Fresh ideas

Another Tabology customer, café bar Wags N Tales in Surbiton, Surrey has taken a similar route. Its deli shop offer includes groceries such as fresh bread and eggs, as well as veg boxes and upmarket sandwiches. Customers can also order from a range of heat-at-home deli specials which include smashed avocado toast, burritos, burger and tamales.

While there’s choice of wine and bottled beer available, Wags N Tales has also pushed its takeaway drinks offer to the next level with a hotline that enables local customers to order draught beer or cocktails that are delivered from the bar to their door in 20 to 40 minutes. 

Another cocktail innovator is award-winning group Yummy Pubs, which has created a range of Letterbox Cocktails. Available to order online, these come with all the liquid and garnishes needed to make professional-looking cocktails, with a wide choice including a Pornstar Martini, Bramble, and Margarita, supported by online recipes. 

Out in rural Surrey, Hogs Back Brewery which operates a bar, tap room and shop on its site in the village of Tongham, now enables beer lovers to order freshly poured cask and keg beers for collection or delivery. The beer is supplied in a Snorter, a 3.5 pint branded, returnable glass container. Customers collecting their Snorter can also take advantage of the shop’s socially distanced drive-through service.

Pub is the Hub, the body set up with the support of the Prince of Wales to help community pubs expand local services, also stepped up its activity as businesses adapted to the pandemic. Pubs that have benefited from its support include the Green Man, a village pub in Scamblesby, Lincolnshire, which now sells newspapers, fresh bread, groceries and local produce through its shop, and The Star Inn at Harbottle, Northumberland, which has opened a takeaway pizzeria.

While diversification clearly requires imagination and effort, the technical challenges of adding and maintaining the benefits of new revenue streams shouldn’t be a barrier.