A proper Newcastle pub on Haddrick's Mill Road, South Gosforth. A neighbourhood boozer since 1905, a micro brewery since 2016, a kitchen doing loaded rice bowls, tacos and Northern fried chicken, a quiz on Sunday nights, comedy nights & more...
Cask beers and ciders are the backbone of the place — nine lines that change daily, alongside our own brewery downstairs. Dogs are welcome in the bar, and there's a beer garden for when the weather behaves.
Coming in your ears!
THIS MONTH'S PLAYLIST
What we've been playing behind the bar. Take it home with you.
Get the good stuff first
New menus, one-off events and beer news. One email a month, no shite.
Steaming bowls of seasoned rice piled high with fresh toppings, house dressings and Asian pickles.
Bang Bang Crispy Shrimp Rice
Crispy king prawns in sweet-and-spicy bang bang sauce.
£12.95
Korean Short Rib
Sticky gochujang-glazed short rib.
£13.50
Honey Soy Crispy TofuPlant based
Golden crispy tofu in a sticky honey-soy glaze.
£12.95
Filipino Adobo Pork Rice
Slow-braised soy-and-garlic adobo pork.
£12.95
Add a fried egg£1.49
Topped House Fries
Skin-on Maris Piper fries loaded up and smothered in our ridiculous house toppings. For one to two persons.
Pulled Pork Cheese Fries
Dr Pepper-braised pulled pork, house cheese sauce and crispy onions.
£9.95
Blue Cheese Mushroom FriesVegetarian
Garlic-buttered mushrooms, melting blue cheese and chives.
£9.95
Peppercorn Steak Frites
Seared bavette, creamy peppercorn sauce and crispy onions.
£9.95
Katsu Chicken Fries
Buttermilk fried chicken with katsu curry sauce.
£9.95
Upgrade to waffle friesadd £1.49
Authentic Corn Tacos
Two corn tortillas loaded with fresh fillings and lime. Great for a lighter option. Gluten free choices. Add £2.49 for Maris Piper fries.
Crispy Baja Shrimp
Battered prawns, shredded cabbage, chipotle mayo and lime.
£9.50
Crispy Oyster MushroomPlant based
Crispy oyster mushrooms, guacamole, pickled onion and lime.
£8.95
Dr Pepper Pork Carnitas
Slow-cooked pulled pork, guacamole, pickled onion and lime.
£8.95
Bavette Steak
Seared bavette, red pickled onion and chimichurri.
£9.50
Little Fellas & Sharesies
Little plates of tasty things for sharing, or just for you.
Korean Style Short Ribs
Sticky gochujang-glazed short ribs with sesame.
£7.95
House Mac & CheeseVegetarian
Creamy three-cheese macaroni.
£5.95
Sticky Soy Crispy Shrimp
Crispy king prawns in a sticky soy glaze with sesame.
£7.75
Spiced Edamame
Steamed edamame pods tossed in red pepper flakes.
£4.50
Sides & Extras
Maris Piper skin-on fries£3.99
Asian style side salad£2.99
Halloumi fries£5.99
Perello gordal olives£4.99
3 x chicken tenders£6.99
House coleslaw£1.99
Allergens
Menu allergen matrix
Every dish on this menu mapped against the declarable allergens, by section. If you have an allergy or intolerance please tell the team when you order — our kitchen handles all fourteen allergens, so we can't guarantee any dish is free from traces.
Nine hand pulls, changing all the time, two of them by us, three of them craft ciders. We've had thousands of beers on since Frank & Bird took over in 2009. Here's the latest...
On the bar right now
NINE TEATS OF HAND CRANKED GLORY
{{ caskUpdatedLabel }}
{{ c.initial }}
{{ c.name }}
{{ c.meta }}
Brewed here on siteJust gone off
{{ c.abv }}
Casks turn over fast — if one's gone through there'll be something else on.
Cask
Rotating hand pulls with a bias towards the North East. There's always a pale, a dark and something local on.
Our own brewery
We brew in-house as OVERKILL brewery, hop forward, hazy pales, always at least two on the bar...
Keg, lager & cider
Fizzy patter.
Wine & fizz
A short, well-chosen list by the glass and bottle.
Our own licorice vodka — the traditional Helsinki shot. National drink of Finland, from a Norwegian recipe we found in Switzerland. Served very cold, straight from the freezer.
Hosted by our friend Mike. Prizes, loads of cask beer, a geordie version of play your cards right and the kitchen is open until 9pm. Starts at 8pm — get a table before it fills up.
Thousands of new and pre-loved records for sale, across every genre. A friendly place to buy records and discover music on vinyl — new to it or not, come and have a dig.
1000s of recordsAll genresNew & pre-loved
Wednesday 2nd September · Doors 7:30, show 8pm
Stand-Up Comedy at Brandling Villa
A Felt Nowt night in the function room. Lauren Stone, Kelly Edgar and Dan Ward, hosted by Jake Donaldson. Line-up subject to change.
