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THE Bell Inn in Crickhowell, Powys, Wales is three businesses in one as it is not only a pub and restaurant, but also a bed and breakfast establishment offering five rooms.
The restaurant has 50 covers and serves food from 12 noon to 2pm at lunchtimes, 6.30pm to 9pm in the evenings on weekdays and until 9.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
"As the pub is a long way from the kitchen, we don't encourage people to eat food there, but if customers prefer to have a snack in the bar, then we'll do it," explains Joanna Grist.
The busiest times across all the businesses are the summer months of July and August, mainly because of the tourist season.
To generate extra custom, the pub holds regular theme nights. These have included St David's Day on 1 March featuring a Welsh menu and cheese; Italian night and Independence Day on 4 July.
"Attendance varies," says Grist, "depending on the night of the week. If it's a Friday or Saturday, we'll tend to have the maximum number of 50 people, but if it's a Monday or Tuesday night, there's not such a good turn out," she says.
The pub also caters for private parties such as weddings or christenings.
"We don't do that many weddings as we're too small, but some people have smaller weddings these days. We can accommodate up to 50 people for a wedding."
Typical customers to the pub and restaurant are families with young children (although children aren't allowed into the restaurant after 9pm), older couples over 40 and tourists.
Grist buys in Uncle Ben's American Long Grain rice, 782. "We've tried different types of rice but we prefer this brand as it's easier to cook."
For pasta, Grist tends to use tagliatelle and pasta shells from Booker's Chef's Larder, 783. "It cooks well and the end result is a good taste that our customers like," she says.
For chips, she likes McCain crinkle cut frozen chips, 784, "as they are popular among customers. We've been serving them for a long time."
All sauces are made from scratch with the exception of a smoky barbecue sauce - this is bought from GB Davies in Gloucester, 784 and used as a base for the sauce.
The Bell Inn offers a children's menu featuring dishes such as chicken nuggets from Brake Bros, 785.
Breakfast for the bed and breakfast guests is an important meal of the day. The maximum number for breakfast is nine. Grist likes the Kellogg's range of cereals, 786, such as Fruit & Fibre, Weetabix and Shredded Wheat.
The Bell Inn is a member of the Taste of Wales, a hospitality scheme co-ordinated by the Welsh Development Agency and backed by the Wales Tourist Board, which promotes and endorses the use of Welsh produce.
Therefore the fully cooked breakfast on offer to The Bell Inn's bed and breakfast customers includes Welsh sausages from a local butcher, as well as hash browns from McCains, 787.
For the restaurant menu, Grist serves Welsh meats from a local butcher and fish, fruit and vegetables from the local market at Brecon.
The Bell Inn's desserts comprise bought in and home-made dishes. There is an orchard at the back of the pub so Grist uses fresh apples to make apple pie. Other desserts include chocolate fudge cake and lemon meringue pie from Hippo Campo, 788, a frozen food supplier in Crickhowell. "We serve ready-made desserts when the chef runs out of time," she says. "But we always include the home-made apple pie as it's very popular."
