Money Makers: Ideas for driving food and drink sales at your pub

Pop-up chef events​

Where:​ Four O Nine, Clapham, London

Website: ​www.fouronine.co.uk​

Twitter: ​@409restaurant

The idea: ​Guest chefs take over the restaurant’s kitchen for one evening to create a tasting menu.

How it works:​ A guest chef designs and prepares the five or six course menu for the event, as well as making an introductory speech and chatting to guests afterwards. The pop-up events take place every six to eight weeks.

Marketing: ​Marketing is via both the restaurant and the chef’s databases and social media sites as well as through press releases to local press and magazines.

Be prepared:​  The chefs are sourced through research and contacts, offering a varied programme. Guests have included London Live TV chef Jimmy Garcia, Blanch &Shock Food Design and Croydon-based Taste Mauritius.

Pay-off:​ Offers a different angle to the current pop-up restaurant trend; provides an opportunity for the chef to showcase their skills.

Key benefits: ​Promotes the restaurant to new customers; introduces new food styles to the restaurant’s regulars.

Advice:​ Alice Chan, marketing and events manager for parent company Livelyhood, the London-based pub and restaurant operator, says: “Events like this take time and dedication. Be prepared for a lot of networking and planning beforehand.”

Best outcome:​ The restaurant aims to sell a minimum of 40 covers at each pop-up chef event.

Evening of Wonders​

Where:​ Farmers Arms, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire

Website: ​www.farmersarmsholmfirth.co.uk​

The idea: ​A tasting menu of innovative dishes with entertainment provided by a table magician and illusionist.

How it works:​ The evening was designed to showcase unusual dishes and flavour combinations such as a liqueur coffee dessert, consisting of semi-set coffee ice-cream, amaretto jelly, sweet milk foam and malt dusting, resembling a cappuccino. A table magician and illusionist performed between courses. Guests were charged £35 per person with an optional wine flight available for £20 per head.

Marketing: ​The pub’s events benefit from a high re-booking rate but spaces are reserved for new customers. Advertising is via word of mouth, in-house promotion, a local flyer drop and social media.

Be prepared:​ The evening formed part of a programme of monthly events which has included a 13 course tasting menu and an ‘Around the World in eight courses’ menu. The magician needed to be booked at a cost of £195 for three hours. Numbers were limited to 25 people.

Pay-off:​ Provides chefs with an opportunity to showcase their ideas and skills; helped drive wine sales – over 70% of guests opted for the wine flight.

Key benefits: ​Increases footfall and takings on a Tuesday night; introduces regular customers to new flavours and foods; provides an opportunity to trial dishes for the pub’s specials menu.

Advice:​ Licensee of the Punch leasehold, Danielle Montgomery, says: “Planning is the key to a successful evening. As the menu was something the staff don’t usually serve, they needed to know exactly what food they were serving, what made it different and what sort of wine we were matching to it. It helps to sit down and try to be a customer yourself, asking the staff to serve you, as you can spot anything that might need altering.”

Best outcome:​ Tuesday night takings increased by 75%.