Sunday or Monday??

I don't know if its Sunday or Monday today............... all I do know is that it's Bank Holiday which means the summer (she says laughing at that quaint old fashioned word!) is almost over. 



One of our best sellers - Mussels from the River Teign

Summer at the Victoria Inn (and I guess for many of those in a seasonal trade such as ours) is very much a double edged sword! We all look forward to the Summer after long, cold and often wet winters - we look forward to it for very different reasons.

We look forward to a successful trade to keep us afloat over the rest of the year - clearly we don't stop trading outside of the summer, but it's nowhere near the figures / numbers we do right now.  The first couple of weeks this summer were a little bit worrying as the weather was ropey, the sun refused to shine, we had the Olympics with people staying at home to watch it and it all looked pretty grim really.

Then the Olympics finished, the sun came out to play a little and suddenly summer at the Victoria Inn was in full swing, and thankfully has continued to be so! Hence, right now we are all a bit jaded to say the least!!

After next weekend, the children will have returned to school with happy memories of their holidays, our student staff will return to university richer but thinner, and we (SOH and I) will breath a sigh of relief that despite all the staffing issues we've faced this season, we've still managed to turn it into one of our best summers ever since we've been here.  

Living by the sea and knowing a lot of the lifeboat crew as we do I always get the shivers when the lifeboat goes out, but you absolutely have to watch this video of a rescue just round the coast from here and with 3 local people crewing the boat: Sam, Matt and Esther. You will realise the bravery of those involved with the lifeboat particularly in the last 30 seconds of the film clip!
 http://www.youtube.com/embed/PvWFN8aG2yU

Try to remember that when you go on holiday and you think you'll take out to sea in your RIB or on your water board have fun, but remember that the sea is an incredibly dangerous place - and that if you need rescuing, other people are putting their lives at risk.

Raining Cats, Dogs & Children

My goodness aren't we having some strange old weather - drew the curtains back this morning and it was like looking at a November day!! Yet outside my office window now it's bright sunshine.............

We had the Town Regatta in Salcombe last week and the weather was less than kind it has to be said - but it certainly bought the crowds here! It's undoubtedly a very strange season, Salcombe is nowhere as busy as it should be - but somehow here at the Victoria we are managing to keep on top of our targets. 

I say somehow - but I almost do ourselves a disservice saying that. We're doing it because we work flipping hard at what we do and it's not all about the front of house stuff that customers see us doing - the pulling pints and delivering food, its also about the ordering, staffing, menus, finances, social media stuff (we all know I spend hours doing that!) plus loads more that I never knew you needed to do to make a pub work! Now we have our third Chef Stuart we are able to serve food all day long and it has to be said that its proving very popular!! Amazingly we are serving everything from Fillet Steaks to Cream Teas in the afternoon so it's a proving to have been a good business decision. 

Staffing has proved to be very challenging again this summer with young people saying 'yes please - give us the hours' and then unable to complete more than a couple of shifts without not coming back! So luckily our front of house core full time staff have stayed strong, supplemented by college kids; Alex, Honor, Tom and Austin and supported by some even younger people Will, Lucy and lovely Lily. Somehow, we're getting through the summer together. The kitchen is running with a staff of 7/8 and the food coming out has been absolutely first class! I overheard a customer last night say that she's eaten a lot of Mussels - but none as good as ours!

Also, at last we're No 1 on Trip Advisor............... taken me almost 4 years to get there but we've done it!

AAfteAlready we're looking to the Autumn and we will be bringing in our brand new Autumn menu the 2nd week in September and we have lots of new ideas for it as well - so watch this space! Once the summer crowds have gone we shall be spending a little bit of money to freshen up the pub and also new menu and wine list holders, as well as some other bits and pieces to generally spruce us up. Bit pointless at the moment with so many hundreds of people travelling through our pub at the moment. The pic opposite is one of the better tables left after a family had been there......... :)

On that note - it's good to see our children's menu doing so well again this year - parents really appreciate that their children can have the same great quality food as themselves! Perhaps an especially good place to say thank you to our 2 cleaners as well that work hard all year but especially so in the summer - Jackie and Demitrou! They do stirling work in keeping us sparkling clean every single day.