Five weeks of arts and crafts at the Brandling, every Tuesday 7pm–9pm with tutor Rob Winter. All materials provided and different materials each week. Maximum 20 guests per session.
Birthdays, wakes, christenings, work do's and wedding receptions. No room hire fee, a full sound system and stage, audio visual facilities, and buffets built in our own kitchen.
The Frank Assortment
£{{ priceFrank }} per person
{{ item.text }}
Add for £{{ priceFrankExtra }} per person
{{ frankExtrasText }}
The Bird Collection
£{{ priceBird }} per person
{{ item.text }}
Add for £{{ priceBirdExtra }} per person
{{ birdExtrasText }}
Add fizz — only £{{ priceFizz }} per person
No room hire fee
Vegan & veggie options galore
Buckets of beer & wine on ice
What you get
Personalised beers from our in-house brewery
Multiple drinks packages
Audio visual facilities
Full sound system and stage
Tailored buffets — tell us what you want and we'll quote it
Enquire
Tell us the date, rough numbers and what you're after. We'll come back with a quote.
Thanks — we'll be in touch within a couple of days.
For tables of six or more. Pre-ordering gets everything out quickly and hot, and makes sure every allergy and dietary need is covered. Add one entry per guest, choose their main and tick anything they need to avoid.
Pre-order received
It's gone through to the kitchen. We'll confirm by email — see you soon.
Add a beer
The list stays on this device, so you can build a set up over a few sittings and print them all together.
{{ beerError }}
Craft beer cards · {{ beerCardsCount }} · cut along the lines
Nothing on the list yet — add a beer above.
{{ c.style }}
{{ c.beer }}
{{ c.brewery }}
ABV
{{ c.abv }}
Pint
{{ c.price }}
Weekly to-do list
{{ taskWeek }} · {{ taskCount }}
Week beginning
/
#
The job
Urgency
Done
{{ t.num }}
{{ t.text }}
{{ t.area }}{{ t.who }}
Now
Soon
Later
Nothing on the list — add some lines first.
Notes for the next shift
Signed off by
Wines & that
{{ wineYear }}
{{ s.name }}
125
175
250
Btl
{{ w.name }}{{ w.note }}
{{ w.p125 }}
{{ w.p175 }}
{{ w.p250 }}
{{ w.bottle }}
All prices in pounds · 125ml, 175ml and 250ml measures available · ask about the bin ends
Nothing to see here unless you work here —
Staff room
Enter the staff passcode to see rotas, menus, specs and compliance documents. Ask a manager if you haven't got it.
That's not it. Try again.
There's a newer version of the staff room — some links or documents may have changed.
Put the staff room on your phone
Adds an icon to your home screen so you can get to the rota, specs and training without hunting for the website.
Tap the Share button at the bottom of Safari, then Add to Home Screen. It'll open like an app, straight to this page.
iPhone: Share button in Safari, then Add to Home Screen. Android: the ⋮ menu in Chrome, then Install app. It'll open like an app, straight to this page.
Tick a box when someone has read the document and been talked through it. Ticks are dated and saved to the training sheet for everyone — this is the record, so only tick what has actually happened.
{{ head.name }}
{{ row.person }}
Cask pricing
Put in what the nine is invoiced at before VAT and the margin you want. Prices out have VAT in and are rounded to the nearest 5p, with the GP that rounding actually lands on beside each one.
Put the cask price in and the prices come out.
{{ caskPerPintCost }} a pint to buy · at {{ caskGpLabel }}
{{ m.name }}
{{ m.price }}
Exact{{ m.exact }}
Costs{{ m.cost }}
Cash GP{{ m.cash }}
GP at that price{{ m.gpAt }}
{{ caskTakeNote }}
Wine list
Add each wine with what the bottle costs before VAT. Glass prices come out rounded to 10p, bottles to the pound, both with VAT in. Then print the list.
Reading a photo gets digits wrong, so check every figure it fills in. Pasting the report's table out of a PDF is exact; a blank list lets you type the two figures per line.
{{ stockParseNote }}
Nothing to analyse yet
Paste the report's table or start a blank list, and the mix appears here.
Read off the photo — not checked
Go through every figure against the report before you trust any of this. Correct them in the table at the bottom.
{{ stockTotalCheck }}
Gross sales
{{ stockTotalGross }}
{{ stockLineCount }} · {{ stockPeriod }}
Overall GP
{{ stockOverallGp }}
{{ stockTotalCost }} of stock sold · {{ stockTotalNet }} ex-VAT sales
{{ stockUnsoldNote }}
Nothing entered for ingredients used but not sold, so this reads high. Put the report's figure in at the bottom.
Good · on targetWatch · within 2 pointsPoor · more than 2 under
{{ stockHeadline }}. Worst lines are the red ones — the points figure is how far actual GP sits from its target, and the cash figure is what it cost.
File this one
Once the figures are right, file them under the period so they join the week-on-week picture below. Filing the same period again replaces it.
