There are times...........

There are times when being a pub landlady drives me flipping nuts!!! Just this week we've had the Hobbit House boiler break down and a new one installed only for that to break down the following day. The pub boiler is on a temporary mend as we await parts for that. A water bill for £4k more than it should be as there's a leak - Lord only knows where, because a succession of workmen have failed to locate it yet..... etc, etc, etc and yet, there are other times like yesterday when this job is just perfect!!

In the picture above you can see my SOH (looking awfully intelligent - don't you think) with James Fineman from St Austell Brewery wine division and the gorgeous dark haired gentleman opposite them is Roberta Perez from Bodegas Santalba,   http://santalba.com/vinos/?acc=vinos&fam=6&idv=14&idc=8

They were here for James to talk through with Tim about changing some of our wines - although both men congratulated SOH on his excellent choice of existing wines and then also to introduce us to Roberto's wines. The company is run by him and his Father and the wines are not only gorgeous but totally organic as well. We tasted about 5 from the Ermita range and we were particularly taken by the Tinto, but also the Crianza and the Reserva - I think we shall be stocking the Crianza and hopefully the Rose when it comes to St Austell - maybe a couple of bottles of the Reserva for our own collection!!

It was a thoroughly enjoyable lunchtime and as usual I learnt so much about the product from Roberto who's enthusiasm and passion just shone through in everything he talked about!  Roberto kindly gave us a bottle of the Rose as a gift and we shall enjoy drinking that at some stage this weekend I'm sure.   

It's been a strange old week - markedly quiet from Monday and it looks like the closure of Salcombe Harbour Hotel (for renovation work) will hit the town hard this winter - and yet we have lots and lots of bookings for the weekend in both the Hobbit House and the Restaurant - so all may not be so gloomy after all.

Seven weeks to Christmas and a couple of bookings in the diary for parties - in particular the big Town Bash for fishermen etc - and as for New Year? Well, we have just 3 tables to spare - so if you're thinking of coming to us for New Year, you're going to have to book fast!!! The Old Gaffers are going to be entertaining us that night so I have a feeling it's going to be a terrific end to a terrific year................

Captain Morgans is no longer ours..................

And it has to be said I'm not particularly  sad.......First of all a great photo on the side of the interior of Captain Morgans taken by my lovely friend Scott Baston at http://zooming-feet.com/Portraits/index.html another photographer friend of ours whose work you really should look at!

So back to Captain Morgans. I remember sitting outside CM's with my lovely brother in law Richard when he was down here on his hols some two and a half years ago and a small for sale notice in the window caught my eye. SOH and I knew that we ran a really successful business in the Victoria Inn and the more we thought about it the more we though we could transfer those skills in to making CM a success. Fast forward a few months and the involvement of 2 sleeping partners to make the numbers add up and we found ourselves stood inside CM just a couple of days before Christmas faced with the prospect of opening at one of the years busiest times and not really knowing where to even start!

Staff transferred over from the Vic (it was quieter and they could be spared) economies of scale for purchasing were great, a re-vamp of the menu to give even better value for money and off we went!  In theory all should have been wonderful and we should have been 'sat on a goldmine' as I've often heard said to me over the last almost 2 years.............  But what didn't we take into account?? Well firstly we didn't take into account just how much of a 'family' business it had been run as previously and also how much work the main person put in. So staffing (and the associated staff costs) was always a huge issue for us right from the off - and in the end was the thing that killed it off for us.

We know that customers loved our breakfast offering and they liked the prices and the inclusion of free teas and coffee's with breakfasts - but they didn't like long waits whilst staff tried to get to grips with the peaks and troughs of service. Try as we might we just could never seem to get the staffing just right - that is when we could get the right staff in the first place.

We didn't like that on occasions some staff just didn't turn in when they should have done - believe me, getting a call at 7.15 to say the cafe wasn't open was no fun.. especially when we had perhaps only got to bed at 1.30 during the summer after a very long day at the Victoria.  Then this summer when we seemed to have the staffing just as we wanted it and we were ready to rock into the summer not one, but two members of staff left............ and for both of us that was really the end of the matter.