Had some great dogs in over the last couple of weeks - this is one of my favourite dogs: A beautiful retired Greyhound - I think her name is Cat?  

But we've had some other beautiful dogs in as well - lots and lots of Cockerpoos, a smattering of Labradors, my favourite Alsatian Colin has been in as well.  A dog biscuit for the good (dogs are never less than good) and a titbit from the kitchen for the very good!  

I'd have liked to not see any dogs here in Salcombe for the fireworks but some very thoughtless owners did bring their dogs, and needless to say there were a few screaming dogs in town! We ushered one into our pub and shut the door and I don't know who was most upset by it; Us, the dogs young owner or the dog itself. Poor thing was so distressed that it peed and then even the obligatory slice of ham that was proffered was ignored. Still, lessons learnt hard way etc etc.....just a shame the owners of all the screaming dogs hadn't shown their little friends a bit more thoughtfulness.  

So there you go - a quick round up of where we are here in Salcombe - I am personally on a diet to try and get a bit leaner and fitter and of course a posh frock to get into for the Great British Pubs award ceremony in September, but so far so good!

We're the Best in the West

Ladies & Gentlemen, I'm proud to tell you that we have been awarded the Best Tenanted / Leased Pub in the West Country in the Great British Pub Awards from the Publicans Morning Advertiser - a huge and influential trade paper.

After a little episode of feeling quite down about things business wise this has given us all a great lift to our morale.  We now go forward to the National Finals in September in which we hope that we will be awarded to best in the Country in our Category and the chance to be the Best Pub In the UK!!! This will be a very glitzy affair in Park Lane, London and we'll be taking two of out team with us to say thank you and make sure they can join in the fun and glory of it.

Then today we received a phone call to say we've been shortlisted to be in the English Riviera and South Devon Tourism and Hospitality Awards. This would be a great local award to win and means as much as the national one - so fingers crossed on all fronts!  

On top of that, we have at last recruited our third Chef to work with us! Hooray at last!!!!! Ive been trying to recruit for at least three months now, spent an absolute fortune, wasted time and energy interviewing people who just weren't up to joining us. I am quite exacting in keeping our standards high - we have a big reputation to live up to - so I have been sure to employ someone who can cook to our expected levels and also fit in with our established kitchen team. His name is Stuart and he joins us proper from Friday and it means that from Sunday 5th August, we will be able to do food ALL DAY and EVERY DAY from 12.00 to 9.00 at night................. How fantastic is that! Photo's and more bio about him in the next blog.


So three really exceptionally great things have happened here at the Victoria Inn this week, and suddenly the world seems a rosier place.

Just before I go, here's a photo of some superb veg from our new Rational Steamer / Oven,a mix of Green Beans, Mange Tout, Baby Sweet Corn and Sweet Bell Peppers, they smelt divine as they came out of the steamer and our customers are loving them!!!

Is that the sun???

My goodness the sun was / is in the sky -  well maybe for at least a few hours more! Our Chef James and this fish ( a Monkfish caught off Hope Cove and on the menu not long after this pic!) certainly seemed to be smiling at seeing the sun and at last - the visitors!

Finally, it's been a hugely busy week, although it has to be said, its STILL not as busy as it could be.  Will it end up being enough to help keep us all afloat during yet another long hard winter?? Who knows really........ Work seems to be progressing well on the Harbour Hotel and the bill board outside the place says open Summer 2013, you can also see that the swimming pool has gone, scaffold abounds and generally it looks like a building site. So 2013?? Well we have to wait and see!

There are times I realise what work a HR department used to do when I worked for Local Government  - all the hiring, firing and general sorting out. This week I could have done with their guiding gentle hand as staff came, some went and then new ones needed MY gentle hand as they encountered a brand new job. I realise I took some of the stuff in my old life, soooooooooo much for granted! Just getting up, going in, doing my work and receiving my salary. This week I've had to sort out so much in general terms of having staff work for me, that it seems to have taken up all my working day's - as well as trying to work on the bar and meet customers and be sure we're doing what we should to continue making us a success.

