Marketing via Social Media

Everyone and his dog are telling us that we mustn't ignore Social Media in promoting a business - everyone, that is, except a few strange people on LinkedIn who claim that it's detrimental to a venture and cite a handful of out-of-context examples (the fact that they're website designers can't have anything to do with it?) - but this feature Big Hospitality, 31st January 2011 told me precisely zilch.

Business Development Director Simon Beck, of PR Consultants Hill Balfour says, "Consumers today are able to research and digest information across a number of mediums – TV, print, online, radio and of course through social media." Erm, excuse me, but aren't social media part of online?

These purveyors of gobbledygook, with their argot of above-the-line versus below-the-line advertising, are facing testing times now that so many businesses can do their own marketing very simply and effectively. At the end of the day, after all the blue-sky thinking, pushing the envelope and going the extra mile the genie's out of the bottle and the Emperor's got no clothes.

Newcomers to the pub game

There may be fewer pubs closing now than a year ago, but to read this article in the Morning Advertiser (the daily bible of the licensed trade)  one would conclude that all those which are left all have roses growing round the door - and ex-sqauddies can deal with trouble-makers by shooting the bastards!
Morning Advertiser, 28th January 2011

Running a pub in any climate is not a walk in the park - in today's it's a very precarious existence and without proper advice too many of these hopefuls will simply p*ss their savings against the wall.

Poppies Fish & Chips, London E1

 A simple report that a Chippy is to open near Spitalfields Market - in Hanbury Street, to be precise - has taken me on an aromatic journey through time. About 50 years or more!

The Hand Book, 5th January 2011



My maternal grandparents lived in Hanbury Street (a few doors away from where Jack the Ripper's 2nd victim was found) and right behind, though with its entrance in Brick Lane, was the Trumans Brewery.

It was announced last summer that after more than two decades in mothballs, brewing is to recommence there - I can still smell that distinctive scent in my mind, which brings back the tall, narrow house in vivid detail: Grandpa Max's tailoring work-room, with its dummies which scared my 3-year-old self - during WWII he made knickers out of parachute silk! Nanna's kitchen with its black-leaded stove and scrubbed table: it was a family joke that if you shredded apple and let it go brown then you'd cooked it!

Upstairs was a room with a sloping ceiling, peeling wallpaper and a tin bath - how times have changed!

The last occasion I was down there on a nostagia trip my niece was about 14, and she's in her 30s now..........

Poppies looks worth a visit, though!
http://www.poppiesfishandchips.co.uk/

Nanny and would-be Alan Sugar Teen Go-getters

Some Jobsworth in Devon has seen fit to stress that even during school holidays any budding Alan Sugar under 16 may not work before 7.00am or after 7.00pm.

 Big Hospitality, 10th December 2010


A friend of mine started work for me as a kitchen porter at the age of 10, was Kitchen Manager at 17 and Bar Manager at 18 years of age. How many laws did the pair of us break?

Bah, humbug!

Minimum Price Diktat delayed

On Tuesday I reported on items that were likely to be included in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill. In the end the government ducked the issue of minimum pricing for alcohol.
Big Hospitality, 1st December 2010

Six months in the life of a sleb-chef

In breaking news it is reported that Aiden Byrne, the Sleb-chef who opened with such a fanfare at the Hillbark Hotel in Frankby back in July of this year, has kicked it into touch already. He's gone shopping and bought the former Black Horse Hotel in West Kirby - more recently trading as The Collingwood - which is due to re-open this week.

Caterer, 2nd December 2010

Norton Manor Hotel, North Yorkshire

My eye was caught this morning by a headline in a Big Hospitality briefing: Win a restaurant and £10,000 with "We Love Malton". 

I was transported back nearly 20 years to March 1991 when I spent every weekend in Malton. My company, Alehouse Investments Ltd, was running Norton Manor Hotel on behalf of the receivers - I think we had a free tenancy because that worked out cheaper than boarding the place up and having to provide security - Norton being the smaller neighbour of Malton, joined together by a bridge across the Derwent.

I have some very happy memories (not suitable for sharing) along with some sad ones: I had a flaming row there with a co-director who had worked for me since she was only 16 - an argument which proved to be terminal to our friendship. Fawlty Towers had nothing on us!

 The Car Park

The Front, with the conservatory

Main entrance (with my pride and joy: the car!)

Reception, with yours truly in attendance

Rita Bennett, the company book-keeper,

serving customers in the conservatory

Roger Lismore, the manager (and chief cook & bottle washer)

laying up the dining room

 

 One of the 13 bedrooms - the numbers jumped from 12 to 14!

 

Alan Statham, Roger's deputy, in the kitchen

The Bank Holiday Bouncy Castle

What do you mean, I should be kept behind bars?