So we sat and talked about what had driven us to Salcombe in the first place........???  A great business opportunity in the Victoria - which we have both worked very, very hard at and the results speak for themselves. The opportunity to enjoy this glorious countryside and the sea and for SOH to get a little boat and have some fun.  Fun?? For very many months we have barely had a day off together, and half the time have not even had time to walk our little dogs - a very good friend does it for us more often than not. So tough business decisions had too be made - did we stay and limp on in the vain hope that eventually we'd get the staffing and those associated costs right or should we just make a clean break regardless???  

So here we are - Captain Morgans is no longer ours - it has passed in to the hands of Susan & Michael Fink, names well associated with Salcombe and we know from all there relevant catering / hospitality experience that they are going to make a massive success of it. But before I finish I must say a huge thank you especially to Marcus Lewis who had done an excellent job of looking after it for us for the last 9 months - many times he has kept it afloat and done over and above what he had to do. We also still have the Hobbitt House (the accommodation at the Victoria Inn) but its on a room only basis now.

It's been a challenging, frustrating and difficult time for us - but it was a business opportunity we thought would be good for us and whilst we didn't get it all right I don't think we got it all totally wrong either.  

Our next exciting challenge is to buy a little house in Salcombe and start to get our work/life balance better and better and better and enjoy a little bit more of what we originally came down here for. Not take our foot off the gas in any way - oh no (if anything we'll probably be around more as we'll be more structured!) but work at the business much more as a job than a way of life and enjoy our own lives just a bit more!

On that note - I am yet another year older on Sunday (groans not so silently)  and I am looking forward to a little celebration time with the man who makes me so happy - my scrumptious other half!!  

Afternoon all!

Afternoon all - blimey the first day after the clocks going back, and already at just gone 4 there is a familiar gloomy darkness settling over the estuary. I have to say that the Autumn early Winter is a time of year I quite like, except that next weekend I'll be yet another year older.. :( 

I hope you like the photo on the side of the Victoria Inn in all her summer glory. This photo was taken by a delightful woman called Sam Appa who is a professional photographer and here is a link to her website:  http://www.appature.com/

I get lots of people taking pics of the Vic and most of the time we never get to see the finished article but true to her word Sam sent me a CD with some images on and I chose this one because I like the angle, it shows off the window boxes and frontage of the pub really well and I just think it's a great photo - so thanks Sam.

I'm aware that I'm not blogging as much as I used to and I think that's 2 fold - firstly we've been pretty consistently busy for almost the last 5 months (hallelujah) and secondly, its becoming just harder and harder to write about new things. I don't want this blog to become just a repetition of previous blog posts and despite having a couple of people ask me to talk more about Salcombe - that could also be difficult as I don't want this blog to be associated with 'gossip' - because God knows there's enough of that in this town!

So then - we've been really busy again since the end of the summer hols...... talking to James our Chef he was saying that before we took over here you could pretty much say that at the end of the 'season' and after the last half term trade virtually died until Christmas - well, we're pleased to say that doesn't happen any more and that if you want to be sure of a table with us if you want to dine at any time of the year now really, then you must book. This last half term we had quite a few disappointed would be diners and I hate turning trade away when I have a great restaurant upstairs that could seat customers - but sadly, I don't have the staff to facilitate that choice.  Said it before and I'll say it again - getting good quality staff for the Victoria Inn is not always easy, and we are remarkably choosy as well!

Talking of staff, Tim & I are very very proud of 2 of our team who undertook 4 days training at St Austell Brewery in Cornwall - Jessie Day & David Gravitt. They can now hold their own personal licenses and learnt loads about various functions of running a pub and will get a certificate to prove it! Training staff is such an important part of running a successful business such as ours and you have to be prepared to put in the time, money and energy into your staff to get the best out of them. They also came back bubbling with enthusiasm about their new found learning.

But on that note we have 2 delightful e mails this week from very happy customers and here is a little text from them:

Having just returned from a short break in Salcombe, we would like to respond to a wonderful evening we spent in your restaurant, Tuesday 18 October.  You were very busy but made us welcome and provided us with a table.  We were not disappointed.  Everything was excellent-the food, the staff were very attentive and worked hard to ensure our needs were met .  We thoroughly enjoyed the meal and it was one of the highlights of our stay in Salcombe.