{{ stockSaveNote }}
Edit the figures
Sub-category
Gross sales
Cost of sales
Target GP%
Cost variance
{{ e.name }}
Ingredients not sold
The report's cost with no sales against it — it pulls overall GP down
Week on week · {{ stockHistoryCount }}
{{ m.gross }}
{{ m.gp }}
{{ m.label }}
Gross salesOverall GP
Mix over time
{{ s.pct }}
{{ c.label }}
{{ k.name }}
GP and variance by category, every week
Sub-category
{{ h.label }}
{{ r.name }}
{{ r.target }}
{{ c.gp }}
{{ c.variance }}
Overall
{{ t.gp }}
{{ t.variance }}
Actual GP above, cash variance below. Green is on or above target, amber within two points, red further off. A red variance is stock gone missing or sold cheap.
What moved
{{ m.name }}
{{ m.share }}
{{ m.delta }}
{{ m.cash }}
{{ stockMoveNote }}
One period on file. File next week's stock take and the comparison appears here.
Periods on file
{{ h.label }}
{{ h.gross }}
{{ h.gp }} GP
{{ h.variance }}
Paper
Coming up at the
Brandling Villa
Haddricks Mill Road, South Gosforth
{{ e.date }}
{{ e.title }}
{{ e.detail }}
{{ e.qrLabel }}
Everything that's on
Scan for the full listings, food menus and to book a table. Cask beer, nine hand pulls, kitchen open daily.
brandlingvilla.com
Paper
Brandling Villa · Haddricks Mill Road
Burger
and a
Pint
Any burger, any Overkill beer
£16.50
Brewed in the pub since 2016
Monday to Friday
12pm — 6pm
Pick any burger off the menu and any Overkill beer, brewed in the pub since 2016. Kitchen open from 12.
See the burger menu
Scan for the full food menu, allergen info and to book a table.
brandlingvilla.com
Paper
Brandling Villa · Haddricks Mill Road
For those who look after everyone else —
Blue Light Card holders & hospitality industry
10%
off food
5%
off drinks
Just show us your Blue Light Card or a payslip from where you work when you order. Any day we're open.
See the food menu
Scan for the full menu, allergen info and to book a table.
brandlingvilla.com
Paper
Brandling Villa · Haddricks Mill Road
Two
for
One
Every Tuesday
On any
BurgersRice bowlsTacosSubs
Order two, pay for one. Cheapest dish comes off the bill. Kitchen open from 12.
See the food menu
Scan for the full menu, allergen info and to book a table.
brandlingvilla.com
Paper
Brandling Villa
Sorry —
This area is reserved
Name
From
Plenty of room elsewhere — grab any other free table, or ask us and we'll find you one.
Thanks · Brandling Villa
Paper
Brandling Villa
Sorry —
Out of order
What
Since
We're getting it sorted. Please ask at the bar and we'll point you to the next one.
Thanks · Brandling Villa
Overkill
Delivery note
Note no.
Date
{{ deliveryNoteDate }}
Order ref.
From
Overkill Brewing Newcastle upon Tyne
Deliver to
Product
Format
Ordered
Delivered
Unit
Total
Shortages, damages or notes
Goods
VAT
Total
Received by
Signature · print name · time
Delivered by
Signature · print name · vehicle
Check the delivery against this note before signing. Anything short, damaged or out of date should be written above and reported the same day. Empties collected are counted on the reverse.
For the screens —
Event panels
One panel per event — 1920 × 1080 for the screens, 1080 × 1920 for stories — drawn at full size and shown scaled. Download the JPEG for the screens in the pub, for socials, or to send on.
{{ p.title }} · 1080 × 1920
{{ p.kicker }}
{{ p.script }}
{{ p.title }}
{{ p.lineOne }}
{{ p.lineTwo }}
{{ ph.name }}
Scan for
{{ p.cta }}
{{ p.title }} · 1920 × 1080
{{ p.kicker }}
{{ p.script }}
{{ p.title }}
{{ p.lineOne }}
{{ p.lineTwo }}
{{ t.label }}
{{ ph.name }}
Scan for
{{ p.cta }}
Know the list —
Wine training
Fourteen grapes, what each one tastes of, and who to put it in front of. By grape rather than by bottle, so it stays right when the list changes — check the label for the producer, but the grape tells you nearly everything you need to say.
Three measures on every wine by the glass, and they are legally defined — pour to the line, not by eye. Drawn here to scale, so you can see what someone is actually getting.
{{ m.label }}
{{ m.name }}
{{ m.units }}{{ m.perBottle }}
{{ m.note }}
Units are quoted at 12.5%, which is where most of the list sits — a 14% red in a large glass is nearer three and a half. If someone asks whether to take the bottle, the honest answer is that three large glasses is a bottle, and the bottle is cheaper.
Serving it right
Temperature
Fizz 6–8° · white 7–10° · red 14–18°
Most white gets served too cold to taste and most red too warm to drink. If a red has been stood near the kitchen, ten minutes in the fridge does it a favour — especially the Pinot Noir.
