strawberry's@the doll
Could we be looking at the next celebrity chef here? Will Dean Eccles, the stocky 33-year-old with close-cropped ginger hair - sorry, strawberry blond - who runs Strawberry's@theDoll, follow in the footsteps of his former boss, Gary Rhodes, and become a media star?
Well, not just yet, perhaps. In truth it's not something Eccles is planning. But he is about to launch a career as a newspaper columnist for The Journal, the local paper that's Newcastle's equivalent to London's Evening Standard. If he becomes a regular contributor it will give his restaurant- within-a-pub invaluable publicity - and it won't do his personal profile any harm either.
"I wrote to the paper, offering to write some Q&A-style food articles for them," Eccles says. "They suggested a more general approach, and said they were keen to carry something on a regular basis - perhaps weekly - so I wrote a piece on olive oil, explaining why the British drizzle it over everything these days, instead of just pouring it in their ears. They liked it, and I'm hoping to become one of their regulars, though it's not definite yet."
Finding time to write 1,000 words plus a couple of recipes every week won't be easy for a chef who's in the kitchen nearly all day, but Eccles knows it will be worth it. He'll also be paid £75 a time. By a happy coincidence, that's the same amount it usually costs to put an advert in the paper - for special events such as Burn's Night or Valentine's Day.
It's now a year since Eccles opened Strawberry's@theDoll, and he has decided it's time for the first radical change to the menu. Until now he's offered the same dishes - at the same prices - at both lunch and dinner. From yesterday (Wednesday) the evening menu is being moved upmarket.
The idea is to make the restaurant more of an eating-out destination in the evenings, and to serve brasserie-style dishes that use more expensive ingredients. Eccles will be serving the likes of fillet steak, duck and - one that he's particularly pleased with - roasted pheasant with juniper-braised cabbage and parsley potatoes. Evening customers will also get complimentary bread and a bowl of olives.
Eccles is also introducing a cheeseboard, supplied entirely by local firm the Northumberland Cheese Company - "I like to promote local ingredients" - and will be adding a touch of theatricality to the cheese course. "If people order cheese I'll come out and serve it myself from a small foldaway table," he says.
The new menu for the evenings will still be à la carte. There will be six starters, six main courses and six desserts, and Eccles expects the average bill per person will be £20-£25 (without wine - profits from drinks sales still go straight to the pub).
The more formal service in the evenings will also mean the restaurant will stay open for longer. Last orders will be at 10pm (previously 9pm) during the week, and 10.30pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
Luckily, Eccles is about to get some extra help in the kitchen to cope with these additional hours. He has been working with just one other member of kitchen staff since before Christmas, but will soon be taking on a 16-year-old school-leaver who will be working towards an NVQ with the Hotel & Catering Training Company (HCTC).
"The HCTC provides apprentices to work in catering and hospitality and you pay the student £75 a week, though they also get an allowance," Eccles explains. "I have to teach them and put them through their NVQ modules, and the HCTC will send assessors to check on their progress."
It will take his apprentice chef two years to complete his NVQ, and Eccles is hoping he will spend the whole period at Strawberry's@theDoll. "I've said that I'd like a two-year commitment - after all, I'll be training him from scratch," he says.
"He'll do about 40 hours over five days - I don't want to flog him to death in the first few years."
The story so far
Chef Dean Eccles runs the restaurant at the Wooden Doll pub in North Shields, seven miles east of Newcastle. He pays publican Terry Mellor a flat fee for the use of the kitchens, plus wages for kitchen and waiting staff, and keeps whatever profit he makes on food. All drinks sales go straight to the pub. Mellor has been hoping to convert his tenancy with brewery, Jennings, into a lease - and the kitchens are to be refurbished as part of the deal - but negotiations have taken longer than expected.
Factfile
Strawberry's@theDoll
The Wooden Doll, Hudson Street, North Shields, Newcastle NE30 1DL
Tel: 0191-258 1235
Head chef: Dean Eccles
Opened: February 2002
Seats: 50
Initial investment: £5,000
Average weekly sales (January): £1,800
Average weekly covers (January): 235
Average weekly sales (February): £2,500
Average weekly covers (February): 325
