Fans across the world

A positive word of mouth is one of the keys to a successful restaurant business. It needs to spread around the local area like juicy gossip until everyone knows how good the food is. For Bournemouth restaurant Hogarth's, though, its word of mouth is slightly louder than its nearby rivals.

"A guy e-mailed me from South-west Australia to book a table," laughs owner/chef Ian Mclelland. "He's coming to Bournemouth to visit relatives, he'd read about me in Caterer and wants to eat at Hogarth's, so it looks like my catchment area is spreading."

A combination of Mother's Day and a long Easter weekend made March the most successful Hogarth's has had since it opened in October. April, on the other hand, has been quiet to say the least.

In the last week of March the restaurant took £3,500, but in the first week of April it plummeted to £1,000. "I couldn't believe it," Mclelland says. "The end of March was totally crazy yet the week after it was totally dead, no customers were to be seen and the phone never rang. I was astonished."

Mclelland shrugs and attributes the sudden drop to the end of the Easter weekend and the school holidays, when Hogarth's is usually quieter. He isn't too worried, though. That drop was a blip on the normal £2,000-£2,500 average weekly take, and he's quite happy with that at the moment.

To break even Hogarth's needs to take £1,500 a week. From then on Mclelland starts to make a little money, and £2,000 is enough for him to at least draw a salary. Anything over that is driven back into the business.

"It's pretty much as expected," he says. "If you compare it to what the previous owner did, we're still 20-25% below his sales, but I knew it would be like that for the first six months. When March was so good I thought it was the start of the turnaround, but April brought us back to where we were before."

With summer approaching, Mclelland knows his quietest period is coming. Although Bournemouth is a summer resort, Hogarth's is out in the suburbs and its local customers disappear for June, July and August.

The long weekend surrounding the Queen's Jubilee is an oasis in this period, and Hogarth's is bound to be busy. Mclelland, however, won't be there for it - he's getting married on 1 June.

"We didn't even know it was the Jubilee when we organised it," he says. "Luckily I've got a friend who'll be running the kitchen while I'm away. On the Saturday of the wedding the restaurant is closed anyway for a private party, so I'm guaranteed £1,000 even though I won't be there."

The wedding, unfortunately, will be only a short respite. Mclelland is disappearing for just a week's honeymoon in Venice and then it's back to the kitchen, facing survival through a quiet period of business.

Last visit to Hogarth's: 20 June

The story so far

Canadian Ian Mclelland opened Hogarth's restaurant in the Ferndown area of Bournemouth last November. Since then he has put it through extensive refurbishments and business has reached a steady, satisfactory level that he knows he can improve on.

Mother's Day and Easter meant March was the most successful month so far, but was it just a one-off or has April continued the trend?

Hogarth's

173a New Road, West Parley, Bournemouth, Dorset
Tel: 01202 574769
Owner and chef: Ian Mclelland
Staff: one
Opened: 22 October 2001
Purchase price: £42,000
Seats: 32
Average turnover: £2,000-£2,500 a week