First catering news post of the new year. Here we take a look at some stories from the industry involving caterers, pubs, bars and restaurants. Feel free to leave your thoughts using the comments section at the end of the post.
DIRTY KITCHEN FINES ‘UNFAIR’
When villagers of Ightham near Sevenoaks, Kent were cut off by heavy snowfalls in early February 2009, they descended on their local pub the 15th century George & Dragon.
Normally the pub would expect 15 to 20 diners on a Monday, but it was inundated, serving 117, although service was affected as staff, including licensees Mark and Fiona Harris, who live off-site, were unable to get to work because the roads were impassible.
Being busy with only skeleton staff exhausted by the end of shifts, the normal ‘clean up’ was postponed but then the pub received a surprise visit from a “zealous” Environmental Health Officer who returned a few days later to say the licensees would be prosecuted.
“The kitchen was in a bit of a mess,” admitted Fiona Harris. “But there were no serious health issues and there were no customer complaints.”
But the Harris’ were each fined nearly £11,000 almost the maximum for a first offence by Sevenoaks Magistrates, for failing to comply with general hygiene requirements and EU regulations.
Annoyed villagers say the couple have been “victimised” and the fines were unfair. They have offered to help raise funds to pay the legal costs of an appeal.
250 NEW PUBS PLAN
With 52 pubs said to be closing weekly, JD Wetherspoon is bucking the trend with plans to open 250 new pubs at a cost of £250m over the next five years creating 10,000 jobs.
“Our pubs are extremely popular and we wish to build on their success by opening more,” said Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin. “Recessions can be a good time to expand because property prices fall.”
His company operates 743 pubs in the UK and will open new ones in Sheffield, Livingston, Leominster, Otley New Malden, Liverpool, Haverfordwest and Newcastle.
Wetherspoon claims to be the only large pub chain opening all its pubs early in the morning – selling more than 715,000 breakfasts and coffees each week.
SIMPLY ASK RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
More than 500 restaurants, cafes and pubs have signed up to Freedom Food’s ‘Simply Ask’ campaign launched in the Autumn with diners being urged to query the provenance of fare on the menu.
Those who have signed up include national trust restaurants and tea rooms, Sainsbury’s in store restaurants, Hugh Fearnley-Whittinstall’s River Cottage canteens and restaurant chains Giraffe and Leon. Now others are urging to support the campaign.
Early signs indicate ‘Simply Ask’ is going down well with consumers. Numbers logging on to the website in Autumn were higher than the industry average. Adverts were carried on BBC Good Food, Channel 4 Food and Top Table websites.
….AND FINALLY
In the pub, over a lifetime (or one hell of a good weekend), Brits:
- Have a total of 5,403 alcoholic drinks and 1,775 snacks
- The average person spends more than £65,000 on food and drink
- Spend an average of nearly 9,500 hours in pubs.
- Men clock up 10,585 hours – 441 entire days
- Women spend 8,154 hours there – 340 days
See the January Edition of Eat Out Magazine for more catering industry news.
Wow, I didn’t realise how many pubs Weather spoons owned and how many traditional pubs were shutting down.