FEEDINGA FOOD PASSION

ANDY RICHARDSON MEETS THE COUPLE BEHIND THE REMARKABLE SUCCESS OF PUB-RESTAURANT THE HAUGHMOND

There’s achuckle as Mel Board considers the journey that she and husband, Martin, have taken.

The owners of The Haughmond, at Atcham, near Shrewsbury, will celebrate their 10thanniversary next year.It’s taken in apandemic, awar in mainland Europe, acost of living crisis that’s sent people away in droves and spiralling energy costs that would have ended many other businesses.

It’s agood job sheand Martin have learned to see the funny side. And it’s an even better job that they’re light on their feet, flexible, determined and resilient.

When the couple startednegotiations for their pub-restaurant in 2012, they wanted amulti-functional site. They didn’t just want arestaurant, or apub They wanted somewhere that they could develop, with rooms, so as to hedge their bets. If one part of the business was under-performing, another would pull them through –orsotheythought

“Westarted in 2012, but didn’t get the keys until 2014. The thinking was always that we couldn’t just rely on arestaurant. We needed different avenues to get money in when other things were quiet.”

They bought the pub fromMarston’s. It was all flock wallpaper and flowery carpets. Over the next eight-12 months, they completely gutted and renovated the first floor

Mel says: “It developed from there.

There was adouble garage that was turned into acommunity village store, whichis now acoffee shop with abakery.Weput two extra bedrooms next to it which are dog-friendly,toattract adifferent type of customer.They accommodate dirty wet dogs or dirty wet bikes. We developedone of the barns into asingle-storey house, which we lived in ourselves, but now it’sa self-catering barnthatisfull pretty much all of the year.”

Mel and Martin moved into asecond barn themselves and as their offer grew to bed and breakfast, café and bakery, restaurant, and bar,they’ve continued to keep their feet on the ground.

“Now we’ve reintroduced bar snack menustobring the drinkers back. We went down one road with the head chef, which was very much fine dining, but we’ve looked at that over the past 12 months and there’s acost of living crisis. We know people won’t spend £65 on atasting menu so we’re back to doing an alacarte menu. We’re back to doing amazing dishes that are affordable. We have anew head chef and all our starters are under £10. All our mains areunder £20. All our desserts are under £10. It’s the way it’s got to be. Ineed bottoms in my chairs and bodies in my beds.”

That determination to be flexible has led to great deals with 20% off food from TuesdaytoThurday.Mel says it’s working. “I’d rather 20% off and someone be there than have an empty chair or an empty room. It’s about being dynamic and flexible and adjusting to themarket place and knowing what’s goingon. There’s no point in us sitting in our ivory tower if no one is willing to buy.It’s about overdelivering on people’s expectations.”

Covid was aonce-in-a-lifetime challenge. “Wewrote alittle journal at the beginning of Covid. It was the day before Mother’s Day and we all huddled around the radio to find out what was going on. All our shoulders sank when we heard the news. Ihad 150 people booked and the chefs had prepared all the food. Ifelt like crying. We packed all the food up in boxes and people took it home. We vac-packed the gravy.The meat was vac-packed. We portioned all the desserts. Everybody –all those 150 covers –went out the door to people who’d booked in. We had to do something with all that food.”

Mel and Martin opened avillage shop, selling, pasta, rice and other goods, to get them through Covid.

“Wewere getting 20kg of rice and putting it into 500g bags. People have forgotten those times.”

And then there was the challenge of energy costs, which, in Mel and Martin’s case, went from £2,200 amonth to £7,000. Imagine that, having to find an extra £1,200 per week –and that was just for electricity

“The nonsense of thediscount from the Government meant 3p per kwh off our usage.” And so staff changedtheir behaviour,switching off lights andgas rings to bring the bills down. “It’s going to continue while Putin’s there.”

Putin’swar in Ukraine meant demand dropped off the face of the earth in February last year,when Russia invaded. “It was looking like it would be arecord month, then the war hit in the Ukraine. Bookings started dropping off the face of the earth. We triedtoadapt. We have anotherthreat coming up in Upton Magna because the Mytton &Mermaid is being done up. It will affect all the pubs round here. We’ve got to offer something outstanding and different. The cost of living crisis hasmeant we’ve all got to look at what we’re doing –whatwe’re offering to our customer base.

“Weknow that customers arenot going out to eat as often, becausewespeak to people all the time. There’s acustomer base that wants to eat out regularly but they’re going throughproblems too. Fine dining is dying on its feet. The cost of living is changing it. Youhave to be affordable.”

Soldiering on has been ahallmark of Mel’s and Martin’s careers. And it’s served them well. “When we started out, we were in sales and marketing, living in Hong Kong. We sold stuff to people like Tescoand Wilkinson’s.Those places made stupid money but we both hated everything about what we did. We hada passion to supplypeople with something good, which is why we moved into hospitality

“My passion was customer service and Martin likes to cook –together,wemake a good team. Ijust lovefeeding people who are passionate about what we do. We were never restaurateurs who wanted to make amassive profit, sell-up and retire. Our staff are like our family.” n Photos: Andy Hughes

And so, it must be said, arethe locals from their community. Mel and Martin are the lifeblood of Shropshire –the county needs them as much as they need the county.