Berney Arms closed for good yesterday

[BroadScot]

Good old fashioned fair MM, not fancy nancy food. Filled rolls, soup.

 

Iain

[Timbo]

 A local pub landlord out here was once asked if he had anything suitable for vegans by a customer. 'Vegans eat free' he said opening the pub door 'the pasture's out the back'.

 

I notice all these demands for condiments are already eating into MM's profits before he's even moved in!

[Timbo]

As a potential customer MM here's what I would be looking for...a bit like my old local.

 

A decent pint, somewhere where I could have a smoke in the dry, a beagle friendly pub that's not averse to an impromptu jam session should a musician be present (my old local had a cabinet in the corner of the snug with a couple of guitars and the odd banjo in it) and with some reading material available...be it the newspaper, old copies of punch, or the occasional second hand book if I'm feeling unsociable. Finally a small corner behind the bar where I can buy a tin of beans, pint of milk, can of soup and more importantly...tobacco, filter tips and papers should I run out! I'm a simple bloke.

[Matt]

MM,

I will make a start:

-business rates

-insurance

-cold out of season months where there will probably several weeks with no custom.

-working on your own so when will you be going to the cash and carry for bits

-how do deliveries get to the pub

-will you be able to get a licence.

-you will need capital as well as purchase price

-if you can get your hands on that sort of cash you could probably be making upwards of £6k a year from risk free investments.

I'm sure we could go on.....

[NorfolkNog]

Riyadcrew,

In the future maybe, but to start with, two or at best three real ales. Not sure which ones though.

Humpty Dumpty, Humpty Dumpty and Humpty Dumpty MM

[JennyMorgan]

I knew a pub down in Sussex that served only one dish, a really good, proper Ploughmans. People travelled miles!

 

I know that I will make myself unpopular with this one but NO dogs. Arggghhhhhh!!!! But with good reason, many of your potential customers would be 'birders' and dogs and nature reserves don't generally mix well.

[riyadhcrew]

Eric, as I said earlier on this thread, the demise of the southern boatyards must have hit trade there. It was a Scot, Bob McLaughlan who was in there for years. But he I think, saw the writting on the wall.

 

Its a potential place, but you need customers all year round! IMHO to make it work.

 

Iain.

 

Iain,

 

I also remember 2 gay guys that ran the place for a while. It did good business back then, so there is little reason that with the right person running it, it couldn't do it again.

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi MM,

Like your style but can we change the ham for cheese? that way you only have to offer the bread to the vegans.

Regards

Alan

[Gracie]

We would look for

 

Child friendly / Children's menu

Good old pub grub (the odd dish with gravy and not chips with everything)

A friendly land lord

Fosters, Fosters, Fosters......just kidding Howard lol, good beer and good red wine

Nice seating area outside for watching the boats go by with a few drinks

 

Heaven

 

Grace

[BuffaloBill]

It could work if it opened as a 'Truckers Cafe' type establishment.

Large portions of 'All day breakfasts' and Mugs of tea. Sorted!

I'll be first in there......

Oh, and some alcohol 

[kadensa]

Sorry to disagree with you, Gracie, but your ideal sounds just like every other pub in every town/village in the country. To make somewhere like the Berney Arms a success it would have to be different, otherwise why would anyone go out of their way to visit it?

[Chelsea14Ian]

As far as I know the pub is owned and has been managed for a number of years,I was told the rent was put up thus making it hard to make money.What has not helped is the fact that many hire companies  advice people not to moor at berney.

 

I hope the owners look at the best way to make the pub a success again

 

Ian

[Gracie]

Yes of course it sounds like a lot of pubs, pubs that don't do food or welcome families are less likely to prosper.

 

We have a customer who was a landlord of two pubs on Hastings sea front, they were proper spit and sawdust type pubs and doing very well until the smoking ban which killed most of his trade, he had to shut one pub and turned the other into a family pub with a pub grub type menu and glad to say he's doing very well.

