Once again Foodservice Rep brings you our annual report of the state of play in the pub market, with insights from Gary Johnson, who as National Executive Chef for a major national hotel chain prior to his retirement late last year spent much of the past 12 months with his finger sharply on the pulse of the pub sector.
Read MoreHaving weathered the storm of Covid, the club market is now facing fresh challenges of inflated wages and cost of goods, and the consequent upward pressure on menu prices. We spoke to three club industry veterans for their take on the current state of play.
Read MoreAs foodservice businesses continue to face the challenges of staff and skills shortages against the economic pressures of rising costs, the club market is working hard to draw in customers through menu innovation. We spoke to three club chefs to find out more about their approaches in the current environment.
Justin Hope
Justin Hope is executive chef at the SS&A Club (Sailors, Soldiers and Airmen’s) in the heart of the NSW/Victoria border town of Albury. Boasting live entertainment, three bars including a popular sport’s bar, café and The Social Dining bar and restaurant, it serves up classic club dishes like steaks, schnitzels and burgers as well as Asian cuisine. Justin has been working there for close to eight years, having moved up from Melbourne with his wife and son.
“The club is constantly improving itself – we’ve done a lot of renovations since I’ve been here and we’re just about to go through another one. One of the things I really love about the place is that we’re always aiming to improve and do better food,” Justin says.
“One of the things I really love about the place is that we’re always aiming to improve and do better food”
The Social Dining bar and restaurant has been styled as a family friendly bistro and seats about three and a half thousand each week. “We used to have a Chinese restaurant which was very popular, but we decided to merge all the food offering into one larger dining space,” Justin explains. “We still have a dedicated Asian menu because there’s always been a big following for it, so we’ve including a designated wok area which is very popular.”
Justin describes the customer demographic as “a real mix – we get everyone from the local pensioners who come in for a value meal generally during the week at lunchtime, then our young families who come in for dinner – they’re looking for somewhere they can take the kids where they can be entertained, so we organise family fun days. Then we have the younger singles crowd who tend to come in for our wok dishes, pizza, burgers – so we try to tailor the menu so there is something for everyone. We also have a lot of functions in our auditorium which seats up to 350 and our Skylight room which is a smaller function space.”
As you would expect, the menu is quite extensive to cater to this clientele: “We have the wok section, we have pizza ovens, old favourites like parmis, fish and chips and roasts. We’re always trying to keep our core audiences as happy as we can and at the same time we’re trying to come up with new dishes and new ways of doing things. We’re currently looking at putting in some new equipment as well as internal processes to speed up the food delivery on busy nights.”
Justin believes club food as a whole is getting better and better. “We look to the Sydney clubs and keep abreast of what they’re doing, and they’re tailoring menus to a lot more people – they have some really exciting options, like a lot of Asian flavours, wood fired pizzas and so on, so we try to take influences from what they’re doing and I think that’s really paying off for us.
“We’re not a massive club with seven dining spaces, but we’re trying to implement that sort of idea in the one space – giving customers more choice so that one person can order pizza, another pasta, another Asian and they can have it all in the same dining space. One of our biggest strengths is that there’s not a lot of competition for Asian in the local area, so that does bring in a crowd. We recently put on a Malaysian style laksa with prawns, prawn dumplings and rice noodles just as a special – it was such a definite hit that we’ve had to add it as a regular item.”
JUSTIN HOPE (L) AT ALBURY'S SS&A CLUB
Being situated in a rural area, the club also makes good use of local produce: “We use Riverina beef, local pork, Holbrook lamb – there’s a lot of different producers around the area and we recently did a monthly special for the Perfect Plate competition showcasing local produce, and more generally we try to utilise it as much as we can on the menu.”
One of the things Justin loves about working in the club market is how much clubs put back into the local community. “We are not for profit and I think last year we donated $1.5m into charities. That sort of achievement does make you feel good and keeps you motivated to ensure the business does well because of what it contributes. We do work with the Cancer Centre and with Boys from the Bush which addresses systemic disadvantage faced by young Indigenous Australians.”
RICHARD WAGEMAKER, SEEN R
Richard Wagemaker is Executive Chef at The Ary Toukley on the NSW Central Coast, which has built a strong reputation on the quality of its food, including being the recipient of several Restaurant and Catering awards. Richard has been at the club for 13 months, having come from popular Rhonda’s restaurant and bar in neighbouring Terrigal. “Given the current produce situation it was becoming really hard for small restaurants – the club is a safer environment and it’s something I’ve never done before, so I thought I’d give it a try. It was a bit different to start with but a good challenge, and now I’m settled in and have built up my team.”
