The Brewery is a building with a soul. Converted from the original Whitbread Brewery in the City of London, a walk through the nine-room events venue takes you past a foundation stone with the inscription "S. W. [Samuel Whitbread] Junior 1774", through cellars that were once hermetically sealed beer vats more than 20 metres long, and to the beginning of a two-mile tunnel network through which ponies delivered beer to the City's pubs.
"We try to show people a good time and like to think that, after all, this building has been serving customers for centuries," says managing director Claire Lawson. The brewery was once producing 1.6 million pints per cycle, but the final drop was brewed 27 years ago. Since then Whitbread has shifted its interests to hotels and leisure, and the Brewery has risen out of the ashes. Today it is the company's only stand-alone events venue, turning over about £10m every year. It is also the venue for this year's Caterer & Hotelkeeper Chef Conference, sponsored by the British Pig Executive and taking place on Monday 22 March.
It is a fascinating corner of London. From the road you go through an archway, leaving behind the architectural pomp of the City, and enter a brown-brick yard. Whitbread used to have its offices in the surrounding buildings - they have now moved around the corner to the glass-clad finery of the City Point tower - and the main brewery building across from the entrance is now used for events.
The nine rooms cater for every size of function, from six people to 600. The largest, the Porter Tun, is where the old brewing hall used to be (boasting one of the largest "king post" roofing structures of its kind in Europe), while the smaller sugar and hop rooms have been transformed into venues for lunches, board meetings and breakfasts. If you hired the whole lot, you could accommodate 3,000 people.
But Lawson and her team are keen not to market the venue on its past alone. "We don't want to be a one-trick pony," stresses sales and marketing director Nick Rudlin. "If we just sell it on the history of the place it would get boring. We say to people they can take the pictures down, turn the place on its head if you like.
"We've had rooms dressed up as school classrooms and fields, requests for Ferris wheels and dodgems, and next year we have someone wanting Las Vegas." With so much variation, every event has its own manager assigned to it, both to ensure nothing is forgotten and to lead the organisers through the process. For a big event, those floor managers can find themselves working a 24-hour day. "There will be a set-up, sometimes all through the night, with set organisers coming in half-an-hour after the previous party finishes," says Rudlin.
When I visited last month it was, in the team's own words, the "crazy season". With nine rooms, the potential is there to put on 18 functions a day, often with just 30 minutes between events to turn the room around.
"The toughest time is when people are crossing over. Imagine the logistics of getting nine different discos in place while worrying if you've got enough crackers," laughs Rudlin. "And remembering all the details that people have been promised. It can be quite funny persuading people that their empty room will be transformed in time."
"It's very exciting managing that speed," adds Lawson, who, before heading up the Brewery, managed the Marriott hotel in Birmingham. "Unlike a hotel, you've got to wow people in a very short space of time. And every customer expects to be the number-one priority."
They obviously succeed on that front. About 55-60% of business is repeat, and the venue has hosted famous guests such as Jamie Oliver, Jonathan Ross and Tony Blair (apparently he was there the day after his heart scare, while Downing Street claimed he was recuperating). According to Rudlin, much of the Brewery's business comes from corporate clients because of its position in the City - "They don't like to travel," he says - while sports-related functions are also common. In fact, a merry-looking Phil Tufnell walked past us as we peeked in at one event, the cricketer Robin Smith's testimonial lunch.
The other factor both Lawson and Rudlin emphasise is the food. Three years ago Whitbread made the decision to strike up a partnership with catering company Circadia, a division of Compass. "Food alone cannot necessarily make a party, but it can definitely break it," says Lawson. "By using Circadia we try to stay ahead of the game with food. Our chefs are very much our selling tools."
Circadia does all the mise en place at a purpose-built site in Merton, south London. It is then transported to the Brewery each day, and finished in the kitchens there by as many as 15 chefs. Circadia managing director Mick Geraghty says this preparation is crucial to the ability of the Brewery to juggle nine different menus at a time. "Everything goes in kit form to the function, marked up for each function." He argues that this level of outsourcing actually mirrors a hotel's banqueting operation, in which mise en place would be done in-house but still well in advance.
Circadia also works closely with another Compass division, the party management specialists, Payne & Gunter. With P&G's experience of helping such high-profile events as Posh and Becks's famous Japanese party get off the ground, Geraghty believes the link helps the team deliver fresh ideas. "We try to be innovative within a price band. But it's not just about serving everybody with fillet steak; it's about service styles, bringing chefs and theatre into the dining room."
The team prefers to bring in clients at an early stage to influence and develop menus. Rather than just send out multiple menus - costing, say, £20, £30 and £50 per head - the company asks organisers what they like to eat, what exact budget they have, and to list any relevant themes. The Circadia consultant chefs then go away to create several menu ideas which are presented to the client at specially arranged tastings. Dishes might be planned up to a year in advance. "It beats just faxing a copy of the menu to a secretary," says Rudlin.
But Lawson is not complacent. "In the last five years the competition has ballooned. In the past we've always been up against the Park Lane hotels, but now people are looking for different ways to hold a party - on boats, in warehouses, one-off places. We need to reinvent ourselves constantly to stay where we are."
However, she is confident that the Brewery can fine tune its operation even further, because putting on events is its sole function. "We can look at restaurants, bars, and other events, and adopt best practice where it applies to us," she says.
The team is looking forward to hosting the Chef Conference. "We always enjoy cooking for the industry," says Geraghty, a member of the Academy of Culinary Arts. "The menu should be simple, making use of excellent ingredients, cooked well. We won't be overcomplicating things." To find out more, you'll have to come along.
the programme
The 2004 Caterer & Hotelkeeper Chef Conference, sponsored by the British Pig Executive, takes place at the Brewery, Chiswell Street, London EC1 on Monday 22 March.
Debates will include discussions on the future of fine-dining cuisine, with leading chefs Raymond Blanc, Heston Blumenthal and Philip Howard; the pros and cons of corporate purchasing and how to get the best out of your supplier, with Andrew Turner and Mark Dodson; and the issue of drink and drug abuse in the kitchen.
There will be a cookery masterclass given by 2003 Catey Newcomer of the Year winners Peter Gordon and Anna Hansen of London's Providores restaurant, as well as product tastings, afternoon workshops and kitchen tours.
Those who stay on for the evening will get to taste a menu devised by West Country chef Michael Caines. Circadia executive chef Phil Stocken will be preparing the Chef Conference dinner.
To make sure of your place at this year's conference contact Sarah Sutton on 020 8652 8349 for a booking form.