Money makers: Ideas to drive food and drink sales at your pub

A Taste of the USA​

Where:​ The Jolly Sailors, Brancaster Staithe, Norfolk​

Twitter:​ @TheJollySailors​

The idea: ​The Anglian Country Inns site hosted a USA-themed tasting night to increase winter trade and provide a different food and drink experience.

How it works:​ Staff were given the opportunity to devise the theme and the chef was able to try out taster recipes for his new menu. Tickets cost £20 for the tasting menu, a bottle of Budweiser and musical entertainment.

Marketing: ​Posters around local villages; pub website and social media.

Be prepared: ​Hard work behind the scenes paid off, with customers appreciating the themed menu, music, flags and banners, balloons and bunting, tablecloths and napkins.

Pay-off:​ Ticket sales started slowly and then rose to 45. Wet sales rose 20% with 45 more customers coming in after dinner. Happy customers are still talking about the event and agree it offered great value for money.

Key benefits: ​Attracted new faces and encouraged loyalty. American-themed recorded music during dinner and live music afterwards went down well. Using long trestle tables encouraged socialising.

Advice: ​Sell tickets in advance and ask customers for prior notice of dietary requirements.

Best outcome: ​Boosted staff morale and customer loyalty.

Mini joint carvery roasts​

Where: ​Ribble Valley Inns​

Twitter:​ @RVIpubs​

The idea:​ Working with EBLEX​ (the English Beef and Lamb Executive), beef and lamb mini roasting joints, aimed at the dining-for-two market, were trialled at four Ribble Valley Inn outlets for a period of four weeks.

How it works:​ One beef and one lamb cut were selected from the new range, for each outlet, and positioned as mini joint carvery roasts to share, with a price-point of £28 for two people. The dishes were available during both lunch and dinner services.

Marketing:​ In addition to promoting the roasts via social media and e-newsletters to the group’s database, tent cards were produced to raise customer awareness of the products.

Be prepared:​ The chefs at each site were encouraged to put their own twist on each product in terms of preparation methods, cooking times, serving suggestions and presentation. As the trial progressed, all front of house staff were encouraged to ask for customer feedback on the dishes which was then fed back to managers and chefs at the end of each service.

Pay-off:​ The dishes proved to be particularly popular during the early evening, as a sharing platter for two, with lamb slightly outperforming beef. Customer feedback was impressive, with diners enjoying this more interesting and interactive way to enjoy roasting joints.

Key benefits:​ Positioning the dishes as ‘specials’ increased both footfall and revenue to the business, without adversely affecting the core menu offering. Sales of red meat increased by 28% with the new carvery range accounting for, on average, 12% of sales for the group.

Following the trial, two of the cuts from the range have been introduced as permanent listings on the group’s menus.

Advice:​ Chef/owner Nigel Haworth says: “During the trial, a lot of customers commented that these cuts would be perfect for Valentine’s Day. A second trial was held to look at the potential of the range, based around this key date opportunity and again, the range proved to be perfect for this type of promotional activity.”

Best outcome:​ 1,712 carvery mini roasts were sold over the four week period.