Breath of fresh air
Susan Nowak talks to licensees in different locations to assess how the smoke ban has affected food sales
Seagulls wheel dizzily across a cloudless sky over an azure sea; tiny boats bob up and down in a picture postcard bay; above all, the air smells fresh and salty and clean - inside the pub as well as out.
Like all other hostelries in England the Blue Peter, built into the cliff at pretty Polperro on the southern Cornish coast, went smoke-free on 1 July.
In many pubs this simply meant removing ashtrays and putting up no-smoking signs. At the Blue Peter it meant imaginative planning, big investment - and a devout hope they would not get burned.
"We decided to treat this as an opportunity to really expand the food side," says licensee Caroline Steadman. "We bought the pub in 2001 but did not do lunches until 2003, then we started a small evening menu in June last year to get customers used to it before the ban."
"We" are Caroline, husband Steve, daughter Becky and her partner Rob Hawkes. Already in the Good Beer Guide for the excellence of their ale - St Austell Tribute (£2.50), Polperro Ale produced exclusively for them by the brewery, plus guests - the Blue Peter is now winning plaudits for food, too.
They began their new investment in December by taking on Tim Briggs, pastry cook par excellence, as joint chef with Becky. Then they bit the bullet, called in top designers, and spent £40,000 shoe-horning a contemporary kitchen into a pint-sized space in a listed building.
Family friend Mark Puckey - executive chef at Rick Stein's cookery school in Padstow - gave tips on essential equipment and menu advice.
They make a big feature of the local seafood: hand-made Caribbean crab cakes with coriander-flavoured salad and sweet chilli dip (£7.95), cod goujons in tempura batter with chips, Cornish scallops with bacon and a touch of garlic (£10.50), crab linguine (£10.95), Goan fish curry, or how about a seafood platter of scallops, crab and prawns with freshly-baked bread and salad (at a bargain £15.95)?
"Our Mediterranean fish soup takes hours to make but it's gorgeous and very popular," says Becky.
Adds Tim: "Our meat comes from a butcher in Pelynt who uses three local farmers. Everything is home-made, even traditional pub dishes. We cut fresh pineapple slices for gammon, make onion rings in batter, and cut potatoes for chips."
He's also developing special pies for the winter menu. I was glad to test the double-crust beef and plum pie.
The pub is actually on the South West Coast Path. You can stagger into the downstairs
bar, have a pint to fortify you, and rejoin the path at the second level via an outside "amphitheatre".
On this floor, a dining room with breathtaking views over the harbour was remodelled ready for the ban.
"The dining area was no smoking before the ban, but general feedback suggested people would be more willing to eat if they didn't have to go through a smoky bar. In a listed building there was not much we could do in the way of smoke extractors," says Becky.
"We're getting a lot more non-smokers than before, and certainly more families."
Caroline adds: "So far it seems very positive. The kitchen was a massive investment but it was the only way forward. The next 18 months will be telling."
Reinforcing pub as place to eat
The Anchor in Walberswick is another seaside pub, this time on the Suffolk coast. Licensee Mark Dorber bemoans the dire weather that put a dampener on summer trade, but not the smoking ban.
"It has helped reinforce our pub as a good place to eat. From a family dining point of view it is significant," says Mark, whose chef wife Sophie has won stars in Camra guides for a menu rich in local produce.
"It has improved the atmosphere in the public bar, making it more pleasant to eat there and more congenial for staff," he continues.
They are building a new kitchen, demolishing the toilet block to create eating space for another 60, and converting a barn into a private dining room seating 28. It is a massive investment, made more viable by the ban.
Mark believes a "groundswell of growth" over the next few years will come from "a reassessment of pubs as dining places by people who are non-smokers. This is a great opportunity for pubs; it will be hugely positive for the trade."
Hugely positive for the trade? Colin Wilde, commercial director of Castle Rock, the Nott-ingham-based brewery and pub group with more than 20 outlets, is more ambivalent.
Though food sales are robust and extremely important to their business, Castle Rock pubs, serving award-winning real ales, have traditionally seen far higher turnover on the wet trade, and this could be affected by the ban.
"What is noticeable is the sparkle in the air. You notice the air quality and cleanliness - even smokers have said they enjoy the clean air," says Colin.
It's early days still, and difficult to assess the effect to date (especially with the appalling summer weather), but they do have a yardstick. Three years ago, Castle Rock bought the Kean's Head and re-opened it as Nottingham's first no-smoking pub, with a foodie British and Italian menu - all home-made.
"The customer reaction was been fantastic from the beginning," says Colin. They expect to see that response emulated especially in pubs where, even though there were dining areas and smoke extractors, people often found themselves eating close to smokers.
"One of the disadvantages of a pub environment was that you could find a nice table but there was nothing to stop a smoker sitting down at the next," says Colin.
He believes that no smoking will be positive for their food business, and this is an area they will expand. "We want to attract non-smokers who have not been pub-goers, and food will certainly help to bring them in."
