North West Focus Food: Buzz about bangers

If you're looking to attract attention, an award wining sausage isn't a bad place to start.

Kevin Berkins' bangers have been raising more than a few eyebrows over the past few months. Kevin, owner of the Fence Gate Inn in Fence, near Bury, Lancashire, makes his own sausages on site, part of the pub's focus on the very best of Lancashire produce.

Qualified master butcher Kevin bought the Fence Gate 25 years ago, but it was only last October when his sausages became truly nationally renowned, when two varieties picked up awards in the Best Pub Sausage category at the Foodservice Sausage of the Year 2006 finals.

The award, run by the British Pig Executive in conjunction with the Publican, was open to suppliers, so it was most heartening to see sausages actually made in a pub take the prizes .

The Fence gate's Pork, Leek & KB's Black Pudding with a Hint of Sage variety took first place, while Owd Lancastrian, made to a traditional local recipe, won third prize.

Hot on the heels of that triumph, the Fence Gate picked up a brace of Pub Food Awards at the 2006 ceremony at the Savoy in November. The pub wan the Local Food Champion title, while its home made puds also saw it take the Dessert Pub of the Year accolade.

And to top things off, the Fence Gate is a finalist in the Freehouse of the Year category in the Publican Awards 2007.

So what has changed? Has a run-of-the-mill pub suddenly raised its game to become a bastion of North West cuisine? Not at all, insists Kevin. "We've been serving great home-made food at the Fence Gate for years, making a feature of high-quality, local produce."

It was when other Lancashire pubs started picking up accolades for serving the county's specialities that Kevin decided it was time to start making more of a noise about the Fence Gate. Dishes such as black pudding, Morecambe Bay shrimps, scallops and Lancashire cheeses were being feted by the food critics when served by other establishments.

"In some cases, the guys running those restaurants were regular diners here," says Kevin ruefully. "We were doing it first, and other people were getting the credit."

With the support of daughter Keeley, who has a degree in Business Management and has joined the business as sales and marketing director, Kevin has set about ensuring that the pub's virtues are more widely extolled.

There's definitely plenty to be proud of. The business Kevin bought from receivership 25 years ago was a former Georgian house trading as a restaurant. To that has been added a public bar, a brasserie-style restaurant, two large function rooms and one of the most modern trade kitchens in the country. The result is a business with a seven figure turnover, which is still seeing substantial year-on-year growth.

"What I set out to do was build the kind of business that I'd like to eat and drink in myself," says Kevin, "and it clearly appeals to other people as well."

The pub's passion for North West specialities has seen it get involved in a number of regional initiatives such as Made in Lancashire, Harvest North West, and North West Fine Foods, working with partners such as regional supermarket Booths.

Local cask beers, from brewers such as Theakston's, are settled into the cellar by Kevin personally, a labour of love that ensures the pub's beer quality is almost unrivalled - but in a spirit of friendship, the Friday night 'beer bus' stars at the Fence Gate and takes local CAMRA members on a tour of the area's best cask pubs.

Kevin also has a characteristically individual solution to the variable quality of game that makes many pubs wary of putting it on the menu. "I shoot most of it myself," he says.

However, it's the sausages which have really helped to drive interest a life of their own. "It seems everybody loves sausages," says Kevin, who has used the skills picked up in his butchery days to generate an ever-changing roster of gourmet bangers.

In the spirit of generating more of a buzz about the Fence Gate, customers are now greeted by sign pointing to the kitchen which reads 'Sausage Factory and Visitor Centre'.

"It's a joke, but you'd be surprised how many people ask for the tour."