Business boosters
Ideas for driving food sales at your pub
Braille menus
Where: True Lovers Knot, Blandford, Dorset
www.trueloversknot.co.uk
The idea: When licensee Antony Marshall spotted a customer having to read the entire contents of his pub's menu to his blind wife, he decided action was needed. By contacting the Dorset Blind Association, Antony arranged to have the menu from his Hall & Woodhouse pub translated into Braille. The charity agreed to produce a large-print version and transcribed the menu onto audio CD for Antony's blind and partially sighted customers.
How it works: Menus change every three to six months and Antony has a Braille, large-print and audio version produced for each menu change. Antony says: "The large-print menus in particular are very popular as we are located in a very big retirement area." He has also fitted a hearing loop to his bar, arranged for all staff to be trained in deaf awareness and both he and his wife have learned basic sign language. The pub has also acquired a few specially designed tables, some slightly higher to accommodate wheelchairs and some that are open underneath for guide dogs. A range of diabetic drinks and a menu for coeliacs has also been introduced.
Business benefit: Although Antony is the first to admit that gains from the accessible facilities he has introduced cannot necessarily be quantified in monetary terms, business at the True Lovers Knot is brisk. He says: "Lots of people come to us because of the services we offer. Although we haven't really advertised them ourselves, we have received local and national press coverage because we're so unique and the local blind and deaf associations have notified all their members. The coeliac units in all the local hospitals even have our menu displayed on their doors."
Plans for the future: A large extension is planned at the pub which will include two ground-floor disabled rooms with all the latest disability aids.
