Taste of Liberty
Digby Trout's instructions for finding Arthur's, the latest contract for his eponymous catering company, are specific: "Go to the Regent Street Liberty - not the Tudor building, mind - down the escalators, past the men's shirts and ties, and there we are."
There, indeed. Descending the escalator at the London store the eye is assaulted by the vibrant colours of the artfully arranged shirts, ties and cuff links and drawn to the cool, white open space that is the 64-seat restaurant.
The average shopper would never know that Arthur's (named after Liberty founder Arthur Lasenby Liberty) was not run by the same company that made its name with its fabrics, furnishings and Oriental goods, and which now attracts young, fashionable consumers with its cutting-edge designers. Digby Trout Restaurants (DTR) has a policy of operating anonymously. That, and its experience in the retail sector - it caters at Heal's in London's Tottenham Court Road - is what attracted Liberty to the catering company in the first place.
"Liberty expects the catering to enhance the Liberty brand," says Trout, who is managing director of DTR. "You will view the ties differently if you have a great cup of coffee - the feel-good factor works. The catering has a disproportionate effect on people's perceptions, and I am sure that if we treated someone badly in here [Arthur's], they would walk right past the ties on their way out."
Arthur's opened on 9 March as part of a £13m redevelopment at the three-floor Regent Street store. Liberty consists of two buildings connected by a walkway, the original being the Tudor-style shop, built in 1924, with an entrance on Great Marlborough Street. The shop's owner is property company MWB, which also jointly owns Malmaison Hotels with hotel company Rezidor.
The plan behind the contract is that Arthur's and the Arts Bar Café in the Tudor building, which DTR took over in September, will be the outposts of the catering. In addition, a yet-to-be-built formal restaurant will house a central kitchen.
But that's still a few years down the road. Trout estimates it will be three years before the formal 100- to 120-seat restaurant will open. In the meantime, the Arts Bar Café, which was the store's only catering before Arthur's, will almost certainly move within the next 18 months.
The move on to site was rapid, with Trout being asked to submit ideas in August, and DTR coming in to run the Arts Bar Café in September. Trout had the advantage of knowing the store, because in 1986 he was regional director for the Catering Partnership, then part of Trusthouse Forte, which ran the catering at Liberty.
The initial contract to run the Arts Bar Caf‚ has been extended to include a five-year contract for Arthur's. DTR has not invested capital in the project, because the restaurant is not open in the evening, and Trout showed Liberty's chief executive, Fiona Harrison, that it was financially impossible for DTR to recoup such an investment. So DTR's only outlay was in the light equipment, to the tune of about £30,000.
The Arts Bar Café provided DTR with valuable insight into the type of customer Liberty now attracts. "We took on the existing catering, which allowed us the opportunity to get to know the Liberty customer. We changed the offering considerably," Trout says.
The caf‚ was serving tea, coffee, cakes and hefty sandwiches. DTR has taken into account the predominately female customer profile and made the meals lighter and portions smaller.
There are still two distinct audiences, and Trout believes the Arts Bar Café provides for both. The traditional, out-of-town customer who comes specifically for Liberty's fabrics and furnishings will find fruit scones with clotted cream and jam (£2.95). But there's also tuna baguette with black olives, roasted pepper and artichoke (£6.25) or savoury tart with leaf and herb salad (£6.95) for younger women who are buying the store's cutting-edge fashions or shoes.
And the lessons have been transferred to Arthur's, which is even more closely targeted at young fashionistas. From a minute kitchen, chef Nina Parry turns out lunches from 12 noon to 3pm that include St Mawes lobster and linguine pasta (£15.95), foie gras roulade with gingered chicory, walnuts and balsamic onions (£16.95) and the best-selling Old Worcester "rarebit", Granny Smith and watercress salad (£7.95). Another popular option is the dish of the day with a glass of wine for £11.95.
An all-day menu includes walnut toast (£2.95), cinnamon French toast (£3.95), canap‚s of cherry tomato tartlets and white bean purée (£5) or artichoke tartlets, Parmesan shavings and truffle oil (£5). Afternoon tea includes items such as cucumber sandwiches (£4.95), fruit tart (£3.10) and chocolate brownies (£1.50).
Trout knows his customers at Arthur's are the type who regularly eat in expensive restaurants. "Our customers expect the same service here that they get at a top-flight restaurant. They will not differentiate between what they spend here and what they buy at night. It's not a case of this is a third of the cost so we expect a third of the service," he says.
As a result, DTR uses a dedicated team for Arthur's which does not mix with the team at the Arts Bar Café. Liam Farrell oversees both operations, but Maria Cushing has day-to-day management of Arthur's.
In a retail environment, DTR has to put a lot of planning into attracting customers. At any one of the visitor attractions where DTR operates (the Tower of London and Southwark Cathedral are two) the turnover of the restaurant can be calculated by looking at a proportion of visitor numbers and multiplying it by the average spend. "Here it is about spend per customer and time of day. It breaks down to morning, lunch and afternoon, and the sales mix is pivotal, much more so than at a tourist attraction," says Trout.
The spend per customer is not yet coming up to scratch. Trout initially forecast £11 per head, but after six weeks' trading the average spend is £7.20. The shortfall, he believes, is because it is more challenging to sell wine than he had originally predicted.
Trout places the restaurant "a peg down from Nicole Farhi's restaurant and a notch up from most in-store restaurants that offer coffee and sandwiches". "There was no point in us competing with Starbucks or Caffè Nero on the high street," he says.
Arthur Lasenby Liberty, who founded the store in 1875, would certainly approve of those sentiments. On the walls of Arthur's are quotes about the store and one from Liberty himself: "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." If he were alive today, Parry's delicate platters of canapés and artfully designed sandwiches would certainly fit into both categories.
Digby Trout at Liberty
Arthur's, basement of Liberty, Regent Street, London W1B 5AH
Tel: 020 7734 1234
Opened: 9 March
General manager of Liberty: Liam Farrell
Manager of Arthur's: Maria Cushing
Chef: Nina Parry
Seats: 64
Covers: 60 a day
Average spend: £7.20
Turnover: £500,000 by year two (2003)
