Pub For Potter

[Boaters]

Read elsewhere with some news (thanks for  ) that the Broads Haven is in new hands to open with a new name.Hope this comes to fruition and it would be nice to have a riverside pub here again.I am sure will will get more information from those that know.

[Viking23]

It's just what Potter Heigham is missing, it's been tried before and failed, so what would make a good recipe for success? Not forgetting this needs to be an all year round business. 

Currently there is no need for anyone to be in Potter Heigham after 9:00 pm

Which brings us back a full circle following on from another recent post, where will everyone park?

OK there could be up to 3 hours free parking on Lathams, but stop one extra minute, and you will receive a hefty fine. Daren't risk that... 

I think some good negotiation is required, change to Lathams policy to allow... say free parking from 6:00pm till a reasonable time to allow pub visitors to come and go.

Seem to have been there already, is it too late to change? We don't want to put barriers in place to stop a good business idea, but all risks need to be thought about.

 

 

[Chelsea14Ian]

I firmly believe  most pubs can work.However in this day and  age I wish them wellto work it must be diverse.Good food and drink nice decor and be interesting. Gone are the days where all you had to do is serve drink.Lets see how the pub does through the season.I wish them well

[addicted]

Just had lunch at the Wayford Bridge very nice . ate ice cream in Horning the place was heaving with both people and boats (we went by car), likewise Wroxham, just back on the boat for a nice cuppa

 

 

Carole

 

[thingamybob]

Hopefully this time if it ever opens it will be a success. The location is excellent due to the extensive free moorings nearby. The building itself is a bit of a problem, as far as I can make out it was the NAAFI for the troops and workers in the MTB building and repair facilities during the war which I believe that is now the Herbert Woods yard and buildings. (I stand to be corrected if anybody knows better).

However, the main problem with the pub was always the attitude of the staff over the years after it was a thriving pub, and believe me it was thriving once. The last lot that were in there were more into chatting at the end of the bar with their friends than serving the customers. And when you did get served it was a very impersonal cold service. The beer served was quite disgusting.

The previous lot were a disaster. An example is, after a quiet evening when there was not much trade one evening the person in charge closed the kitchen early. The chef was having a pint after work and a boatload of people turned up seven handed. Of course, they wanted food. Think of the business, seventy plus quid's worth of food plus numerous drinks. The person in charge refused to reopen the kitchen. The boat crew would have been happy with egg and chips or bangers, beans and chips. and the result was that the seven people drank their drinks and went elsware. I think they may have gone to the Falgate or may have gone back to the boat for a few tinnies.

With the right people with the right attitude this pub could be a great place to stop at again. 

[thingamybob]

Viking 23:

With regards to what you say about an all year round business, it was at one time. I can remember that there were discos and karaoke there which were frequented by the locals as well as the boaters. It must have been a little goldmine in its heyday. Obviously those days will never return just as at the King's Head at Wroxham that used to do the same sort of thing.  

[Chelsea14Ian]

Yes perhaps the main problem is the state of the building.Staff can and do make a business.As I said it can be done.

[NorfolkNog]

Another problem is that the pub has been open and closed, open and closed, changed hands, had little investment and struggled with a poor reputation for a good few years now. There has been no stability to establish a local customer base as well as visitors. Ian is right, it certainly can be done but needs investment, enthusiasm, diversity of the offer and consistency to build up a reputation again which does take time.

As an example look at the Bridge Inn before Phil and Ness took over. It was getting run down and pretty much ignored by the locals. Its now a thriving highly successful pub with all year round trade and plenty of local support. It did take bit of time but you have to stick at it. Fly by night operations just don't work!

[Boaters]

I remember many moons ago they had some good Country and Western nights ,on regular basis at B H , I seem to recall..Live music seems to draw in the customers and many eat and stay after the meal to hear the band ,just look at the amount of venues now offering music,added to good beer and every one should be happy.

