Breakfast bars?

Pubs and cooked breakfasts have always gone together - with over-indulgent trips to the former leading to a craving for the latter. But now that pubs are big players in the eating-out market, they have realised that there is money to be made by opening up to serve their worse-for-wear customers that restorative first meal of the day.

Pub breakfasts maybe nothing new in areas such as London's Smithfield market - where those working at the markets can tuck into a full breakfast from 6am. But it is an idea that has recently spread to other licensed premises. Customers can now feast on platters crammed full with variations of the well-known full English breakfast.

John Torode, former senior chef at Terence Conran's Bluebird and Mezzo restaurants, has a theory for the popularity of all-day breakfasts: "Everybody is told breakfast has to be eaten in the morning. But what goes into a cooked breakfast - fried eggs, bacon and sausages - is great eaten day or night." Torode has been quick to capitalise on this trend. His new pub called Smiths in London's Smithfield opening this May, will join the growing number of new bars devoting whole menus to breakfasts.

At the three-storey, 200-seat Smiths Torode will offer a mind-boggling list of breakfast items. There will be nine different breads, seven jams, seven combinations of breads, meat and eggs, and nine ingredients on the "Smiths all day big breakfast". It starts from £2.95 for any two items to £4.95 "for the whole damn lot".

Proving the breakfast menu idea works is the Reef bar at London's Paddington station. Owned by Select Service Partner, part of the Compass Group, it has 16 different breakfast items, with the traditional breakfast the most popular. Customer preference for the full English saw its promotion from a morning dish to being available at brunch and then on the all-day menu.

These new pubs also serve plenty of American and Continental-style breakfasts. The Reef's menu includes toasted breakfast sandwiches with either croissants, bagels, muffins or toast with a choice of fillings such as scrambled egg with cream cheese and smoked salmon, or a selection of light breakfasts such as Danish pastry. Smiths will offer waffles with banana and mascarpone or raisin toast with Leatherhead honey.

Menus at both the Reef and Smiths also suggest healthier options. The Reef's selection offers fresh fruit salad or Greek-style yogurt with honey and crunchy topping. Torode proposes to go even further by offering gluten- and yeast-free bread, muesli and an array of juices from a fresh juice bar..

But no matter what type of breakfast is served, it is quality produce that the customers are after - and they are getting it. As Andrew Garvey, the Meat and Livestock Commission's industry relations manager, points out: "There has been a change in the quality of meat provided in breakfasts. For example, there is more meat in sausages, they have more texture and there is a big variety of flavours. Organic also features widely, although it tends to be niche markets."

Organic produce is a sector Torode is aiming to tap into. He will be assuring diners: "All eggs are organic, free range, farm laid and delivered daily. Bacon is organically farm-reared and free from all additives and preservatives". Realistically he recognises not all produce will be organic, but he will make sure most is British. "We are not going to go 100% organic. Some things can't be, but I'm not going to import any organic food. There are too many excellent British products - such as Bury black pudding - not to use them.

While not going as far as Torode's organic mission, Paul Jefferys, executive chef with Young's, says he ensures meat items such as sausages come from nominated butchers. And in the handful of Young's pubs that serve breakfasts he says customers are becoming discerning even in the little things. "They definitely prefer fresh tomatoes over tinned," he says. "They are also easier for the pubs. If they are not used for the breakfasts they can be put in salads or other dishes at lunchtime."

And despite this new marriage of pubs and all-day-breakfasts, Jefferys has noticed customers don't always opt for alcohol. "What we do find is that morning coffee where you can serve a Danish is really popular."

Traditional Welsh breakfast (serves one)

From Gareth Johns, chef-proprietor of the Red Lion, at Llanfihangelnant Melan, Powys, Wales

Ingredients

2 standard eggs

1 heaped teaspoon laverbread

A little fine oatmeal

1 heaped teaspoon mashed potato

A little flour

2 slices of bacon

A little oil or lard

30g cockles(optional)

15g butter

Salt and pepper

Method

Beat eggs and season with pepper. Mix laverbread and oatmeal to a stiff paste. Season and form into a disc. Mix potato and flour until stiff, season and form into a disc.

In a frying pan, heat the lard or oil and fry the bacon to the required degree. Remove bacon to a warm plate. In the same pan, fry potato cake and laverbread until golden brown on both sides. Drain and transfer to a plate.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a pan and add the cockles, then the eggs, warming through and stirring until the eggs are set. Add to the plate.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 20 - 26 January 2000