Types Of Pub Food Operations

Here are some examples of pub food operations ranging from cold back-bar catering (which requires little or no experience and a small amount of equipment to set up) to restaurant-quality premium dining (requiring high levels of expertise, kitchen facilities and equipment).

Cold back-bar catering:	Cold sandwiches.	Chilled bar display; fridge/freezer.
Hot back-bar catering:	Pies, ready prepared–burgers, wraps and hot sandwiches.	Pie warmer or halogen oven or microwave; fridge/freezer.
Simple catering:	Hot sandwiches, wraps, burgers, chips, soup, tapas.	Kitchen area; cooker/grill; microwave; fridge/freezer; deep fat fryers.
‘Pub grub’:	Traditional, value-for-money meals.	As per ‘Simple catering’ plus bain marie; soup kettle; grill; contact grill; dishwasher; also extraction units and grease traps.
Family dining:	Value-for-money menu attracting families.	Well-planned, well–equipped kitchen.
Premium dining:	Upmarket restaurant quality food.	Well-planned, well-equipped kitchen.

Starting Catering

If your pub does not currently provide catering but you would like to introduce it on a small scale, with limited investment, there is a number of options open to you.

No kitchen facilities:

Introduce cold back-bar catering, for example:

• sandwiches;
• breakfast bagels, or croissants and coffee;
• cheese platters;
• cold pie and chutney selection.

 

Introduce hot back-bar catering, for example:

• hot pies from a bar-top pie warmer;
• hot snacks from a bar-top halogen oven;
• hot snacks from a microwave;
• hot soup from a soup kettle;
• hot panninis and toasties.

 

Other ideas:

• summer BBQs;
• hog roasts.

Limited Kitchen Facilities

Introduce quick, easy to prepare food:

• tapas;
• pizzas;
• nachos;
• wraps ‘n chips;
• burgers ‘n chips;
• panninis;
• salads.

Basic Kitchen Facilities

Focus on one day (keeps costs down and helps assess demand):

• Sunday lunches (typically the most popular day for eating out);
• Saturday shoppers’ menu;
• Saturday football fans’ menu.

Designing Your Food Operation

Every pub, whatever its character or situation, has an opportunity to sell food, even if it is on a small-scale basis. The aim of selling food should be to contribute to your profits; ideally directly or indirectly by helping to increase your wet turnover (attracting new customers, staying longer etc).

Decisions about the type and extent of your food operation should be ultimately based on whether it will contribute to your pub’s profitability. Your level of investment should be appropriate for the level of demand and profit you anticipate. Investing heavily in catering where there is limited demand is a waste of your resources. Alternatively, offering a limited catering facility to customers in an area of high demand fails to exploit opportunities for making more profit.

Ultimately, making a ‘commercial decision’, based on sound research, careful forecasting of demand and accurate costing will maximise your chance of success.