One day, perhaps in the not too distant future, an enterprising, hedonistic sociology student will propose as a PhD thesis ‘Restaurant guides as sociological phenomena’ and enjoy a very pleasant three years.
There is certainly enough to go on. The publication of the initial Good Food Guide in 1951 signalled Britain’s emergence from post war austerity while the recent media hype over the 2005 Harden’s London Restaurant Guide (£8.99) and its rather uncharitable savaging of Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen shows just how marked the changes in top chefs’ circumstances have been over the past 50 years. Will the recent publication by Michelin, the guardian of French gastronomy, of Eating out in Pubs in Britain and Ireland be seen as a landmark of similar relevance?.
I am not so sure. It would for example be misleading to assume that there has been the same rate of improvement in cooking standards in city pubs as those in the country. In fact it has been the latter which have led the way, largely because they have been established for far longer (often because they are situated on old coaching routes) and because in the country pubs have served a variety of differing functions: drinking rooms, small hotels and in the absence of any nearby competition, restaurants, all under one roof. Over the past 30 years, places such as The Sportsman’s Arms of Wath-in- Nidderdale in North Yorkshire, the Sir Charles Napier of Chinnor in Oxfordshire, the Dartmoor Inn on Exmoor and the Walnut Tree Inn in Abergavenny have outshone their inner city competitors.
The revival of the latter began in the early 1990s – many point to the opening of The Eagle in Farringdon Road, London EC1 as the turning point – and this movement has accelerated over the past decade as breweries have disposed of their tied houses, providing the ideal platform for chefs or restaurateurs wanting to make their mark.
But now that so many pubs in so many inner city neighbourhoods seem to have undergone the same treatment – a slicker, shortened name, a lick of paint, and a food menu on every counter – there were obviously wide-ranging underlying phenomena. To discover exactly what these were, I set off to meet Rupert Clevely at The Buider's Arms, just off The King's Road in Chelsea..
Clevely runs Geronimo Inns with his wife Jo (who started the business in 1995 when she saw the potential of The Chelsea Ram, SW10 at a time when he was still in the champagne trade) and now the company runs 15 pubs around London, making it much larger than its competitors, the largest of which runs three or four maximum. In each of these, they hope, one can eat and drink well and inexpensively, with an extensive range of beers and wines by the glass, and above all feel comfortable and relaxed. What, I wanted to know, has brought about this transformation ?
"Probably the most important economic change has been in how the leases were assigned from the breweries to the landlord," Clevely explained. "Until quite recently a brewery tenancy was just a three year rolling lease that was unassignable. So it was difficult to get bank finance to renovate often very run down premises and there was little incentive for the tenant to increase the size of his business because at the end of the three year period everything, other than the cash in the bank, reverted to the brewery. That has now changed and these pubs have become a proper business which the brewers are keen to see succeed under independent, more food-orientated management because when they prosper the brewers, in turn, sell more beer."
But pubs have changed in response to changing demography and here Clevely acknowledged two guiding principles. "We are initially always looking at areas where there are more wooden slat blinds in the windows than net curtains. This gives us the initial clue that the neighbourhood is changing from an older generation who looked on pubs just as a place to drink to a younger generation that is more accustomed to eating out. But crucially, although the area ideally will be surrounded in a heavily populated area with lots of flats, what we have learnt – the hard way in certain cases – is that our pubs will succeed best when they are in an area of first time buyers. Not surprisingly, they are far more likely to eat out than those with young children."
Clevely had warned me that if his mobile rang he would have to take the call. "I'm waiting to hear from my manager at The Hill up in Hampstead about our first week’s takings since we refurbished the place. Until now, it’s been a bit of an expensive mistake for us as we bought the lease for £300,000 when it was at rock bottom rather than when it was just on the up as we invariably prefer." Clevely took the call and came back with a smile on his face.
My own visit to The Hill shortly afterwards revealed quite how changed these pubs have become. The main room boasted a huge vase of flowers, flattering lighting via chandeliers, tables with candles and, consequently and most crucially for this new generation of pub operators, a large number of women who at one stage outnumbered the men by four to one.
The menu embodied Clevely’s vital criteria: neither too long nor too complicated (an essential factor I learnt is that no dish must include too much ‘pan work’ ie too many different ingredients cooked in too many different pans because pub kitchens like domestic ones tend to be small); astutely priced with most main course dishes under £10 ;and each dish undeniably substantial. In our case, three starters, five main courses with a couple of drinks for each of the five of us came to £100.
Two other phenomena are also likely to distinguish any meal in a well run British pub today. The first is that the service will almost certainly be provided by a well meaning antipodean. Clevely acknowledged this when he said that for too long he and his competitors had relied on adverts in TNT and Gum Tree – and although the source of their staff may not change, the level of staff training definitely would as they sought to close the gap on their restaurateur rivals.
The second is quite how universal British pub menus have become. Many do feature local ingredients but it is just as common to discover a pub menu today which begins with a plate of Thai crab beignets, moves on to sea bass, coconut and coriander chowder and finishes up with mango crème brûlée, all of which are listed as typical dishes in the Michelin guide. But in this respect perhaps British pub operators are finally learning from their French counterparts. When I wanted to discover just how the couple who ran the local, inexpensive bistro in the small village in south west France in which we were staying not so long ago managed to offer such keen prices, I spent a day working in their kitchens. The secret behind their inexpensive entrecôte was that it came from Argentina.
Geronimo Inns, www.geronimo-inns.co.uk
Michelin's Eating Out in Pubs in Britain and Ireland £14.99
Les Routiers Pubs and Inns Guide 2005 £12.50