 

A pub where families are not welcome and no food on offer, in his opinion not mine, will not do well.

 

We cruised to the Bridge Inn, at Acle last year and we had to wait two hours for a table, they are family friendly and do pub grub with nice seating out side, could the Berney not become a similar type of pub?

 

Grace

[BroadScot]

Eric,

 

That's Bob and his pal you are thinking about, think mate was called Paul Paul was the Cook/Chef.

 

Iain.

[BroadScot]

Just rewritten my reply Dave, after your last reply. I am now asking, just how much property do you get for the £250,000 at Berney? I find some of the prices quoted in Norfolk staggering at times.

 

 

 Iain.

[Gracie]

"Gracie I can take you to loads of very successful pubs run on this basis"

 

Is that a date then Malteser? If so you're buying  and I would expect some good pub grub, I'm no cheap date you know lol

 

Grace 

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Dave,

I tend to agree with you it must be 100k over the top for any chance of making an income out of this pub even if they did meals, the volume of potential customers is low, I bet for years this pub has done less than 2 barrels a week.

I know you have to take sales across the board but a good pub will only make between 30 to 35% on beer sales and that is assuming a small ullage.

The location is an issue with regards to access and the large variation in tides will not help with encouraging families to moor there.

We have never moored there and prefer to make Reedham our first stop.

Regards

Alan

[BroadScot]

Mooring there Alan can be good fun if you don't know what you are doing. As you say also, the rise and fall can be quite severe there.

 

Iain.

[riyadhcrew]

Imagine if someone invested the money for some decent floating moorings with movable steps or a ramp. That would make a big difference. Berney Arms could rise again. 

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Eric,

Yes floating pontoons with an adjacent ram would make a world of difference, the same could be said for the Yarmouth Yacht Station.

 

Regards

Alan

[MauriceMynah]

Thank you all for your replies, most of which I agree with, (Yes Dave even yours, especially the price)

Good ploughmans, Something I'd thought about many years ago.

Dog Friendly, Sorry JM but yes.

Smoker friendly, Yep Timbo, even as a non-smoker I agree, along with your other points,

Child Friendly, To an extent yes, but I don't want gaudy plastic disneygumph spoiling the place.

Humpty Dumpty Brewery would be one of the regulars NorfolkNog, Also I need to find out if there's room for a micro brewery. Just another thought in the pipeline.

At the right price I think it "doable", I've a lot of homework to do on this, but as I said earlier, I am serious about it.

Oh and just something I will mention, I have been in the trade before, so I'm not exactly a total stranger to the lifestyle.

Keep the ideas coming please.

[JawsOrca]

Surely the main problem with this is that you can't get there by road (can you now?)..  As a mooring I don't think it really offers anything, considering reedham and burgh castle make better alternatives...plus the sad reduction of "holiday makers" staying south means that as a riverside access only pub means it has no hope...Personally we wont stop there overnight and never have, 15 years ago when we first hired we were told not to stop there because the yard wouldn't cover us if anything went wrong.  But if I can drive there and it was a nice pub then we probably would stop off when driving about up there (and if they opened the mill once a while!).

 

Good luck though berney

[riyadhcrew]

MM,

 

A very sincere "All the best of luck". I'm sure that most, if not all of the members would be behind you on this one. As I said before, I for one, would hit you at least twice a visit.

[riyadhcrew]

JO,

 

I think there is a track to the place for deliveries, but I don't know how good the track is and if it would be suitable for normal cars.

[BuffaloBill]

We have never stopped there because it's too difficult

for Jenny to get off the boat and tie the ropes which

she has to do as she doesn't drive the boat.

Likewise, untying to leave would prove just as problematic. 

Good substantial floating pontoons would be the answer

for us as I'm sure they would be for many others.

Opening early morning when the tides depict an early

departure for Yarmouth for a cooked breakfast may help too.

John, you'll need to rise early and late to bed my boy