Pour to the line
Never by eye
The measures are a legal requirement, and generous pours cost us the GP on the whole bottle. Wine should sit at the widest part of the bowl at most — that is where it releases its aroma, and it is what a 175 looks like in a big glass.
Opened bottles
Stoppered and dated
An open bottle is good for two or three days stoppered in the fridge, reds included. Past that it tastes flat and vinegary — taste it before you pour a glass from a bottle that has been sat, and if in doubt open a fresh one.
Bottle service
Show, open, let them taste
Show the label before you open it so they know they got what they ordered, open it at the table, pour a small taste for whoever ordered and wait for the nod. It takes fifteen seconds and it is the difference between a pub and a proper one.
Talking to customers
"Something dry"
Half the people who ask for dry mean crisp, and half mean not sweet. Almost everything on the list is technically dry, so ask what they had last time they enjoyed a glass — it settles it faster than any wine word.
Light or full
The most useful question you can ask, and everyone can answer it. Light and fresh, or big and rich? That one answer narrows fourteen grapes down to two or three.
Move them one step
Nobody wants to be talked out of their usual. A Pinot Grigio drinker will try an Albariño; they will not try a big oaked Chardonnay. One step across, never three.
Two glasses or a bottle
Say it plainly to a table of two ordering large glasses — three larges is a bottle, and the bottle is better value. People appreciate being told, and it is a bigger sale either way.
Wine with the food
Keep it simple: something heavy goes with something heavy. Burgers and steak take the Malbec or the Shiraz, fish and fried food take the Albariño or the fizz, and anything spicy takes the Riesling.
Never bluff a vintage
If someone asks something you cannot answer, read the back label to them and say you have not tried it. Wine is the drink people most enjoy being lied to about, and most resent being lied to about.
Grape by grape · {{ wineGrapeCount }}
Swatch shows the colour · pips show the body
{{ k.name }}
{{ k.note }}
{{ g.name }}
{{ g.from }}
{{ g.strap }}
{{ g.bodyLabel }}
Tastes of
{{ g.tastes }}
Who to offer it to
{{ g.suits }}
With food
{{ g.food }}
Sell it in one line
{{ g.sell }}
And vermouth
Vermouth is wine — that is the whole thing to remember. White wine, fortified with spirit up to around 15–18% and flavoured with botanicals, wormwood among them. It sits with the spirits on the back bar but it behaves like an open bottle of wine, and it gets treated like one.
Dry
Pale · French style
Crisp and herbal, barely sweet. This is the martini one. Also very good on its own over ice with a slice of lemon.
Sweet red
Rosso · Italian style
Dark, sweet, bitter-orange and vanilla. What goes in a negroni. Still made from white wine — the colour is caramel, not red grapes.
Bianco
Sweet white
Sweeter and softer than the dry, with vanilla and elderflower. The easiest one to sell to somebody who has never had vermouth.
The mistake everyone makes
Because it lives with the spirits, vermouth gets left open on the back bar for months. It is wine, so it oxidises — a bottle open at room temperature is flat and stale within a fortnight. Ours goes in the fridge once opened and gets used inside a month. If it smells sherried or tastes of nothing, it is finished.
Worth selling on its own
A 50ml measure over plenty of ice, topped with soda or tonic and a slice of orange, is a proper drink at half the strength of a gin and tonic. Good answer for anyone wanting something interesting but not heavy, or driving later on.
{{ g.name }}
{{ g.kindName }} · {{ g.from }}
Sell it in one line
{{ g.sell }}
Tastes of
{{ g.tastes }}
Who to offer it to
{{ g.suits }}
With food
{{ g.food }}
{{ g.bodyLabel }} bodied{{ g.serve }}
First shift —
Welcome to the Villa
Ten minutes of reading. What this place is, what the job actually involves, and how to find everything on this website. Nobody expects you to remember it all on day one — but read it once before your first shift and you will be well ahead.
Haddrick's Mill Road, South Gosforth. Nine cask hand pulls, our own brewery out the back, and a kitchen open every day from midday until 9pm. Not a chain, not a restaurant with beer — a pub that takes its beer and its food equally seriously.
What's on
The Sunday night quiz, £2 a head, hosted by Mike from 8pm. Stand-up comedy nights. Movements in Art and life-drawing workshops. Events are a big part of what we are, so know what is coming up — the What's On page is the same one customers read.
Who you'll be working with
A small team, so everyone does a bit of everything — bar, floor, cellar, running food. Nobody is above clearing tables and nobody is expected to know things they were never shown. Ask, every time.
The job
Stripped back, the job is three things: serve people well, keep the place clean and stocked as you go, and know enough about what we sell to be useful. Everything else is detail on top of those.
Serving
Acknowledge everyone who comes to the bar, even if you are two deep and cannot get to them yet — a nod buys you two minutes. Serve in order of arrival and say so if you are unsure who was next; people are reasonable about it.
Knowing the drinks
Nine casks changing constantly, so nobody knows every beer on every shift — that is normal. What you do need is the styles, so you can steer someone from what they normally drink to something they will like. Offer a taster before they ask, and remember we do two-thirds on everything.
