new dishes and special promotions, but doesn't neglect the wet side of his business. He tries to cover every other area he can to make money - functions, live music and concerts to name a few. Carl is helped in all this by having good staff and the Midas touch."

Carl is realistic enough to take none of this for granted: "All pubs go through peaks and troughs of popularity. It's not that you do anything wrong, it's simply that customers get tired. It hasn't happened to us yet, but we keep watching the balance sheet."

To help keep the offer fresh, a 50-cover extension is planned for the New Year. "I plan to make it an oyster bar, with a more relaxed offer," says Carl.

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