04/08/2026
📣 Another delayed Weekly Update - better late than never!
A lot has been occurring over the last few weeks to get us set up for the remaining months of the year. Some are still secret for now, I wouldn't want to spoil any surprises!
🍽️ Let's start with the kitchen 🍽️
We continue to have great success with our Spring/Summer menu, and in all honesty it's making it difficult to decide how we pivot the menu to the Autumn/Winter version. Up until last week I had something solid, and then out of nowhere all the dishes that I was going to take off due to low sales were almost the only dishes purchased. So.. I dunno. I'm still aiming for a menu switch middle of September, so I've still got time to make some decisions and turn the kitchen upsidedown to support new items.
🍖 Sunday Roasts 🍖
Until the menu change, we will no longer be offering Sunday Roasts. Every Friday I buy fresh ingredients, and every Sunday those ingredients become wastage. We haven't sold a roast in over a month, and before that we hadn't sold one for 3 weeks. The continued viability of this business depends on as little wastage as possible.
🚗 Now something of a sore subject: Carboot 🚗
When I initially agreed to host a carboot, I'd stipulated that if it didn't grow each month then I'd knock it on the head. April was ok for the first one, May had three less tables, and June had two tables total. I'd cancelled July at the last minute due to vehicles being left in the carpark after the England game - then I was made out to be a liar when 9am comes around and a photo posted on the announcement showed they'd all been picked up. I don't have a crystal ball so couldn't have known. That announcement was also removed around lunchtime on the Sunday as it had been derailed into pettiness.
Now that Wicksteed's carboot is in full flow (and coincides with ours) there's little point in continuing them here. Cordy Carboots are now cancelled.
🍺 Draught Products 🍺
The latest additions to the bar (Wainwright and Murphy's) are moving at a nice steady pace. However, there is still one product that I'm not necessarily happy with: Guinness. Our lease with the brewery strictly prohibits us from buying barrels elsewhere, which I've never kicked up a fuss over until the recent weeks, where I've seen the price of a barrel of Guinness from Booker and compared it to what I have to pay at the Carlsberg depot. The reason free-of-tie pubs and clubs can sell Guinness cheaper per pint is because they can buy from the cheapest suppliers. I've sent the brewery a nice email detailing the difference between what other suppliers charge, and what I have to pay (+£85 per barrel) in an effort to get the price dropped, even a little. If they're not willing to budge, I'm going to start looking at replacing Guinness. To make a profit on a pint to cover the bills, we have to charge a certain amount, and that amount has caused problems in the past (it should be 60p higher than it is now). If I can't buy the barrels at the right price to keep the balance sheets and the customers happy, then I don't see much point in prolonging the agony. Murphy's is a great alternative.
And here are some teasers of what's coming up:
🎱 Something about pool?
⚽️ Something about sports?
🖥️ Something about a big TV?
📚 And something completely non-pub-related: I'm an author!
Since lockdown I've been building a world full of places, characters and lore, and have used those in the games that I've designed. Though, you know you have a problem when you've started developing 16 games and only 1 is available to play... so over the last few months I've been organising the storylines from the games into some written works available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover and kindle editions. I know being an author isn't going to make me rich, but if I'm honest, nobody gets rich running a pub, either.
Until next time!
~ Mike
