Menu masterclass
Being innovative with your menu can really help your pub to stand out from the crowd. PubChef offers some tips
1. To add personality to your pub's menu, print a caricature of the licensee, owner or head chef at the top. Mitchells & Butlers uses this format on its Cornerstone pub menus.
2. If your pub has a interesting historical past or location, include an eye-catching fact about it on the front of the menu
3. If your premises are next to a local feature such as a river, cricket ground or church, add interest to your menu by theming dishes or designing menu sections around the theme. At Wadworth tenancy the Poplars Inn, in Wingfield, Wiltshire, the pub owns a cricket pitch so menu sections are called openers and middle orders. You may also want to link the menu's section names to your pub's title - for example, if your pub is called the Swan, you could use cygnets when referring to a children's menu.
4. If you source locally, use visuals to communicate this message. At the Michelin-starred Olive Branch in Clipsham, Rutland, a regional map highlighting locations of the pub's suppliers is featured on the back of the menu. At Ribble Valley Inns two pubs - the Fishes and the Highwayman, in Lancashire - the back of the menu features a coded map, cross-referenced with a list of producers' details.
5. If you change your menu or specials daily, link topical events into dish descriptions - celebrate Elvis's birthday with the king of all burgers, or on the Queen's birthdays introduce another Great British institution - afternoon tea.
6. Try theming menus. Hall & Woodhouse uses an idea based on the design of Penguin Classic paperback books on menus in its managed pubs. Titles include A Midsummer Night's Cream and Pride and Preparation. At the Elwes Arms in Great Billing, Northamptonshire, licensee Steve Marsh, uses newspaper titles, such as Lunchtime Chronicle and Evening Advertiser, for his menus.
7. Add character with the personal touch. Upmarket crisp supplier Burts' packets feature the name of the person who hand-fried the crisps. Try using the same principles - if you serve hand-cut chips, include the name of the person who prepared them that day. Try something along the lines of: hand-cut by Ben.
8. If you change your menu daily, put the date on the menu. This helps reinforce the fact that your menu does change regularly and that fresh, seasonal ingredients are used.
9. Tell stories about some of the best suppliers on your menu.
A producer-of-the-week feature
can be clipped to the back to give your customers details of your suppliers.
10. Humour can be rather dangerous territory for pub menus, but used skilfully it can add plenty of character to your offer. Clever examples include the approach adopted at the Brace of Pheasants in Plush, Dorset, where the menu states: "Game dishes may contain shot, fish may contain bones and nuts may contain nuts." At Felin Fach Griffin in Wales, the Bank Holiday hangover buffet menu says: "£18.50 for grown-ups, or £9.50 if you can convince us you are under nine".
11. Including a thought or quote of the day can raise awareness of a daily-changing menu.
12. Make food-and-drink-matching recommendations for specific dishes to add interest and help drive wet sales.
13. Offer customers a personal touch by having small chalk-boards on the table naming the party who made the booking, such as Bruce, Britner, Williams, Pring, Turney.
14. If you don't have a logo already, consider having one designed that can be used on all your marketing material, including business cards and menus. Printing your logo at the top of the menu will help to boost your professional profile.
15. Be creative about the way menus are stored on tables - for example, try using plant pots or silver tins. These items can be changed inexpensively to link with events - for example, during the Christmas period menus could be produced in a box decorated like a Christmas present.?