Food
Kitchen runs midday to 9pm every day. Take allergies seriously and never guess — check the spec or ask the kitchen. Tables of eight or more order food in advance, so if a big group turns up expecting to order at the table, get a manager.
Cellar and cask
We run vertical extraction — casks stood upright, not on a horizontal stillage. You will be shown it properly rather than left to work it out. The one thing to carry from day one: a vented cask has about three days, and a pint that tastes of vinegar or wet cardboard gets pulled and reported, not served.
Clean as you go
Bar tops wiped, glasses collected, wand purged after every drink. Ten seconds during service saves half an hour at close, and a clean bar is the single clearest signal to a customer about how the rest of the place is run.
When something goes wrong
Tell someone straight away. A dropped tray, a wrong order, a customer who has had enough — none of it is a problem if it is said out loud early. Hiding it is the only version that becomes a problem.
Your first shift
Turn up ten minutes early, find whoever is running the shift, and say you are new. Then spend the first hour watching and carrying things — that is genuinely the fastest way in.
1Get shown the till, the cellar door, the fire exits and where the first aid kit is.
2Walk the bar with someone and name every pump, tap and fridge out loud.
3Pour a pint of cask and a pint of lager under supervision, and taste them.
4Read the food menu properly, including the allergen notes.
5Save this website to your phone's home screen — the staff room lives here.
Ask on your first shift
These are things only a manager can tell you, so get them written down early rather than guessing:
How breaks and shift times work
What to wear
Getting on the rota system
How to book holiday or swap a shift
Staff discount, and food on shift
Who to call if you cannot get in
The staff room, explained
Everything you need on shift is on one page — the staff room. It is part of this website, so it works on your phone. Here is what each block on it is for. Most of it you will never touch; the four marked start here are the ones you will use in your first month.
Rotas & sheets
Start here
Your rota, and the link into the booking diary. Check the rota before you ask anyone what you are working — it is always the current version.
Specs & training
Start here
House rules, the complaints procedure, and the training guides — coffee, and cask, craft & hops. Work through those two in your first fortnight. Underneath is the training record, where a manager ticks off what you have been taken through.
In the kitchen
Start here
Dish specs — every dish, what goes in it, and its allergens. This is the page to check when a customer asks what is in something. Do not answer an allergy question from memory.
Behind the bar
Start here
The drinks guides, including the beer styles and hops reference. Print the A5 cards and keep them behind the bar until you know them.
Print
Flyers, table cards, the weekly to-do list, the run sheet and the table plan for the day's bookings. If someone asks you to print the run sheet, this is where it lives.
Cask & wine pricing
Works out what to charge from what we paid. Management use it — you will not need it, but it is why the prices on the board are what they are.
Stock, ordering & inventory
Stock takes, supplier ordering and the full ingredient list. Mostly management, though you may be asked to help with a count sheet.
Performance
Takings, wages and gross profit. Management only, but worth knowing it exists — when someone says a Tuesday was quiet, this is where that comes from.
Social media
Exports the cask board as an image for Instagram. Handy if you are asked to post the board when the beers change.
The customer-facing pages — food, drinks, what's on — are the same ones the public read, so they are the fastest way to answer a question at the bar without guessing.
Three things that matter more than the rest
Say you don't know
"I have not tried that one, let me find out" is a good answer. Making something up about an allergen or a beer is the one thing that will land you in real trouble.
Taste what we sell
Ask for a taster of anything new on the board. You cannot recommend a beer you have never had, and nobody minds you asking — it is the point.
Regulars run on names
Learn a few names and a few usual orders in your first month. It is most of what makes somebody choose this pub over the one down the road.
Nine casks on —
Cask, craft & hops
How a cask works, what each style actually is, and what the hops on the board taste of. Styles rather than named beers, so it stays right when the board changes.
A cask is a sealed barrel of unfinished beer. The yeast is still alive in it, still settling, still producing a little gas. Everything below is about letting that gas out at the right rate and keeping the sediment where it belongs.
We run vertical extraction — casks stood on end, not laid on a horizontal stillage. A tube goes down through the top to just above the base, and the beer is drawn up from there. The sediment settles into a small circle on the bottom instead of spreading along the belly of the cask, so nothing needs tilting, far less gets thrown away, and the last pint is near enough as clear as the first.
1 · Stand it up early
Upright, shive up, level and square so it cannot rock. Then leave it alone for at least a day — the longer it stands before you go into it, the tighter the sediment sits on the bottom and the clearer the first pint.
2 · Vent it
Knock a soft spile through the shive to let the gas escape. It will hiss and may fob — that is the cask doing its job. Leave the soft spile in until it stops hissing, usually a few hours to overnight.
3 · Set the extractor
The tube goes in through the top and down to just above the base — low enough to get the beer out, high enough to leave the sediment where it is. Do not push it to the floor of the cask, and do not move it again once the beer is running clear.
