Awards prompt business boom
The very roots of the hospitality industry can be traced back the to traditional inn: a warm welcome, good food and a comfortable bed. But rural inns are no longer competing with other local boozers: the competition can be restaurants and hotels within at least a 10-mile radius and, informal or not, standards have to be very high to win business.
As they are at the Rose & Crown, for instance. It's a classic 17th-century inn set on a village green in the picturesque village of Romaldkirk, County Durham, and last year it scooped three awards: the AA Pub of the Year for England 2003; an "all round excellence" award within the small hotel category from the Northumbria Tourist Board and - most appropriately named - the Good Hotel Guide's Inn of the Year 2003.
"The inn is all-encompassing and there's a market for places like this," says proprietor Chris Davy. "Society is much more informal these days. In the 1980s country house hotels were the places to go, but just look at what's happening now. A lot of chefs are moving out of London and they're buying pubs, not restaurants. People like the informality," he explains.
It has been a steady climb to success for Chris and wife, Alison, since buying the inn out of receivership back in 1990. But last year things really started to snowball, making 2002 a record year for business. The Davys saw turnover soar by £100,000 to £650,000, and for the first two months of this year it is already up 23% on the year before.
"It has been a very busy time for the staff. We were starting to get busier anyway and then the letters announcing our awards came in last June," Alison says. "The phone didn't stop ringing. God, we were tired."
While so many pubs in rural areas are having a pretty grim time of it, what is the Davys' secret? It goes back to the "all encompassing" hospitality that the original inns were designed for: a place to sleep, a cosy fire, a good pint, and, most important of all, says Chris, great food.
"Success is made in the kitchen. If the food is rubbish you might as well close your doors."
Food accounts for 50% of turnover and it's obviously Chris's passion. Although his background is in hotel management, (he was formerly the manager of the Chester Grosvenor) Chris spends two days a week in the kitchen, where, Alison notes, he is at his happiest. "He comes out in a really good mood," she says.
In 1994 Chris won the Logis of Great Britain Regional Cuisine award, representing the North of England. Lots of publicity followed, including a four-page spread with recipes from the Rose & Crown in Sainsbury's magazine.
Alison describes the result as "phenomenal", judging by the number of people who had spotted the article and visited the inn on the strength of it. "It just went on for months and months," she says.
The Davys employed a full-time chef from day one. The current head chef, Dawn Gibson, joined 13 years ago as a 16-year-old junior commis and has risen through the ranks, maintaining the two AA rosettes it has held for 11 successive years.
The lunch menu ranges from home-made soup with bread (£3.50) and a choice of baps (at about £4) to starters such as baked goats' cheese soufflé with chive cream (£4.50) and pan-fried chicken livers with smoked bacon and salad (£7.95). All desserts (£3.50) are home-made, such as the sticky toffee pudding and crème caramel with winter fruit.
A four-course dinner menu at £26 includes smoked haddock and potato risotto with poached egg and hollandaise, guinea fowl with tarragon cream with mushrooms, bacon and red wine.
Customers have the choice of a fine-dining experience if they want, with the formal restaurant seating 24, or the more casual pub-restaurant, seating 30. They have the added option to have a meal in the pub area, sitting by the fire if that's what they prefer. "Choice is terribly important," Chris says.
This is especially true in a rural area where customers are a mix of fell-walkers, grouse shooters, locals, weekenders and the odd business traveller. It's also a stopover for those travelling to Scotland. The key to success, as far as Chris is concerned, is to corner every market under one roof.
Clearly it's not just great food that wins awards. Last year, the couple ploughed about £35,000 into a refurbishment. Improving the decor has been an ongoing project that has lasted 13 years. Instead of borrowing a lump sum, the couple have done it gradually. Last year saw the final phase completed.
That final push of refurbishment, which included all the public areas, laying new carpets and installing new bathrooms for all 12 bedrooms, triggered the AA and Good Hotel Guide inspectors to put the inn in top place.
Alison has carefully designed each of the 12 bedrooms with different fabrics and colour schemes, so that no two rooms are alike. Personal touches include fresh flowers in the rooms and a guidebook of the area written by Chris and Alison
"In the past five or six years we have really moved this place into one of the leading lights," Chris says.
So is it a case of building up a business gradually or could they have arrived at the same place quicker? Certainly there were lean times to begin with, when the finances were was what Chris describes as "on a banana skin".
"If we had had a broader outlook, we might have borrowed the money and moved faster," Chris concedes. Alison agrees: "There was a time when I felt we were getting left behind. You can get so busy running your business that you lose touch with what is happening elsewhere. We should have been more aggressive with marketing earlier on."
As for more guide entries, Chris is scathing of the paid-for publications.
"Apart from the AA & RAC, I deliberately avoid the paid-for guides. You're just paying for what is written. About 50% of our bookings come from word of mouth and the rest a mix of the guidebooks and the tourist board."
Far from sitting back and enjoying the well-earned success, the couple are looking for ways to improve the business. Chris wants to ensure that competition, whether it is a Michelin-starred restaurant or a nearby hotel, is checked out by both the chef and management. They have also employed a PR company to spread the word to a wide range of publications - a monthly expense Chris admits is hard to quantify, but will be easy enough to swallow if next year's business is as good as the last.
Fact File
The Rose & Crown
Romaldkirk, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Tel: 01833 650213
Bedrooms: 12
Pub seats: 30
Restaurant seats: 24
Turnover: £650,000
Net profit: £156,000
Food: 50%
Bedrooms: 30%
Wet sales: 20%
Occupancy: 64%
Average room rate: £65