Richard says his main focus has been optimising the quality of the produce: “I wanted to get the best steaks I could find, the best seafood I could find. Obviously it’s a bit more expensive, but if you offer a better product you increase revenue because the customer will keep coming back. We’ve introduced king prawns to the menu which have been a great success – we sold over 50 boxes within four months. Three weeks ago I changed the menu again and we’ve introduced Moreton Bay Bugs on fresh made spaghetti, and that’s also been huge – I think we sold over 10 boxes in three weeks. It’s proven the point that people are willing to pay a couple more dollars to have a good product on the table.”
Sourcing local produce is important for Richard: “Even for our pizzas we make our own pizza bases and I use a local flour miller, Ben Furney Flour Mills which is in Northern NSW and they produce a very good product which is comparable to the Italian flours, at the right price.”
“It’s proven the point that people are willing to pay a couple more dollars to have a good product on the table”
The Ary Toukley does between 150-250 covers a day during the week and between 200-250 on weekends so around 1600-1700 weekly all up. “It’s pretty busy – it seems like every day there are more and more customers coming in,” Richard says. “Our revenue has been going up month to month, which is good for the club and also an indicator that the changes we’re making on the menu are getting results and bringing in more customers. We won a Perfect Plate Award for our King Prawn Ravioli and Chocolate Fondant dishes last month and that has garnered some local publicity and we’ve been pretty busy since. We’d only created the dishes to enter for the award – we put them on the specials board and they ran for six weeks, then we took them off but demand has been so strong since that we’ve now added them to the regular menu.”
Richard explains seafood has always been a big drawcard for the club, adding: “Most of the clubs around here have waterfront views to bring people in. We don’t have that, so we’ve decided to concentrate on our food as a point of difference and with the changes to the menu that seems to be working better than ever. Coming from the restaurant industry, I’m focused on menu builds and produce, and I’ve tried to bring that mindset into the club. I know the customers are happy because we have people come up and talk to the chefs and thank us – we even have people say they’re not locals but they came especially for the food, so we can say for a fact it attracts people to the venue.”
STEVE SIDD AT WORK PUTTING THE FINISHING TOUCHES ON CATERING HQ MEALS
Steve Sidd is managing director of Catering HQ which runs the food offerings in multiple RSL clubs throughout Sydney. Steve describes the club market as “a bit of a safe haven compared to what restaurants are going through”, adding “I knock on wood continuously. I think the main reason for clubs’ being able to weather the storm is that people look on them as a value proposition, and because they are entrenched in the local community.
“People come to socialise and often they’ll spend the whole day – they might come in for a coffee in the morning, then watch a show, have lunch, go to the café; whereas in a restaurant you’ll go for a meal and then leave, we have people who come weekly or even daily. From Monday to Thursday we offer $17 lunch specials and $25 dinner specials, and on a Monday night we have a two course menu for $25 which is excellent value. So we get people coming through the early part of the week which is a quiet time for a lot of restaurants. It's often more appealing and even cheaper for people to come to our venues and eat rather than go to the trouble of going to the supermarket, cook and wash up – people are time poor and they would rather drop in, have a cheap meal and it’s all done.
“Friday to Sunday is where we make 75 per cent of our turnover, so we don’t run any specials during those days because the extra patronage makes up for the early part of the week. But what we find is that the people who come earlier in the week and enjoy the specials will also come back on the weekends with their friends and then they’re happy to spend a bit more. I think it’s all about the convenience – you don’t see restaurants offering the prices we do earlier in the week, and that’s why clubs are considered a value proposition.”
“We’re constantly evaluating our menus to ensure we can make the best margins while providing a better quality meal”
Steve emphasises, however, that the value has to be backed up by good quality food. “Currently we’ve got five lunch specials on our winter menu: a creamy coconut beef curry, calamari, a pulled pork burger, a baked barramundi fillet and housemade bangers and mash. For our dinner specials we have the two course special which is beef brisket and sticky date pudding; we also have a shank and shiraz dish, which is a lamb shank with a glass of red; we have surf and turf; and we have chicken schnitzel with toppers. We’ll change these with the seasons and theme them around local produce. We also offer free kids’ meals on a Monday which is a strong drawcard when coupled with our two course Monday special.”
Steve says the staples of the pub market – “steaks, burgers, seafood, chicken schnitzels” – will always form a key component of the menu, but adds that presentation styles are constantly evolving. “We’re serving beautiful lamb shanks, slow-cooked meats are very popular during winter. We devote a lot of time and effort to menu engineering – we’re constantly evaluating our menus to ensure we can make the best margins while providing a better quality meal at a decent price. In the club market you always have to bear in mind that there’s only so much people are willing to spend, and if you want to continue to offer that value proposition to your customer, you’ve got to devote the time to plan well.”