Talking of customers we've had some fabulous people in this week and you realise what a privilege it is to help people have a great holiday - you see just a snapshot of their lives - the young couples so much in love, the family with a little baby on their first family holiday, the older couples who come to Salcombe every year of their lives together and love to tell you about the old days and how things have changed. The families who never spend much time together and suddenly are thrust together for 24 hrs a day - now that can be interesting to watch!!!

I've been doing my usual bits with the children (which I ADORE!!) of getting them to feed the chickens and then taking up lollipops and badges for them! We received a great e mail though:

Just a quick note to say thank you for a delicious lunch on Sunday.  We had canoed over from North Sands for lunch and were so pleased to find such a child friendly pub! The icing on the cake was meeting you in the loos after one of our small people had had a tumble... one lollipop later and there were smiles all round! We will gladly tell our friends about you! Thank you L and B

After that, life and all its day to day trivia this week didn't seem quite so bad!! Enjoy the Olympics readers.......................... X

So you are there!

Ok, ok, ok - I admit it! I was thoroughly depressed and downright bloody miserable when I wrote the last blog post............... 'Should I stay or should I go'! I blame the jet stream and lack of sun, lack of alcohol and most absolutely lack of chocolate (ok - last excuse is an absolute and total lie!) and a few hundred other reasons.

I have been heartened by loads of comments both personally, through the blog and facebook. I've of course had a couple of crank comments - the one from Frank Smith 'Smee' is most definitely NOT from him and he wasn't best pleased at his name being used! Bless him - I don't think he'd even know how to switch on a computer............I know he won't mind me saying that 'cos he's a lovely bloke who I'm very fond of! Plus he gets hunks of Cheese and pickled onions to go with his beer on a Friday! Then there was the miserable sod who wondered if by allowing dogs in the pub I was perhaps putting off people coming in?? Um - No is the answer! Sooner have a dozen dogs in the Vic (in the areas they're allowed of course) than one miserable git like 00Kevin - But, he is of course entitled to his opinion. And, he doesn't have to come in to the Vic does he.........?

Much more valid were the comments I received reminding me how much they liked the blog and especially keeping up with events in Salcombe - so just for you is a lovely picture of the Estuary............ I was also advised to perhaps to talk a little bit more about the real challenges of being a landlady. So how about this:

Right now there can't be a business in the land that isn't having a tough time (except for the automobile business and I helped it ever so slightly last week, but more about that another time) and we are no exception! There is no denying that business at the Victoria Inn is quite difficult at the moment. The weather has played havoc with the industry that we so rely on - tourism!! The local TV station was quoting 25% deficits on the expected norm for this time of year in the West Country and I can well believe it.

Salcombe has no Hotel at the top of its main high street (being re-furbished and due open NEXT summer), so we (and the other business's in town) are missing that extra 60 - 120+ people in town on any given day and the spend they would make. Getting the staffing levels right is nigh on impossible - we're either over staffed or under staffed - and we're either heaving with customers, and rushed off our feet or staff are twiddling their thumbs (time to lean, time to clean is a phrase well quoted at the moment!) waiting for the next customer. The yachtsmen are not here in the droves that they should be, because of bad weather conditions, as are many customers from where there has been such dreadful flooding.

The drop in volumes of soft drinks and the amounts of water going over the counter for children clearly identifies that families are working to tight budgets - as is the drop in bottles of Champagne being sold! However, St Austells great ales, our medium priced wines and our high quality of food is ensuring sales remain stable in that part of our business. Another part of our business holding its own is the accommodation interestingly enough......... a couple of weather led cancellations but nothing to worry about. On that note - a quick mention that we're doing a special deal of £50 a room in Oct, Nov & some of Dec!!!

Where was I?? Oh yes - so what are SOH and I doing about all this doom and gloom (apart from ensuring a good supply of headache pills!)?  Well, firstly - we need to make sure variable costs are kept to a minimum - and that's where Tim is a an absolute whizz in negotiating great deals with suppliers. Staff have had a bit of refresher re-training to emphasise the even greater importance of customer service and we're looking at what times we're offering food and if we can move them/extend them as well as what we're offering.............phew!! All we need now is just a little help from our friend the weather!

Come on sun - you know you want to come out to play really...................

Should I stay or should I go??

