24/09/2026
You guessed it; it's a long one!
We've done a lot of reviewing over the last 2 weeks, and almost every aspect of this pub is going through the change..
Over the last 18 months I'd very ambitiously built our menu up so there's plenty of variety to suit everyone's tastes, and I'm quite proud that even though our menu had become quite large, we were still able to provide very good value for money, well cooked food in a reasonably timely manner, and very generous portions. We're not a chain, and we're not a restaurant, so I thought we did quite well with that.
After reviewing the kitchen and it's stock processes, I've come to the realisation that trying to please everyone is doing more harm than good, in many different ways. The majority of our menu contains frozen elements (chicken burgers, strips, chips, roast potatoes, nuggets, sausages, etc) and keeping that much food in-stock at all times means the freezers are packed. The fresh elements are so varied (and some are single dish ingredients) that they go off before we can sell them through. The kitchen doesn't run at anywhere near the same level of revenue that it did six months ago - we actually used to rely on the kitchen to cover the majority of the pubs bills.
To combat this I have implemented a temporary menu of the dishes that we need to sell-through, so once they're gone, the base ingredients for the dish won't be returning. There are other dishes on the temporary menu that we will always stock (burgers, nuggets, chips, toasties, etc) to give the same variety that we're used to, but it's a targeted menu based on ingredients that are now considered dead money. As the dishes sell-through on this temporary menu, they will be replaced with other dishes that will also not return once they're gone. This will also allow me to reduce the equipment we need and sell off things that we haven't even unboxed yet.. that I was keeping "just-in-case" we might need them. This also gives me the ability to turn a freezer off, aiding in the reduction of our electricity bill.
As part of this review for behind the bar, we've made a few small changes to our draught prices.
Like every pub, the cost of buying b**r and running the building continues to change, so we've had to make some modest increases. We've deliberately looked at each product individually rather than simply putting a blanket increase across the bar.
Most of the changes are between 10p and 30p a pint, and we've kept some of our everyday favourites exactly where they are. John Smith's remains £3.70 and Inch's C***r remains £4.00, while Foster's is just £3.80. Our premium draught remains competitively priced too, with Cruzcampo £5.20, Birra Moretti £5.50, Murphy's £5.10 and Guinness £5.80. During the price increase back in April (tax increases) we did our level best to keep the increase on a price of a pint as low as we physically could. In hindsight, that was the wrong move and they should have gone up to meet the margins required to keep this building open, and not necessarily at a price-point in an effort to appease everybody.
We've spent some time comparing our prices with other pubs and the wider market. Current published industry figures put brands such as Foster's, Cruzcampo, Moretti and Guinness at considerably higher prices in many pubs nationally, while locally there are pubs offering cheaper prices at particular times through promotions and multi-buy deals, which we physically can't match.
We know nobody gets excited about a price increase, so keeping them reasonable matters to us. We'd much rather make small, considered changes where they're needed while keeping affordable choices on the bar, instead of just sticking 50p on everything and then dealing with the backlash.
Spirits and soft drinks haven't changed as their margins are good enough to sustain themselves. A few of the bottles in the fridges have had to increase and a few lines are not being restocked once they're gone, but on the whole they remain the same. The deals with Five for £10 shots is staying, as is the Two for £6 Bottled L***r deal. The Two C***rs deal will change in the coming weeks to reinforce the margins, ensuring every product across the board is pulling it's weight and earning it's fridge-space.
Pricing on the bar comes into effect tomorrow (Friday 25th) with the b**r delivery. Yes, we'll have draught products again.
Work on the function room has temporarily come to a halt in order for us to get back on track. I'll continue our efforts in there once things start to fall back into place.
The changes may seem drastic, so I wanted to let you all know what we're doing and why. I value transparency and honesty, and firmly believe that without those two things, this building will continue to be a revolving door of tenants and I'd become part of that statistic. Those extra pennies help us keep investing back into The Cordwainer - keeping the lights on, maintaining the building (cellotape is getting expensive), improving what we offer and continuing to be your local.
~ Mike