4 · Hard spile between sessions
Swap the soft spile for a hard one at the end of service. That seals the cask and keeps the condition in overnight. Soft spile back in before service, or the beer pours flat and lifeless.
The rule that matters most
Once a cask is vented it has about three days before it starts to go. That is why we aim to turn one over in three — nine on means nine chances to serve something tired. If a pint tastes of vinegar or wet cardboard, pull it, tell whoever is running the shift, and do not put it in front of a customer.
Sparklers
Ours are optional, so ask. On gives a tight creamy head and a softer, rounder pint — how it is drunk round here. Off gives a flatter pint with more aroma and a sharper bitterness, which is how a southern pub or the brewer would serve it. Neither is wrong. Just do not guess.
The hops
Hops do two jobs: bitterness when they go in early, aroma when they go in late. Almost everything a customer means by "hoppy" is aroma. These are the big American varieties and the ones currently doing the rounds, grouped by what they actually taste of.
{{ h.name }}
{{ h.name }}
{{ h.note }}
{{ x.name }}
{{ x.note }}
Talking to customers
Ask what they normally drink
Not what they like — what they normally drink. It is a much easier question to answer, and it tells you everything. Lager drinker: start at the pale ale or the lager. Wine or cider: the sour. Guinness: the stout or the porter. "Real ale": the bitter.
Three words, then stop
"Citrusy, easy, not too strong." That sells a pint. A speech about dry-hopping does not. Every style below has a one-liner written out for exactly this — learn those nine lines and you can work the bar.
Always offer the taster
A taster costs us almost nothing and turns a maybe into a pint. Offer it before they ask, especially on anything strong, sour or very hoppy. It is also the cheapest way to stop a pint coming back.
Never bluff
"I have not tried that one, but it is a hazy so it will be juicy and soft — want a taste?" is a better answer than something invented. People forgive not knowing. They do not forgive being sold the wrong pint twice.
Two-thirds on everything
We serve two-thirds on every line, so say so. It is the measure that gets someone to try a second beer instead of settling in on one, and people who would not commit to a pint of a 7% IPA will happily take two-thirds.
Cloudy is not a fault
Hazies are meant to look like that; say so before it lands on the bar. A cask pint that should be bright and is not, though, is a different matter — that one goes back.
Style by style · {{ beerStyleCount }}
Swatch shows the colour to expect
{{ b.name }}
{{ b.abv }}
{{ b.strap }}
{{ b.is }}
Tastes of
{{ b.tastes }}
Who to offer it to
{{ b.suits }}
Serve
{{ b.serve }}
Sell it in one line
{{ b.sell }}
{{ b.name }}
{{ b.abv }}
Sell it in one line
{{ b.sell }}
What it is
{{ b.is }}
Tastes of
{{ b.tastes }}
Who to offer it to
{{ b.suits }}
{{ b.serve }}
Behind the machine —
Coffee training
Eight drinks, what goes in each cup, and how to get the milk right. Every cross-section on this page is drawn to scale from the millilitres in the recipe beside it, so a cappuccino really is taller in the glass than a cortado.
Our kit: a two-group WEGA Orion, standard cappuccino cups and espresso cups. The doses and shot times below are the house standard — check them against our grinder on a quiet shift and amend if they need it.
Nearly every complaint about coffee is really a complaint about milk. Two things decide it: how long you let air in, and whether you spin it smooth afterwards. Both happen in the first ten seconds.
2mm
Flat
Cortado · piccolo
A second of air at most. The surface looks like wet paint and the jug pours like single cream.
8mm
Silky
Flat white · latte · hot chocolate
Two to four seconds of air. Glossy, no bubbles you can pick out, and it holds a pattern when you pour it.
20mm
Foamy
Cappuccino
Five or six seconds of air. Still wet enough to wobble — if it holds a peak like meringue, it has gone too far.
Where to hold the wand
1 · Stretch
First seconds · tip at the surface
Tip just under the surface
Jug filled to the base of the spout, wand off-centre, tip barely below the surface. You want a steady tearing sound — not a shriek, not silence. Every second here is roughly 5 mm of foam, so count it.
2 · Texture
Submerge · spin to 60–65°C
↻
Tip about 10 mm deep, off-centre
Drop the jug so the tip sits well under, kept off-centre. The milk should turn over in a whirlpool that folds the foam back in. Cut the steam when the jug is too hot to hold comfortably — around 65°C. Wipe and purge the wand every single time.
3 · Tap and swirl
Before it touches the cup
Two hard taps, then swirl
Two hard taps on the bench to burst the big bubbles, then swirl until the whole jug moves as one and the surface shines. Milk that has sat for ten seconds has already separated — swirl it back before you pour, every time.
Pour shapes
All three start the same way: pour high into the centre until the cup is two-thirds full, then drop the spout right down to the surface. These are line diagrams of the finished pattern, seen from above — the arrow is the pull-through at the end.
Heart
Pour one steady blob close in, then lift and cut straight through it. Start here — it is the base of everything else.
