ideas for food in a sports bar, essex

[mattlegends]

Hi all

new to the site and impressed :-)

i am asking for advice from consumers and / or fellow bar owners regarding a new idea my business partner has had.

Before I continue, please note I completely disagree with what is being suggested, I will explain as I go along.

Basically, our venue does not normally serve hot food (only occasionally when we host special events such as pool or darts compettions) - i have always said we should serve food,
even if it's only basic burger and chips or such like.

Now, my business partner has seen these new "steakstones" on holiday. If you haven't heard of them, they are basically a pre-heated hot stone for cooking meats etc on.
The idea is that the customer enjoys the experience of cooking their own food on the special stones, as opposed to the usual chef cooking the steak etc for them.

I think it is a silly idea, in our town you can go to any pub and get steak and chips, cooked for you, for about £10 (£12 with a pint). My business partner's plan is to charge £9 for
steak and chips (with veg) but cooked on the steakstones. I argue that a majority of consumers would rather pay the extra couple of quid most of the time and get it cooked for them.
On holiday I can see the theory behind these stones, it's a bit of a gimmic, but I can't see people coming back regularly, and I am a firm believer that bars & pubs rely on
regular trade, not "once in a blue moon" trade. A big restaurant in the city would be succesful with this idea, but we are a sports bar, with 12 pool tables and 3 dart boards, we are not
a restaurant. I argue that, as we are going to have to cook chips and veg etc anyway, why not simply start with the basic food and then if and when it becomes successful, expand
and do the steak stones as a gimmic and an add-on to the run of the mill food.

It would be great if anyone can offer their thoguhts / advice on this, every piece of feedback would be great.

[Alesonly]

As your a Sports type Pub showing Football ETC and Pool & Darts I would say fast foods Like Sausage Rolls Pies Pasties Chips Pork Pies Beef Burgers Scotch Eggs Sandwiches or Wraps that type of foods would be better easy too make & cook with a good mark Up and it appeal too the type of customers your trying attract.
I often have a Pie Pastie Sandwich or Burger whilst watching the football or sport in my local at Bounds Green The Springfield.

[Strongers]

I'm not sure that tables strewn with red hot stones is the best idea in a sports pub. It can get a bit heated during the big games.

[Quinno]

they look great but check out what happened to me when one chap got carried away in this place: William IV

Perilous...

I think I'd take your arguments over your partners at this stage.

[mattlegends]

cheers for the feedback guys

i'm glad to see i'm not the only one :-)

i always thought they were a good thing but as an "add-on" in a usual steak / american bar and grill, not as the main food service in a sports bar

looking forward to more comments :-)

[ROBCamra]

Now, my business partner has seen these new "steakstones" on holiday. If you haven't heard of them, they are basically a pre-heated hot stone for cooking meats etc on. The idea is that the customer enjoys the experience of cooking their own food on the special stones, as opposed to the usual chef cooking the steak etc for them.

We tried the lava rock idea here

McHugh's

My comment was as follows :-

On the first floor is a very good restaurant which specialises in "Lava Rock Steaks". When you order your steak it comes on a lava rock already sizzling and it's up to you to cook it as you wish. It's an unusual idea and one we enjoyed, but I don't think I'd do it again. The lava rock is very hot and it would be easy to burn yourself. It also gets you sweating as it's so hot. We tried it in May and it was steaming, I wouldn't have liked to try it in July/August.

They did warn us not to put any sauce on the rock, but what happens if you get a drip

This was in a smart up market restaurant. I can't imagine (or maybe I can) the potential for "accidents" in a sports bar when a good number of beers have been necked.

[Farway]

I am not one to visit sports bars, but the whole idea of self cooking my own food reeks of having a dog & barking yourself

Not one for me, as others have said the danger + plus distraction from what I assume a sports bar customer goes for, like watching / playing some sort of sport, so watching out that your steak etc does not burn whilst an England penalty shoot out is under way is anathema to the very concept of sports bar

Could succeed in some trendy bistro or gastro pub, but personally I will leave the dog to do the barking

[aleandhearty]

Don't know the layout of your bar, but would hazard a guess it's open plan. Another consideration would be the heavy cooking smells you'd get wafting around from the fat cooking in the meat. Personally, I think there's nothing worse than the smell of saturated fat when I'm just having a beer.

[Gann]

Have to agree with all the others, steaks on Hot coals is aligned to food orientated pubs, rather than Sports bars.....

And I can say this having Essex connections myself , but I personally would not want to be near a Sports bar in Southend (for example) during a large sporting event if there are hot coals on the tables...

Seriously, assuming one target demographic is large groups of sport minded people, be they all blokes or mixed boys and girls, one thing I've seen work quite succesfully in other such venues is to have 'platters to share' available which can be bought for a group. And instead of basic chips go for wedges with mixed flavouring coatings on, including salt, as this always improves the wet sales...