Peach Pub Company: Taylor made

The UKs largest village has got peachy. Jo Bruce looks at how steak nights, building links with the locals and movies are driving the business

The pretty village of Cranleigh, in Surrey, is home to Peach Pub Company's newest site, the Richard Onslow, and like the other 12 sites in the Peach stable it's bursting with ideas to cement the business at the heart of the local community.

Formerly known as the Onslow Arms, Peach has spent £100,000 refurbishing the site and has transformed a once insalubrious pub into a friendly local for the villagers. Peach, which is headed up by Lee Cash and Hamish Stoddart, took over the site in December and officially relaunched in March in a site on the high street.

The Richard Onslow is headed up by joint venture partner John Taylor whose CV includes the Punch Tavern in London's Fleet Street and the Printer's Devil also in London. Plans for the site include seven boutique bedrooms and an outside dining area at the back of the pub. Taylor has been marketing his new pub hard. He says: "I have been going out to see people, such as in clubs and societies, to explain what we are doing. You need to be proactive."

Among other marketing ideas Taylor has run for the new site is a link up with local newsagent Cranleigh Newspapers. A three-week promotion offered customers buying a newspaper a free coffee at the Richard Onslow. Bacon sandwiches were also on offer for customers to enjoy while reading the papers.

Taylor's team includes manager Kim Charman and head chef Tom Hope, who has been in the Peach fold since October 2007, most recently as sous chef under Acorn winner Charlie Barr at the Old Mill in Berkhamsted, Herts. Tom's CV also includes the Red Lion at Claverdon and the Cross at Kenilworth, both in Warks.

Food on offer​

The Richard Onslow serves an average 700 covers a week with a food offer focusing on Peach's seasonal menus, which are offered in all sites. The spring menu features slow roast chicken and ham hock terrine, Melba toast and apple chutney; tempura squid, confit lemon and rocket and aioli; whole roast plaice, salsa verde and new potatoes; roast lamb escalope, fondant potato and minted spring vegetables; warm flourless chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream; and rhubarb jelly, panna cotta and crumble.

Peach's deli boards are also a big feature of the menu with items such as smoked mackerel and double Worcester cheese at £2 per item, or £10.50 for various themed boards such as charcuterie, fish or cheese.

The site is open for breakfast from 9am to 11am, either to eat-in or take-away, with free toast offered to customers buying a coffee.

The breakfast offer includes a full English (£8.50), poached eggs on toast (£4.50) and smoked salmon and scrambled eggs (£6.50).

The pub's Sunday menu offers roast beef (£12.50) and roast lamb (£13.50), both served with huge Yorkshire puddings. Provenance is key; the lamb is Cornish and they use topside of Aberdeenshire beef from award-winning butcher Aubrey Allen. They also serve Jimmy Butler's free-range pork.

Peach of an idea ​

• Cakes baked by Cranleigh WI:​ the talented cooks of the WI are creating tray bake treats such as cranberry flapjack, Millionaire's shortbread and carrot cake for the site, which are displayed on the bar for customers to buy to enjoy with coffee.

•​ Film nights: the site is running monthly film nights. A pull-down screen in the pub's restaurant has screened classics including Steve McQueen's Bullet, Breakfast at Tiffanys and When Harry Met Sally. Food is themed to link in with the films and has included hot dogs and burgers; two courses are £15 and three are £20.

•​ Networking Wednesdays: Taylor says: I'm a big believer in the power of networking, but also that it shouldn't always involve 6am breakfasts and motorway hotel conference rooms. Customers can come in for a drink or two anytime from 5pm, and we will provide the bar snacks so they can can mix with local business people from Cranleigh and the surrounding areas. There is no membership fee or cost to attend,

•​ Half price fizz on Thursdays: Half price Champagne by the glass or by the bottle. Customers can enjoy a glass of Champagne for £3.75.

•​ Set-price menu: £10.50 for a two course meal or £7.50 for one course, available before 7pm Monday to Saturday on a range of the pub's dishes, including: starters of soup of the day, tempura squid, confit lemon, rocket and aioli or devilled lamb's kidneys on toast; mains of 8oz steak burger, Cheddar cheese, tomato chutney and chips or sausage and mash, tomato chutney and veal jus; and dessert of rhubarb jelly, pannacotta and crumble.

•​ Steak nights: A steak night runs every Tuesday. A black stone cow is positioned outside promoting the night and an A-board, with leaflets for passers-by to take, also gives information.

To also provide customers information and add theatre to the nights, a cow-shaped blackboard is displayed in the restaurant, showing customers where different cuts come from on the animal. A platter of uncooked steaks is shown to customers as service staff talk you through the different cuts.

Steaks on offer vary but can include bavette steak (£12) Chateaubriand on a board for

two to share (£50) and a T-bone steak for two (£40). All steaks come from butcher Aubrey Allen, who supplies all Peach pubs. All steaks come with a variety of homemade sides and sauces, including chips, mushrooms, tomato and watercress. Steak sauces include peppercorn, bearnaise and garlic butter.

• A-boards:​ Taylor says. Our blackboards are painted regularly. If they don't look fresh, then people don't look at them. Pick up leaflet also go with the A-boards

• Music afternoon:​ post 4pm on Sundays Taylor invites in local musicians to play music such as jazz and 20th-century Brazilian.

Peach news ​

• Adam Saunders is the latest Peach joint venture partner. He has worked at London venues including Conran's Bluebird, Smiths of Smithfield and Caprice Holding. He is currently working at the Almanack in Leicester and is looking for his first joint venture partner site in the south.

• At the James Figg in Thame, Oxfordshire, a large events space in a converted stable-block to the rear of the pub is available for hire for daytime or evening events. It has its own bar and facilities for live bands, DJ's and a dance floor and can cater for 60 people seated or 100 standing.