Ringing the changes

The story so far

Scott Hessel's first business has been plagued by rumours of closure, which have affected sales. The drinks policy needed a complete overhaul and the decision has been taken to charge for bread rather than give it free.

Without any warning, the restaurant manager at Mustards & Punch has walked out, leaving no obvious replacement. Hessel has decided to take on another chef and run front of house himself at lunchtimes and midweek. Only at weekends, when the restaurant is very busy, is he now going back into the kitchen and leaving front management to his part-timers.

"I can talk to the punters, jolly them along, I'm good at that; I know what needs selling off the menu and push it. I'm still doing the prep in the day, and the menus, but the new lad's good. Can't be any other restaurant that's got a trainee barrister cooking."

Hessel is referring to the chef he has taken on, Tassadeq Hussain. "Tazz", as everyone calls him, has decided to quit cooking to study law and is currently a student at Sheffield University. During the summer holiday Tazz will be working full-time. Then, when the autumn term starts, he will revert to part-time hours.

By late September, Hessel hopes the second part of his plan will happen. He is trying to persuade his girlfriend Jane to quit her job working for an accountancy firm and run front of house so he can go back into the kitchen.

The liquor policy at Mustards & Punch has been fairly relaxed until now. A straight 50% markup on a short, but carefully chosen wine list, one draught lager pump and house wine at £7.95. Hessel tried selling wine in 46cl Le Pot bottles - fancy carafes, filled from bottles of house wine. "My idea was that customers would buy a £4.95 Le Pot for two, find it wasn't enough, then order another. That way I would get a £10 wine spend instead of £7.95 for a bottle of house. But it hasn't worked that way. They are just buying one Le Pot."

So the past month has seen a complete overhaul of liquor policy. The draught lager pump has gone. Because the restaurant doesn't sell pints, customers who ordered a lager for an aperitif were spending less than £1. In place of the lager, Hessel now stocks around a dozen speciality beers from around the world. The best-seller is the Belgian Chimay beer which, at £3.45 a bottle, is the most profitable aperitif he sells. "Two of them and it's the same take as a bottle of house wine."

There is hardly any reception area in the restaurant, but Hessel has cleared the tiny bar area of clutter so people can stand at the bar for aperitifs, rather than being shown straight to the table. Markup on wine has been edged up to 60%. "Nobody has noticed and profit from wine is 10% up this month." Hessel is also trying to cut down on the number of Le Pot servings.

Italian influences

The past month has had a strong Italian influence to the food and the drinks. As well as Italian beer and water, his wine merchant, Playford Ros, is supplying a Pinot Grigio and an Abruzzo. The white is selling at £11.95, the red at £9.95.

The idea to have Italian-influenced dishes on the menu last month is to continue into next month's menu cycle. Two new starters will be orecchiette pasta with smoked salmon and broccoli in a lime cream sauce (£4.95) and antipasto of Italian salamis and dried meats with charred vegetables (£4.95).

Three new main courses set to go on the menu are a rib-eye steak with char-grilled polenta and salsa verde (£19.95 for two persons); sole with an agrodolce sauce (£9.95) and monk tail wrapped in Parma ham served with a cassoulet and plum tomatoes (£11.50).

Also staying on the menu will be last month's gamble, which turned out to be the best-selling main course, braised shank of rabbit. This is a boned-out hindquarter, stuffed with the saddle of the rabbit, wrapped in pancetta, served with gratin potatoes and leeks (£9.45). "It was a lot of prep-work, but easy to serve."

Last month was the beginning of the policy of charging for bread. Free bread had been costing £200 a month. Now, for £1.50 for two persons, the customer gets three breads: a Fougasse, a fruit and nut and a plain brown cob. Plans to bake these himself have been shelved, since the baker up the road can bake to the standard Hessel wants.

Has the idea of paying for bread gone down all right in Yorkshire? "I got a few raised eyebrows, but no one's said anything. I've noticed others around here are starting to do it now."

All has not been easy this month. A flare-up occurred when a customer knocked over a standard lamp and smashed it. "It was a genuine Art-Deco lamp; I paid £250 for it at auction on Thursday, this was the day after. I went mad. The customer said I was out of order saying what I did. I asked him what he would have said if I'd have smashed a £250 lamp in his home the day after he'd bought it, but what can you do? He's a good customer."

The rumours which swept the village that he was leaving are still around. The latest version is that he has sold the restaurant to a mystery buyer who is now employing Hessel to run it. "I've given up trying to stop the stories, you'd send yourself crackers if you worried about gossip."

A new promotion has started this month: "Wednesday Lunch is Ladies' Day." Hessel wrote the news on the restaurant window which, since the restaurant is in the middle of the busy village high street, doubles as free advertising space.

For £15 for two, the customers get a choice of starters, two mains and an assiette of puddings to share. Also included is a glass of wine and coffee.

As word of the ladies' lunch in the tightly-knit village community gets around, Hessel thinks the numbers will continue to climb. They will need to if he is to realise his ambition of extending the restaurant in a couple of months' time.