We have just spent a couple of days in South Devon revisiting places from holidays of a few years ago, enjoying the scenery and sunshine. The Victoria was recommended to us by a friend so we called in Thursday (20th) lunchtime to have a drink and book a table for that evening. When travelling around it is usual for us to try different places to eat and we had intended to go elsewhere on Friday. However we felt that it would be difficult to better the time we spent at the Victoria hence our easy decision to return and we managed to get a table at a moments notice. The reason for this mail is to compliment you on your pub and to ask that you convey our thanks to all your staff for being both professional and very welcoming.The whole experience was a total pleasure due to the staff and enhanced by excellent food and drink.  Next time we are in the area you will see us again and we will recommend the Victoria to anyone we know visiting the South Hams

I always print off any e mails such as these so that all the staff know the good reports that they, their service and the food receive - it more than makes up for some of the smaller niggles we sometimes get!

Now then, what else??? Well the Hobbitt House is shut for a few days to allow a bit of repair work on them - some new flooring in the en-suites, re-doing the sealants round the showers and then a good Autumn clean. They have had such good use since we opened it's no wonder we have got give them a bit of an overhaul really.

The garden is now shut as well - SOH has re-seeded the grass (vaguely resembles a war zone at the moment with mud, mud and more mud as far as the eye can see) so that it has the Autumn/Winter to repair itself, and get all beautiful for next year!

We have decided our opening and closing times for Christmas & New Year and what we're going to do food wise - this year we are doing our normal menu on Boxing Day lunchtime and NO FOOD in the evening. Last year we only sold a portion of chips! Then New Years Day we will be serving our legendary Curry Buffet! The Old Gaffers will be here Christmas Eve doing Christmas carol stuff and then we're going to have a party with them on NY Eve!!! And we have loads of NY bookings already!!!

Christmas - can you bear to hear that word yet??? Now then, where's my Christmas pressie list........

Till later friends...................

It's Autumn - the fire's lit!

Not lit large yet, but certainly alight and taking off the chill thats just started to be in the air!!  It's no good I absolutely love the Victoria Inn at this time of the year - I know I should like it best when it's the height of summer and we're really busy, but now when it's all the regular people coming in (Holiday homes / regular visitors/people from the top of town) it's just like welcoming back old friends and I absolutely love it!!

In fact can I just share how happy I am with life on the whole at the moment - business continues to be blooming excellent and our new Autumn/Winter menu is going down a storm as well as our new approach to the Specials menu.  Now, EVERYTHING on our specials menu is just £10.95 - lots of fresh fish, and that all depends on what our suppliers have on THEIR catch menu. Some great winter warmers like Chilli and Curry, as well as home made pies etc.  We no longer have the IPA on our drinks list but we now have St Austell Dartmoor - a fantastic alternative and still only £2.40 a pint! A couple of the local men have been in to see me and they want their annual Christmas bash at the Vic this year so thats great news as well! We'll shut the pub just for them for a lunchtime and give them a pre-Christmas party to set them up a treat!

A couple of days in Portsmouth last weekend and I do love going to see my family in Portsmouth but I hated driving in such a busy town, and yesterday I was driving through our luscious countryside with my little dogs and with cows and sheep looking at me and passing tractors and people who smile at you and I just thought....... My God but I'm lucky to live in such a beautiful place!!!! My first chest infection of the season is slowly (very slowly) passing and it just feels that all is well with the world!  

I've been inspired by the 'Great British Bake Off' programme with Mary Berry (she's been in the Vic!) & Paul Hollywood and the last couple of days have seen me making Bread, Cakes and Flapjacks as well as main meals.......... My chef James is being used as my own personal tutor and I'm determined to prove my worth in my own kitchen!! The staff seem to like my offerings as well............ But you're ok general public - shan't unleash myself on the real world of paying customers!!! 

Last part of France and Duncan Bannatyne

Blimey this has turned into a mammoth blogging post.......... sorry dear readers the Victoria is still really busy and I have been hit with my first bad chest infection of the season, so not getting on to do my tasks as fast I would have wanted.