Tulip
Three or four blobs, stopping the pour between each and nudging the jug back a touch. One cut through the lot at the end.
Rosetta
Wobble the jug side to side while walking it backwards up the cup, then pull one line straight through the middle.
Latte art is the last thing to worry about. A flat white with dull, bubbly milk and a perfect rosetta is still a bad flat white.
Drink by drink · {{ coffeeCount }}
Cross-sections drawn to scale
{{ l.label }}
{{ k.label }}{{ k.amount }}
{{ d.fillNote }}
{{ d.name }}
{{ d.strap }}
The recipe
{{ d.dose }}
{{ d.cupName }}
How to make it
{{ s.num }}{{ s.text }}
Milk you want
{{ d.texture }}
When it goes wrong
{{ fx.symptom }}
{{ fx.cure }}
Coffee cheat sheet
Two-group WEGA Orion · {{ coffeeCount }}
Drink
What goes in
Milk
{{ d.name }}
{{ d.cupName }}
{{ d.dose }}
{{ d.texture }}
Flat · 2 mm
A second of air. Cortado only.
Silky · 8 mm
Two to four seconds. Flat white, latte, hot chocolate.
Foamy · 20 mm
Five or six seconds. Cappuccino.
Milk off the steam at 60–65°C · wipe and purge the wand every time · printed {{ coffeeToday }}
{{ d.name }}
{{ d.cupName }}
The recipe
{{ d.dose }}
{{ k.label }}{{ k.amount }}
Milk: {{ d.texture }}
How to make it
{{ s.num }}{{ s.text }}
Brandling Villa · coffee training · milk off at 60–65°C
Jobs for the week —
Weekly to-do list
Write the jobs down here, then print the checklist for the wall. The printed sheet leaves the date blank and the urgency to be circled, so whoever picks a job up sets its priority on the day.
Put in the invoice total as it appears on the bill, before VAT. A photo gets read for the supplier and the total — always check it against the paper, and reach for the goods total rather than the amount due if the two differ.
Sales and stock
Food sales this week
Off the till, VAT included
Target GP%
Opening stock
Closing stock
Leave both blank and the invoices stand in for cost of sales
Where the money went
{{ s.name }}
{{ s.share }}
{{ s.amount }}
File this week
Filing keeps the week and clears the way for the next one. The same week filed again replaces it.
{{ foodSaveNote }}
Week on week · {{ foodHistoryCount }}
{{ m.gp }}
{{ m.label }}
{{ foodTrend }}
The dashed line is the target. A red point is a week that finished under it.
Trend of the weeks on file, with the day shape and wet/dry split of the last four.
Daily takings, wet and dry
{{ day.value }}
{{ day.label }}
{{ day.kind }}
Total
Dry
Wet
Forecast
{{ pBestDay }}
{{ pDayActualNote }}
Each day's takings for {{ pWeekLabel }} — the heavy line is the day's total, with dry and wet under it. Anything past the divider is next week's forecast.
Enter the day's figures — {{ teWeek }}
Type the day's dry and wet takings and the wages against it. Anything entered here overrides the profit sheet for that day and saves as you type, so the whole week can be kept up to date without opening the spreadsheet.
Day
Dry £
Wet £
Wages £
Total
Source
{{ t.name }}
{{ t.total }}
{{ t.source }}
{{ teSyncLabel }}
Takings, last eight weeks
{{ wk.value }}
{{ wk.label }}
{{ pWeekSalesLabel }}
{{ pWeekSalesTotal }}
{{ pWeekSalesAvg }}
Total
Dry
Wet
Forecast
Weekly takings in cash — total, dry and wet. Tap a week to load it above. The dashed run past the divider is next week's forecast.
Profit, last eight weeks
{{ bar.value }}
{{ bar.label }}
{{ pEightWeekLabel }}
{{ pEightWeekTotal }}
{{ pEightWeekAvg }}
{{ pTrendNote }}
Tap a point to jump to that week. {{ pWeeksCount }}.
Wage cost, last eight weeks
{{ dot.value }}
{{ dot.label }}
Average wage cost
{{ pWageAvg }}
{{ pWageAvgNote }}
{{ pWeeksOnTarget }}
Wages as a share of ex-VAT sales. The dashed line is the {{ pWageTargetTag }} — below it is on target.
Wet and dry split, last eight weeks
Dry
{{ pSplitAvgDry }}
{{ pSplitDryCash }}
Wet
{{ pSplitAvgWet }}
{{ pSplitWetCash }}
Share of each week's takings. Tap a week to load it above.
Untick anything that read badly. Pack sizes come out of the description, so check them against the box.
{{ f.name }}
{{ f.known }}
{{ f.pack }}
{{ f.cost }}
Add an item
{{ invAddError }}
{{ invAddNote }}
Supplier
{{ invShowingNote }}
{{ invSyncLabel }}
Reading the sheet…
{{ invEmptyNote }}
Item
Code
Unit
Pack size
Purchase £
Stock unit £
Supplier
Allergens
Used on
{{ r.name }}
{{ r.flag }}
{{ r.perUnitLabel }}
{{ r.uses }}
Allergens in
{{ allergenPickerFor }}
Read it off the supplier's product page or the packet, and tick what it contains. Every dish using this ingredient picks it up straight away.
