The Bel and The Dragon group is now 7 and has been quietly growing in the last few years with a quirky country casual fine dining take on the British Inn. Hector Ross, Chief Operations Officer at B&TD gives us a few minutes from his intense schedule of running these individual outlets.
Tell us little more about what B&TD is about?
Longshot bought B&TD when it was in a difficult stage of its life, after it had had 3 owners in 3 years. Longshot’s founders; Joel Cadbury and his partner Ollie Vigors set about re-invigorating the food and drink.
Now B&TD is 7 outlets with rooms being added to a number of the different inns. It is a classic British Inn, with casual fine dining and outstanding wine.
It’s a place where you get outstanding fillet steak for £33, fish filleted on site, our own chips cut on site – a level of care and freshness that you would expect at in a fine dining restaurant.
Where does wine rank in importance?
When I get out of bed in the morning, Joel and I dream about what customers are going to drink that evening rather than what we are going achieve that day!
Food is the most important item of service, and wine is a really vital second place and we turnover more in wine than we do in beer. Cocktails are very popular and probably about 12% of our t/o. We sell about £170k of Espresso Martinis per year.
How involved does Joel get in wine selection?
All the management are wine lovers. Joel especially enjoys wine and he will take a significant interest in the wine selection, often recommending wines for the list. But it is also about working with suppliers. We had 17 when I first came here 3 years ago and now there are 4. We want suppliers to benefit from our business – when we do well, we want them to do well also. So we will sit down with them once a quarter over dinner and discuss the new propositions, re-shaping the list and address any issues.
Wine seems to feature heavily – tell us about the approach?
We have a unique way of presenting our House wine, and we are very proud of the quality and the way in which we serve it. It is served in magnums (1.5litre bottles) and you only pay for as much as you drink. We are not encouraging you to drink too much, just that you have the freedom to drink as much or as little as you want, just like you are relaxing at home – you set your limits. It’s part of the vibe of B&TD – relaxation at your pace.
We have a special relationship directly with some producers such as Oliver LeFlaive and Ch Leoube owned by Lord Bamford (JCB). Oliver LeFlaive is renowned for fantastic quality Burgundy – we love French wines – and the Bel has its own blend from them. It is our second best selling wine on the list and sells at twice the price of our house wine. We also send team member there twice a year to enjoy, learn and experience the culture.
With Chateau Leoube we are delighted to have something deeply cared for, sustainable, biodynamically produced and beautifully packaged. The Bamford family have nurtured Daylesford Organic, the organic farm to shop people, and have a similar care for their family estate in Provence. The Collector is an outstanding Organic red wine from them – its not just rose from Provence.
We love to run monthly supper clubs and tasting dinners with the producers that we work with. They always produce a great atmosphere in the outlets and amongst the communities that our outlets are in.
There are many treasures in our carefully chosen list some of which we bought many years ago and we can now give the benefit of mature wines to our customers at unbelievable prices. Everything above £50 per bottle is only marked up by 1.5 times not the usual 4x mark-up on most restaurant lists. It means that you can drink outstanding bottles of wine and prices that you wouldn’t find even on the high street.
Has BREXIT affected anything?
Actually BREXIT has been good for business. Customers are staying home and treating themselves to local luxury. That’s why we are focussing on building more rooms on our existing sites. Not to say that there isn’t a plan to develop B&TD wider, but staycations are very much the mood of the times. Our rooms are comfortable without being over the top – a really lovely place to stay in beautiful places that are great to go. 85% of our guests stay and then dine so its superb for our business, the team and clearly customers enjoy the environment.
You mention staff – how easy is it to keep hold of them?
Our biggest concern with BREXIT is the employment side of things. We have one of the longest retention rates in the industry at an average of 2.5years, because we really do try look after them. For example we are sending about 15 waiting staff to harvest at Albury Vineyard near Guildford, who are our suppliers of English sparkling. We pay their wages, they get a fantastic experience, learn something about the product and Albury gets their grapes picked.
We also support our employees through the Wine and Spirit Education Trust courses as well as our own in house system.
What are you drinking right now?
The Reserve de la Comtesse 2009 is an outstanding drop. We bought a fair chunk back in 2011, left it in the cellar and can now sell it a price of £55.
Alistair Morrell
Hospitality & Catering News, Wine & Drinks Editor