Into the spotlight
ON THE face of it, winning the food and beverage account at the Royal Opera House (ROH) in London's Covent Garden was a real coup for Searcy Corrigan Restaurants. The institution is, after all, one of the most high-profile arts establishments in the country, one with a guaranteed level of publicity for any company associated with it.
That publicity is double-edged, however. A storm of press and political criticism, not to mention the establishment's near-demise, over the past two years has ensured that anyone associated with the ROH will be forever in the full glare of the public spotlight. No failure, however small, will go unnoticed.
"It's a very political contract," admits Peter Prescott, general manager for Searcy's at the ROH. "Visitors often find it difficult to directly criticise what goes on on-stage and it's very easy to come to one of our restaurants and say ‘this dish is too dry' or ‘this wine isn't chilled'. There's usually a correlation between a bad evening - say a delayed performance - and the number of complaints we have."
As a group, Searcy's is well placed to deal with the foibles of theatre-going diners and, indeed, it deliberately keeps a high profile in the arts. For instance, it operates the catering contract at London's Barbican Centre and at the National Portrait Gallery.
The ROH contract, however, is far larger than either of these. Prescott's domain here comprises two 130-seat eateries (the Amphitheatre and Balcony restaurants), six bars and a café in the spectacular new Vilar Floral Hall, all of which are public-access outlets. In addition, he has responsibility for two staff restaurants and 12 private dining rooms. "It makes some of the large restaurant complexes look small," he says.
With an influx of more than 2,000 visitors a night, six days a week, the public restaurants are guaranteed to be fully booked on performance evenings. The potential for extra revenue to pay off debts and subsidise productions is obviously attractive for the management of the beleaguered opera house. Question Prescott, though, on the specifics of Searcy's contract and he declines to comment, other than admitting that it is on a profit-share basis.
What he is happy to talk about are the steps that Searcy's is taking to make the ROH less elitist. These include certain pricing policies. The most inexpensive bottle of Champagne, for instance, used to be sold at £49.50 pre-1999. Now, it's £29.50 for "virtually the same product". And smoked salmon salad used to go for £25, whereas now, "the most we charge for smoked salmon is £6.50," says Prescott.
Coffee, which undercuts Covent Garden business rivals by 10%, is standardised across the bars at 95p a cup. Restaurant prices are fixed at present (see Facts) and the Amphitheatre restaurant - which, unlike the more formal Balcony restaurant, opens for lunch - has already taken part in the London Evening Standard's Lunch for £5 scheme and the Financial Times's Lunch for £10.
Evening menus are tailored to what's playing in the auditorium. When the ballet Romeo and Juliet was performed, for instance, a typically Italian first course of roast vegetable soup with basil oil was offered. The bloodthirsty opera Gawain inspired a main course based on venison.
The Amphitheatre is already drawing a steady 70-100 covers at lunch. "We've used the first two months to trial dishes and get service right, and we're officially launching the restaurants with an ad campaign from 1 March," says Prescott, who will have a marketing fund of £2,500 a month from that date.
Prescott joined Searcy's in August of last year from the Britannia hotel in London's Grosvenor Square (the venue for this year's Chef Conference - see Caterer, 16 March), where he helped to launch its new ballroom. Before that he did stints in banqueting at Claridge's and the Grosvenor House hotel. His latest job uses all his accumulated skills. "We run banqueting events in Floral Hall and some of the studios," he says, "so the contract has got elements of banqueting, contract catering and restaurant service. And we do breakfasts, conferences and seminars as well."
Searcy's had the contract confirmed only in September last year, a mere two months before the new ROH reopened its doors to the public on 4 December.
The company had to quickly recruit 220 staff. Training, of necessity, was brief, and after the opening much of it had to be done on Sundays, when the ROH was closed. Additional training was slotted in over Christmas and the New Year, when Searcy's was obliged to run a full operation, but when business was slow. Consequently, with double and triple rates being paid, the ratio of staff wages to turnover was a crippling 60% over the festive period, estimates Prescott. "It's on line for 30% for this month," he adds.
Another drawback to being awarded the contract late in the day is the fact that Searcy's was not involved in any stage of the ROH design. The end result is that it is already making adjustments to some of the facilities, both front and back of house. To date, the company has invested about £800,000 in the project.
"We budgeted £200,000 originally and I think we'll end up investing £1m - that's on top of the more than £2m that the house has put into the catering facilities," says Prescott. "Most of our extra investment is to do with the fact that we didn't get access to the house until so late. In fact, we only got into the Amphitheatre restaurant at 3pm on the opening day - and the restaurant was fully booked."
The Amphitheatre restaurant itself was a last-minute addition. "It was supposed to be an office," says Prescott. "But five or six weeks before opening we suggested that it should be a loss-leader restaurant, open all day, offering two first courses, two mains, two desserts. It's already generating substantial revenue, so that concept has changed - we're now offering four dishes at each level and we'll probably increase the number again for lunch and introduce an à la carte menu, although the evening menu will stay at the same numbers and at set-price because of the service-time limitations."
Searcy's faith in the ROH project is already paying dividends. Though unable because of contract confidentiality clauses to reveal the precise site-revenue for the first three months of operation, Prescott admits that the total is "about £2m more than we anticipated". He qualifies the admission, though, by stressing that Searcy's doesn't expect to make a profit at the end of the year. "If we do make anything," he adds, "it will only be a month or two before the end of the year. The contract is a longer-term investment."
That Searcy's is enjoying early success is undoubted. The challenge for the future will be to build daytime business in the Amphitheatre restaurant and Vilar Floral Hall café, and to expand banqueting and corporate events in the ballet studios and private dining rooms.
"There's no reason why Floral Hall shouldn't be full on a non-performance night [which occurs about a dozen times a year] or on a Sunday," states Prescott.
"And we need to open up the private dining rooms for high-quality lunch meetings, to make them key competition to the likes of the Savoy rooms." n
See next week's Menuwatch on the Amphitheatre restaurant.