Purchase £ is what a pack costs to buy; Stock unit £ is what that works out at per kg, litre or each. Edit either and the other follows. Every line reads reduced to one unit — per kg, per litre or each — with the cost restated to match, so pack sizes compare directly. Edit the per-unit cost and the pack cost follows. Lines marked Spec figure take their figures from a dish spec rather than a pack. Amendments and additions are held on this device and feed the dish spec costs straight away. The spreadsheet is read-only to the site, so put a lasting price change into the sheet as well.
Showing the copy saved on this device — checking the sheet for changes.
Add a dish
{{ specEditSyncLabel }}
Specs are edited here, not in the spreadsheet. Add a dish, then open it and put its ingredients in — every change saves to the sheet so the other machines pick it up.
{{ forceSyncNote }}
Building from the menu creates a spec for every dish on the food page, priced, with the ingredients left empty for you to pick from the dropdowns. Put the prep specs back restores the Meat Prep and Sauce Prep sections from the spreadsheet with their ingredients intact. Get everything from the sheet is for a second machine that is out of step — it takes the shared copy of the specs, allergens, photos and yields, replacing whatever that device has saved.
{{ dishAddError }}
{{ specDeletedCount }}
Where every spec stands
{{ specChecklistTotal }}
{{ c.name }}
{{ c.tally }}
{{ dishName }}
{{ dishStrap }}
Gross profit
{{ gpPct }}
{{ gpVerdict }}
{{ gpExplain }}
Not costed yet
No GP for this dish
{{ specNotCostedNote }}
{{ specPartlyCostedNote }}
Made in house · not for sale
{{ prepYieldSyncLabel }}
Nothing here is sold, so there is no GP. What matters is what the batch makes and what that works out at a {{ prepUnit }} — that is the figure other specs cost this against. Weigh the finished batch and enter it below; reduction and trim mean it will not match the raw weight going in.
Raw weight in
{{ prepRaw }}
{{ prepRawNote }}
Finished batch
Weigh it off the stove
The batch makes
{{ prepMakes }}
{{ prepMakesNote }}
Batch cost
{{ prepBatchCost }}
{{ dishItemCount }}
{{ prepPerBaseLabel }}
{{ prepPerBase }}
{{ prepPerSmall }}
Portion, {{ prepSmallUnit }}
{{ prepPortions }}
portions
{{ prepPortionNote }}
Used on other specs as
{{ prepFedInto }}
Menu price
{{ dishSale }}
{{ dishNet }} after VAT
Food cost
{{ dishCost }}
{{ dishItemCount }}
Profit a portion
{{ dishProfit }}
{{ dishProfitNote }}
Try a price
£
{{ whatIfNote }}
{{ specGpMismatchNote }}
Not signed off yet
When the lines, sizes and costs are right, sign the spec off. The cost and GP are filed with it.
Complete
{{ specDoneNote }}
{{ specDoneStaleNote }}
{{ specDoneSyncLabel }}
What goes in it
{{ it.cost }}
{{ specEditSyncLabel }}
Still reading from the spreadsheet. Save it and the website owns this spec from then on — the sheet stops overwriting it.
Saved here — this version is what every device and every figure on the site now uses.
Total food cost
{{ dishItemsTotal }}
Biggest line is {{ dishBiggest }}. Costs come straight off the spec sheet — if a supplier price has moved, change it there and refresh. Ingredient names are a dropdown of everything on the sheet, and you can add or remove a line here — changes only save to this device, not the sheet.
No photo for this one yet. Take one below and it appears here and on the recipe card.
Shrinking it…{{ dishPhotoSyncLabel }}
{{ dishPhotoNote }}
Allergens
{{ a.name }}
from {{ a.from }}
None of the fourteen
No ingredients recorded
Nothing has been entered on this spec yet, so nothing can be ruled out. Ask the kitchen.
Not checked yet
{{ dishAllergenUnchecked.list }}
Worked out from the ingredients. Always ask the guest before you promise, and check the allergen matrix if a swap is involved.
Goes out on
{{ dishServeOn }}
{{ dishNotes }}
Method for the card
One step per line — these print on the recipe card as numbered steps. Saved on this device, so you can build a card up over a shift and print it when it reads right.
{{ dishName }}
{{ cardStrap }}
Spec — per portion
Item
Qty
Cost
{{ it.item }}
{{ it.qty }}
{{ it.cost }}
Price
{{ cardSale }}
Cost
{{ cardCost }}
Profit
{{ cardProfit }}
GP
{{ cardGp }}
Method
{{ s.n }}
{{ s.text }}
{{ s.n }}
Blank steps — type the method on the spec page before printing and it comes out numbered here.
Prices are per head, without the pound sign, and item lists take one item per line. Updates the Functions page, the home page card and the booking page.