There are many hospitality venues really struggling at present, there are many reasons for this including rent increases, labour costs, costs of raw materials increases, energy costs etc. but I must say that there are some hospitality venues that just seem to get it right! I think it's worth pondering, for a moment, why some venues succeed and some don't are there any patterns or correlations in what they're doing and could the less successful places learn a thing or two from the more successful ones?
The photo (above) is a little place called "The Bear" a pub close to Paddington Station in London, somewhere I hang out in from time to time when I'm waiting for the next train home, this picture was snapped last Thursday (early evening) and shows the place rammed with after work drinkers and queues at the bar 2 or 3 people deep. Why is this place (apparently) so successful when pubs in my home town struggle to attract one or two people on a Thursday evening and others simply don't bother opening during the week.
There could be many reasons of course, location is pretty important clearly, being in London and close to such a big rail terminus is obviously advantageous! Many tens of thousands of people pass through every day especially on Thu/Fri when drinks after work are still common. Interestingly though, most of the people I talk to who live around my part of the world and who use Paddington Station regularly have never heard of The Bear. There's probably a small amount of passing tourist trade also, which you won't see in the burbs but it's probably not significant. Then there's the old booze-food dichotomy, i.e. are you a pub or are you a restaurant, clearly there are different demographics for either or both.
I think the main key to success is to specialise, the old saying "jack of all trades, master of none" is particularly appropriate here. Many of the pubs in my locale feel they need to do everything, food, drink, dog walks, quiz nights, fortune tellers, you name it and guess what, they do none of those things well. There are a few pubs around here that are head and shoulders above the others. For example, the Fox & Hounds in Caversham and the Nags Head in Reading, these two are packed out every day of the week and both of them specialise in beer. It seems obvious (to me at least) that there's a certain demographic that goes to the pub for good beer, and who want there to be wide and deep interest in that beverage, i.e. by having a large selection of continually rotating taps from a multitude of producers. Doing this holds the attention of the beer geek, and there are enough of them around these days to support many such establishments, The Bear is such a pub, it doesn't do food and only accepts cards but the people who hang out there don't care about that, they're there for the beer.
Clearly it's not only beer that's a draw, many people, in fact a majority probably, don't care about the beer, they're happy to drink Guinness or Peroni everywhere they go and never change. That demographic is probably more interested in the food offerings, that's great, but the pub needs to differentiate itself on it's food! I went to a pub in Weybridge, Surrey the other weekend and sat down to a meal with a couple of friends. The beer choice was awful, nothing but mass produced industrial beer like Madri and Timothy Tailors etc. but that was tolerable we were primarily there for the meal. When the food came out it was also awful, bland, predictable and clearly pre-packaged and heavily processed, and probably re-heated in a micro-wave oven! The bill came to around £40 a head with a couple of pints, truly rubbish, I will never darken their door again! Moral of the story, if you're going to do food, make sure it's memorable, distinct or even just good value.
So, in summary I think that there may be many reasons for a pub to be successful and it's important that any particular establishment understands those dimensions and chooses to be "good" at one or two of them according to the demographic they wish to service. A few weeks ago I went to a pub in London for lunch after watching my Daughter run her first half marathon,
I blogged about it here, it had clearly decided to specialise in both beer and food together (it was packed out), both were outstanding, great choices, highly memorable food and although relatively expensive (£50 a head) the cost is not the thing I will remember about it, and I'll definitely be back!
