Ingredients for success
Joe Cussens tells Mark Taylor why
identifying what customers want has made the Marlborough Tavern one of Bath's best food pubs
Why our food business is a success
Justin (Sleath, co-owner) and I have a team around us who share our vision and values. They all want to cook and serve local produce from named producers and named breeds of animal. It's all about identifying what your customers want and being true to it. What our customers want is really good, honest, home-cooked, unfussy, well-presented food. They're more concerned with the quality of the food we serve on the plate than with any gizmos, bells and whistles.
Our best promotions and business ideas
We don't do much promotion - that kind of activity seems more appropriate when you have a mature business and are trying to generate added interest. It's more important for us to make sure we've got it absolutely right for our existing customers. Make sure you can walk before you can run - there's no point advertising if you still think there's room for improvement. Our biggest promotion push was working with a local PR agency and sending out press releases about awards we'd won - that attracted plenty of publicity.
How we recruit and motivate staff
Once you establish a reputation, it becomes easier to find staff. Our front-of-house staff have improved since we opened and now we have a squad of people. People come in for jobs all the time, so if we need extra staff we just put an ad in the window and word spreads very quickly. We know when we see somebody whether they will fit in and have what it takes.
We've met people who looked fantastic but their work was of a poor standard, and some who were hard-working but had no personality. It's essential to strike the right balance.
All our staff say they enjoy working here - having nice customers tends to attract pleasant staff and vice versa. We try to make it an enjoyable place to work and occasionally treat them to a night out. We run a professional outfit, but don't crack the whip. It's an informal environment, but our standards are not sloppy.
Our best-selling dishes
Our best-selling starters are Jerusalem artichoke and truffle-oil soup (£4.95); roast fig salad with Barkham Blue cheese, rocket and toasted hazelnuts (£5.95); River Fowey mussels in white wine, cream and herbs (£5.95).
For mains, the local, free-range Wiltshire belly pork with mustard gravy and bubble and squeak (£11.50) is our best-selling dish; the smoked Cornish haddock with free-range poached egg and mustard sauce with leeks (£14.50) and roast rib of Stokes Marsh beef with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, parsnip and swede mash (£14.95) fly out the door.
Desserts are all £3.95 - the rich dark chocolate and hazelnut cheesecake, apricot and brandy bread and butter pudding, and apple and plum crumble with clotted-cream ice cream sell well.
How we source our ingredients
Our head chef Richard Knighting, who joined us in October 2006, has made a big difference. He trained under Marco Pierre-White at Mirabelle and is passionate about doing local, British food. He's really committed to doing the food we want to do and sources all the ingredients himself, often going out to visit producers. He has a natural interest in the whole subject and even checks out new producers on his days off.
Our menu
We're honing our lunch and dinner menus. We looked back over the past year and realised the lunch menu was probably longer than it needed to be and we could simplify it. This has made a big difference to the kitchen staff because they can spend more time getting ready for the evening or doing special dishes.
Having a core lunchtime menu, which we will change every two or three months, means we can focus on consistency and quality, but still allow the chefs to experiment with daily specials. The core menu features dishes such as sausage and mash, fish pie and veggie burger - simple food, done really well. Our daily specials add interest for regular diners.
We realised the chefs were getting in early and prepping a big lunch menu of more complex dishes, but that's not what people want at lunchtime - especially if they only have an hour. Typically, people prefer to spend less than £10. Our customers want good quality, simple food and they also want traceability.
Our best investment in the past 12 months
A new kitchen. We grew faster than we anticipated, so we outgrew the original kitchen very quickly. Because our food is freshly prepared, we need decent working and storage space.
Greatly increasing the chefs' resources has made life a lot easier for them. We installed our new kitchen last April and would never have been able to cope with our current numbers otherwise.
It was reaching a critical point where we had to turn people away, even when the pub wasn't properly full. Another good investment was spending a lot of money on the garden, which has increased the number of covers.
Our top tips
Be clear about what you want your identity to be and what your customers want. Keep that in mind and make sure the menu delivers against it; ensure staff can deliver what's required, and don't try to be all things to all people. It's also important to listen to your customers and make any necessary changes.
Employing a great chef goes a long way, and it's important to make time to meet regularly with your chef to go through menus, pricing and promotions.
Having a pub full of punters is one measure of success - but transforming that turnover into profit is also vital. If you don't have the discipline to run it as a business, you can be lulled into a false sense of security and think you're doing better than you actually are.
Facts 'n' stats
Pub: The Marlborough Tavern,
35 Marlborough Buildings, Bath, BA21 2LY
01225 423731
www.marlborough-tavern.com
Owners: Joe Cussens and Justin Sleath
Lease or freehold: Punch Taverns lease
Number of staff: Seven in the kitchen,
14 front-of-house
GP food: 70%
GP drink: 58%
Covers per week: 700, increasing in summer when the garden is in use
Food sales as % of turnover: 50%
