Fast flatbread pub menu gets moving

D'arrys Cookhouse & Wine in Cambridge has launched a lunchtime flatbread menu with a 15-minute service guarantee or customers don't pay.

The range of six flatbreads, which cost from £6.95, was launched last week and is aimed at busy office workers and shoppers wanting a quick lunch. The concept may be rolled out to other sites, including the Wellington in Welwyn and the Rusty Gun in St Ippolyts, both in Hertfordshire.

D'Arry's managing partner Solly Cham said: "People don't have time for a long relaxed lunch every day, but why should they have to put up with low-standard food?

"These flatbreads are created by our chefs using the same standard of ingredients and attention to detail as everything else we do, but allow customers to be in and out quickly.

"Our sandwiches are very popular but we wanted to try to get a competitive edge and do something that is unique in this area."

Cham said the site is already selling 18 to 20 flatbreads a day with sales growing at 10% a day. The flatbread is marketed through the bar's 4,000-strong database, blackboards outside the site and through sampling in Cambridge.

The offer is aimed at customers eating in, with take-away also available. The range will change every three months.

Current toppings include goats' cheese, sun-blushed tomatoes, red peppers, toasted chilled walnuts topped with rocket with a honey & thyme dressing; cajun spiced confit chicken, chorizo, bacon, baby leaf spinach, Gruyère cheese and a sun-dried tomato sauce; aromatic duck, spring onion, bean sprouts, hoi sin sauce, pak choi and a soy & ginger dressing and rib-eye steak, watercress, Stilton, toasted pine nuts, frisée lettuce & blue cheese sauce.