So where the heck was I???  Ok yes, in France. We did a huge tour of the De Castelnau winery and saw thousands and thousands of bottles Champagne being filled, stacked, stored. saw the library where bottles go back to the 1940's - absolutely fascinating. The process from start to finish is highly complex and I understand now why Champagne is the price it is - but I honestly think I love it more than ever! We had the most amazing Michelin Star 'packed lunch' that you could ever imagine and with yet more Champagne............. everyone at the winery was so welcoming and friendly and Pascal the MD shook hands with every member of staff he met! A great lesson in staff management! What was even more amazing was that a member of staff knew about our 'Man Creche' sign at the Victoria as his family were in Salcombe in the summer.. how cool was that! So ended our Champagne tour and our biggest thanks to everyone who made it so special for us.

I will gloss over our second night in Reading and move on to the next part of our road trip - 2 nights at Charlton House Hotel - part of Duncan Bannatynes group (him from Dragons Den who doesn't tolerate fools with no business plans!!).  There's no doubt that because of who he is (and I do Twitter with him) that this influenced our decision to go to Charlton House in Somerset, and I am soooooo glad we did because what a great experience it was.

Right from the centralised booking system where I was guided through a maze of deals to the right one for us right up to the warm welcome we received at reception - we knew we had booked well! We were upgraded to a super four poster room with a claw bath situated right in front of huge windows, fabulous shower room and a private balcony area. Food and service was first class and we both enjoyed the pampering at the Spa that we received..... although I wasn't so keen on the flotation thingy - but I'm assured I wasn't the first to say STOP!! Get me up!!!  Girls in the spa were lovely - no snideness that you sometimes get and they seemed to genuinely want to do a great job.

Food and service was excellent but a couple of diners left a lot to be desired on the first night as they discussed birthing plans loudly during dinner despite a few coughs/splutters from me coupled with a filthy look - no hint was taken. Time and place people, time and place or at least keep your voices down!!!  Barman made a great Hendricks G & T - almost as good as me I may say!!

Beautiful grounds and noise from the road was minimal - thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the massive four poster bed with a large glass of wine imagining this was how I always spent my leisure time!!

I'd just like to say a word or three about Mr Bannatyne (I respectfully call him Mr B) - several people have said how he comes across as a bit of a git on Dragons Den, and maybe he does (and is!?) but he actually has a huge heart of gold and does an awful lot of charity work that like a lot of famous / wealthy people goes unsung. He works a lot with Harry Mosely and his family.  Harry has a brain tumour and is the sweetest little boy going - please do what you can to support this cause: http://www.helpharryhelpothers.com/  Mtr B also works with our injured armed forces personnel from conflicts abroad - a thoroughly nice bloke!!!

Moving on, the 2 days at Charlton House flew by and our last port of call was North Walk House in Lynton, North Devon. A delightful B and B run by Ian & Sarah majoring on Organic produce. Lovely rooms overlooking the Bristol Channel with home made flap jacks to accompany your tea and coffee! Dinner was round a large table and you shared it with complete strangers - yikes!! That's a bit of a challenge to English reserve, but it was actually very entertaining and interesting. The food itself - well, absolutely fabulous and as for Ian's porridge in the morning? Yum scrum!! Give it a try if you're ever in North Devon: http://www.northwalkhouse.co.uk/index.htm

So there we go - and t last we're back to normal here at the Victoria - visitors are still here in big numbers thanks to the glorious weather we've had and we start to think of winter..... yuk, what a depressing thought!  But I have lots of exciting things in the pipeline which will be shared with you in due course!!!!

LIZ & Tim's great trip! Part 2

So where was I??? Oh yes,  we arrived in Calais and started our journey onto Riemes and Eperney travelling on near empty toll roads at a reasonably swift pace - UK - There is such a lesson to be learnt from other European roadways!! Anyway, I digress........ we stopped for lunch in Eperney before starting our tour of the vineyards at a charming and very typical french corner restaurant and I just could NOT resist taking a camera picture of the menu above - have a close look! It certainly made us laugh......... and there was also a Sephora cosmetic shop (my absolute favourite grown up version of a sweetie shop!!) across the road from the restaurant so a fabulous start for me - food and make up!!!

