Antony Worrall Thompson has spoken of his eagerness to return to the kitchen, as he reopens his Berkshire pub The Greyhound today, five months after his company AWT Restaurants went into administration.
With the lease of The Greyhound holding AWT personally accountable for the premises’ monthly rent, the chef decided to reopen the pub this week rather than make a loss, swearing to learn from the mistakes his company made in the past.
Speaking with BigHospitality AWT said the pub would concentrate on adapting its menu to suit the thrifty consumer while targeting the weekly lunchtime trade, all with the chef taking a more hands-on role in the business.
“It will still be a traditional pub and we have a new team as many of the old staff were already employed elsewhere, but the door will always be open,” he said. “My partner, Anthony Bebbington will be the resident chef while I will also spend time back at the range cooking.
“It’s great to go back to the shop floor and be more hands on operationally as well as cooking in the kitchen. We have devised a more affordable and traditional pub menu to include Ploughman’s and sandwiches from £3.50 to the £5.95 mark, and a selection of restaurant dishes for those who want to spend up to £20.00 per head.
“By bringing in some more affordable options we hope to revive the weekly lunchtime trade that The Greyhound previously missed out on and give more variety in general to the regular evening and weekend clientele. It’s going to be a busy time but I can’t wait to get stuck in.”
While AWT will continue with his TV, publishing and kitchen equipment endorsement work, as well as oversee operations of The Greyhound and the other businesses he managed to salvage from administration - Kew Grill, Windsor Grill and The Windsor Larder - he is reluctant to grow his business any bigger for fear of making the same mistakes.
“We won’t be building an empire again," AWT said. "We are sticking to a smaller, more manageable size of business that keeps in mind the recession. We’ll need to be creative and constantly on our toes.
“Nobody puts their business into administration lightly and I don’t intend ever to be put in a position where administration is the only option again. It has been a horrible time for all concerned but we are incredibly lucky that we’ve had the support of many of our suppliers who are still trading with us and making it possible for us to build the business again. We will definitely be listening to the economy more; we were slow to act to the recessionary climate at the end of 2008. We won’t be making that mistake again nor relying on overdrafts rather than loans to see us through any difficult times in future.”
Administrators closed the Greyhound in January this year after the company experienced ‘high rents combined with a decline in footfall’. The remainder were closed a month later with AWT immediately buying back Kew Grill, Windsor Grill and The Windsor Larder. At the time he blamed his business’ demise on the banks for refusing to extend his loans without personal guarantees.