[thingamybob]

There is not much that can be done with the building itself, it is what it is and short of putting a bulldozer through it nothing in that respect will really change. Perhaps we can look at it from the aspect of being part of the history of the area and accept the building for what it was and is now.

But! and that is a big but, customer service is paramount. Serve decent quality beer, serve the beer in a friendly manner with a smile, serve good food and keep the place clean and fresh and that will go a long way to getting the pub back to what it was years ago.

With regards to the food, personally I do not want gourmet stuff. Good old bangers and mash, fish and chips, pies with whatever, beans on toast, you name it will do. Heaven knows, if you look in any decent transport café or whatever they do a roaring trade on this sort of stuff.

[thingamybob]

What about some quick and easy meals such as a lovely doorstep BLT, bacon and mushroom, sausage and mushroom sandwiches with poppy seeded bloomer bread? They used to be best sellers in a pub I used to use in Borough Market, Southwark at lunch times. They cost peanuts to make and will sell for at least £4 or more. I think what we need is good pub grub.

[LondonRascal]

If I may be realistic I am not sure another pub will work.

The building, which was in a state before has been left - for so long that this will have surely caused the interior to degrade considerable through damp etc and will result in a great deal of work and money to get things cleaned up. 

You've got the Lion Inn currently undergoing a huge amount of work which no doubt will thoroughly transform the pub and this is pretty close by - not just for boaters but people in the area. 

In short, Broads Haven is going to have to compete again the new Lion Inn, but also the Falgate which has for a long time now been the default 'go to' pub for visitors and locals alike in Potter. During the daytime the Potter Tea Rooms does a good trade and goes to show that a pub need not be a draw to visitors who want something to eat.

I've said this in the past, there are a lot of people who come to the Broads who want more from the shore based venues than just a pub. Also, increasingly drinking especially in 'younger' people is on the decline so going all out for a new pub in an large building I just feel is an opportunity missed.

It is a great location and could offer more of a focus of food than 'pub drinking with food' if that makes sense, which the Broads has so few of - the new Smoke House Grill just by Wroxham Station is a fine example of what the area is so desperate for (shame about the location) but having had a look in it looks great, and seeing photos of the food again is spot on the key is it is not a pub but provides Wroxham with something a little nicer and different for those wanting to eat out.

[MauriceMynah]

Sorry LR, I disagree. What the broads needs is MORE PUBS . Not more restaurants, not more Tea rooms but MORE PUBS.

So ok, I accept that I'm just one step away from the temperance society, but my heart goes out there to all those people (and there are many) who can't find enough pubs. Call me selfless and caring but that's just the way I am.

The northern waters have surprisingly few riverside pubs, and only two on the Hickling side of Potter Bridge. This pub, if brought up to a comfortable level will not be in competition with any other apart from the Falgate. Potter Heigham is far more of a lunchtime stop that an evening one. Vice versa for Thurn Dyke. When both are running up to speed, they will compliment one another beautifully. 

 

[thingamybob]

Yep MM, lets have more pubs serving good beer (serving good beer is not rocket science) and lets have good honest pub grub at good honest prices.

Personally I find there is a dearth of pubs on the Broads that meet my above requirements so apart from my favourite which is The Dog at Ludham Bridge and I must also mention The Grebe at Stalham which has come up in my estimation after a visit there last year. I usually stock up with some tinnies from Roy's or Tesco and not forgetting Lathams at PH along with some excellent food they supply and spend the evenings enjoying my countryside as the sun sets whilst I am cooking up some good honest food on my little two burners and a grill.

Oh deep joy!!!!  

[LondonRascal]

John you have your views on pubs, and frankly I am a pub user - hell I even enjoy Ales as a result of enjoying them in Norfolk which is relatively new so I get it, I like it but I also know that more people are not as keen these days about pubs.

Just take my local - a huge and cheap Whetherspoons.  Now five years ago this was heaving in the evenings with a mixture of students and people my sort of age - it had a pretty lively and cool atmosphere and I enjoyed going there after work, the food was okay but the price was keen.