Should I stay or should I go?? That's a well know song title but from whom or by whom I know not! I'm just seriously debating the worth of this blog..................???

I seem to spend an increasing amount of time on 'Social Media', not just for me personally but much more for the business side of things.  By that I mean I write this blog, I 'Twitter' and I also 'do' Facebook. Now I get lots of instant reactions to the Twitter and I've made lots of business contacts and customers, whereas Facebook is more for friends only............ my blog gets anywhere from 20 'hits' a day when I haven't written anything to 60 plus when I write a post. It's all getting increasingly time consuming and frankly, its reaching the point where I don't have the time for all of this.

I started the blog because I thought that when we came to Salcombe nearly four years ago we were probably never going to see civilisation again! I felt sure there wouldn't be adequate forms of communication and that probably I'd have to learn smoke signals!! It was as much a way of keeping in touch with family and friends as anything, and then it developed into a marvellous marketing tool - since copied by many.

I've covered most topics in the blog, there have been many times it's been deeply personal (perhaps too much so - I've pretty much worn my heart on my sleeve), some times I've been controversial and far too many times I've tried to be all things to all people. There is a limit to how many times I can tell you how good we're doing or how poor (right now let me tell you - it's tough! The weather, the recession, etc, etc, etc) what beers we've got on and what food we're serving.

It's been suggested I turn it more into a 'New' Salcombe Blog, with news/views and gossip about Salcombe (but Old Salcombe blogger with all your contentious issues....... where have you gone?).

Has my blog become like an old friendship that's died a death and I can't let go or am I just seeking divine inspiration? Am I just feeling miserable because of the rotten weather or have I lost my mojo - never to return???

It feels stale and almost feels like time to say ta rah chuck...................

What say you?????  If you say at all?????

Salcombe capture by Sarah from 'The Dark Side - East Portlemouth!

Sorry, its been a while

Sorry darlings - it's been a while............. thanks to Her Majesty its been a right busy old time!! Thank you so much your Maj!!

We thought we would probably be busy as it was a long Bank Holiday, but NOTHING could have prepared us for what hit. The weather may well have been poor, but we certainly broke all records in terms of practically everything, but in particular food! I was so proud of Chef and his team in the kitchen.

I also had a brainwave of serving a Jubilee Fizz of sparkling Pink Wine with the champagne glass wiped with a strawberry, dipped in sugar and the strawberry added to the drink and we couldn't serve them quick enough! Everyone was in great spirits and Salcombe was heaving......... really good as the road was closed on the Tuesday so White Strand has stalls etc on it and that helped towards a great party atmosphere.  All of my team pulled together, with lunch breaks going untaken or eaten on the run and we were all very weary come Wednesday - yet still we carried on being busy........ and we still ARE!!! Hoorah!!!! 

The picture of our pub in this blog was taken by another talented local woman Immy Yeoman - I just love it thanks Immy. So many talented local people in so many ways - our Church, Holy Trinity held a flower festival and the flower displays were truly breathtaking.  This picture is of the Lapthorn Window in Church and I'm pretty sure it was taken by Lonija Balgavis whose photographic skills leaves me green with envy!!

SOH and I have not only been phsically busy, but mentally planning for the future of our pub - we never stand still for long, and right now we've bought a peice of kit for the kitchen that will help us with cooking the food and in particular its a steamer so we have already been talking with Chef James about the sorts of different vegetables we'll be able to cook far more freshly - a HUGE investment of capital but we believe it will be well worth it. We've also bought a new fridge for the kitchen and a secret bit of equipment which I'll tell you about next time..............???????

The short videos I put on YouTube have been viewed hundreds of times, and our fantastic new mobile web site has been amazing!!  So huge thanks to Larry at Bespoke Mobile Web -  http://bespokemobilewebsites.com  the 'traffic' we're getting of this new mobile site is amazing!!

Anyway - a large buzz of people coming up from the pub, so I'd best go off back to work... I promise not to leave it too long till the next posting but I am on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Victoria-Inn-Salcombe/136141733123940AND Twitter https://twitter.com both of which I endeavour to update at least oncec a day!!

Phew all this 'social media' stuff doesn't half keep me busy!!!!!