After our lunch break we headed for the vineyards passing most of the big name Champagne houses and what seemed like dozens and dozens of smaller ones and some in what seemed just like private houses...... an amazing thing to see I must say! Out in the countryside in some areas all you could see for miles in each direction were rows upon rows of vines.......... absolutely amazing! We were taken to see Dom Perignon's burial site with in a church and there some really beautiful old pews with what now would be classed as graffitti but all sorts of dates scrawled on them. As we drove through the various areas Charles Ancliffe our host explained to us about the chalkiness of the soil and the effect this has on the grapes and their taste, he told us about the different types of grapes and that 1and a half kilo's go into just 1 bottle of Champagne........... we learnt all about first and second pressings and oh yes, had another bottle of Champagne on a hill top overlooking the most spectacular view and listening to the wind rustling through the tree's.......... very, very romantic (well for me anyway - not sure about my 3 male companions!).

Our third and last stop before hitting the hotel and trying to get just 40 winks before a night on the town beckoned was on a hill top where the Mumm windmill is and time for our last Champagne of the day (not the whole day you understand - just the daylight hours part!!) this time a Vintage de Castelneau... ohh I didn't half like that one!!!!! By the way, that's a bunch of grapes you might just see that Charles is holding behind my head.......

We were booked in to the Hotel de la Paix and my goodness, what a fantastic hotel!! www.hotel-lapaix.fr  A hotel used by many of the big Champagne houses to put guests in and recently renovated, we were pleasantly surprised and delighted by our room. Now this one could be called a real Boutique room and guess what?? A bottle of Champagne from Monsieur Pascal Prudhomme the Directeur Generale of De Castelnau was waiting for us in our room..............

Part 3 and I'll tell you about the fab meal we had that night (what I can remember of it!) and our tour of the winery............

  

LIZ & Tim's great trip! Part one

This great trip of ours is going to have to be done in tiny pieces as it was sooooo fantastic and I don't want to spare you any of the fantabulous details!!!

So lets start with day one. Tuesday 6th September saw us get off eventually after having done all the 'pubby' things and leaving all in good order, getting a couple of miles up the road in my neatly packed Betsy (Smart Car) and then having to turn back as I'd forgotten to pack the Sat Nav............. well it was only a couple of miles - no big deal (!). SOH wasn't over amused but I only had to remind him of the numerous occasions we have had to turn round because HE'S forgotten something and all was well in the Hore household very quickly!!

First thing was to drive to the Wee Waif in Reading where our brewery St Austell had paid for us to have the first night of our prize winning 'Wine House of the Year' last year and then the actual Champagne tour was hosted by Champagne de Castelnau. 

Now then what can I say about the Wee Waif in Reading - clean, reasonably comfortable and frankly, you get what you pay for! The room on this our first night was far better than the one we given on our return, but for what we wanted for the few hours we were there it was perfectly acceptable. It was also close for our host Charles Ancliffe from Patriarch Wines, and quite a central location to get us to Folkestone the next morning for the 'chunnel'. With us was James Finneman who is a wine development manager for St Austell, so I was quite pleased to  find myself the only lady amongst three such charming gentleman. 

Our first meal was at the St George & Dragon in Reading, www.stgeorgeanddragon.co.uk a dinner for four in a very relaxed setting with exceptionally good food and a prime example of not believing all you read on Trip Advisor!! However, we were relatively modest with the alcohol as I think we sensed it was going to be a heavy few days..............

The next day at 6.30A.M we were packing our thing into Charles's car who was going to be our chauffeur for the next 24 hours and off we set for Folkestone. A beautiful sunny (ish) day and a congenial host who told us how many times he had done this before and how much he loved showing Champagne country to people like us. So accomplished at this was he that when we got to the port and he asked me to put his credit card in to gain access on the booking he was staggered to find he hadn't actually booked the train.........!!!!  Doh. and there's me thinking I'm the only one who could do something like that!!  

However eventually and safely ensconced on Le Shuttle at 9.a.m and heading into the bowels of the earth Charles announced it was our first Champagne of the day - a charming De Castleneau Rose Champagne. Bearing in mind we had only had 2 coffees, half a kit kat each and a small croissant  - 2 glasses had the desired effect of going straight to my knees!!! A remarkable short trip saw us on French soil within about 35 minutes - my how time flies when you're having fun!!

Part two to follow in the next couple of days....................

In the meantime I'm glad to say that whilst the summer 'silly' season has ended, the Victoria is as busy as ever - so if you are coming to visit and you want to eat with us I would recommend that you really do book :)