These days, in the day time it is sparsely populated with older men, most of whom seem to checking the Racing Post. In the evenings is populated by more older men now rather worse for wear. Not families, not students and despite the occasional the odd '30 something' they seem to accidentally have arrived and feel obliged to stay for a pint before leaving.  It is, as Shiela calls its 'Grandads pub'.

So where did the 'others' go to?

Do they just now all stay at home and no longer venture out well no as it happens, I found them, down the road in 'Bistro/Folk Bars'  which have begun to pop up,  where you get live music and a buzzing atmosphere along good food, but there is no bar - sure you can get some beer or wine but their rustic interiors and tables get everyone together. It really is nothing like a pub - but does what the pub used to do with a community, bring it together in these hubs.

That is not to say Pubs are not popular still, but even a very nice one local to me has had to change drastically the types of events it hosts, deco, food and drink to get the people in.  It is busy but  I can tell these people are all 'liberal elites' from Muswell Hill and Crouch End  and not my sort of thing.

I feel that if you had somewhere just a little different, not a pub but a cross over - music, food, opens late, does drink - might just appeal to getting more of these sort of people up to the Broads and enjoying their time because, sorry to break it to the old guard, the area needs to attract a new generation of Boat loving people who might not be English and not have any time or want to go to a pub...

 

 

[MauriceMynah]

I can see where you are coming from Robin (Oh hell I hate that phrase) but once again I have to differ. There is a tendency within the pub trade or catering trade if you like, to identify the market, describe it and for ALL the hostelries to aim hell for leather for it.

When I was in that trade, the "customer of choice" was single, between 20 and 30, and lived with his/her parents. These were identified as the "Modern drinker with the large disposable income" ALL pubs had to aim for these customers. All were in competition with each other, and this market group was shared by them.

In Harlow, at that time, nobody took any notice of any other customer group, with the result that only about 20% of the town's population was catered for. 80% had nowhere to go.

Marketing groups have learned nothing in all these years. Nowadays the "Customer of choice" is married, no kids and each partner has a car. They like small amounts of food served on either plates that are too large for the portions or on lumps of timber more suited to Timbo's shed. We are told that broadland pubs must be "Family pubs" yet outside the school holiday period you are more likely to see a bittern than a family.

The prices go up so much within the school holiday time that the only families you are likely to witness have just picked up their kids from Eton or Harrow and it's the nanny who does all the cooking.

Whilst these days it is fashionable to "think outside the box" this seems not to apply to the catering trade who still insist on following these market gurus rather than going and actually looking at who is asking for what.  

[grendel]

Robin, you forget - that is London, we are talking about Norfolk, maybe in thirty years or so folky bars will become popular there.

[Paul]

19 hours ago, thingamybob said:

There is not much that can be done with the building itself, it is what it is and short of putting a bulldozer through it nothing in that respect will really change

Nail squarely hit. Anywhere that wants to attract custom has to be attractive. I doubt that building ever could be. The bulldozer is perhaps the only option.

[riverman]

Just pull it down and be done with it. Give the tea rooms a late license and turn it into a car park. The tea rooms are nice (even if it does seem a bit more expensive and slightly worse under the new owners). The broads need to be attracting young families not stag parties.

Just my tuppence.

[Londonlad1985]

The broads need to attract holiday makers that will spend money from stag parties to church outings! Its the diversve types of holiday makers that make boat watching a great sport!

[riverman]

Well, I'm on the river 6 days a week, and i assure you that watching drunk blokes who think there pirates gets old very quickly. 

Maybe just a ban on costumes....

[Soundings]

2 hours ago, Londonlad1985 said:

The broads need to attract holiday makers that will spend money from stag parties to church outings! Its the diversve types of holiday makers that make boat watching a great sport!

In your opinion

[Londonlad1985]

5 minutes ago, Soundings said:

In your opinion

Naturally