Onwards and Upwards

So the mother of the Perry boys (I have four brothers) has headed off home to Almeria in Spain. 'Twas lovely to see her and we all wish her visit could have lasted a little longer as we're unlikely to be able to make the return visit this year.

But there's work to be done here @PunchBowlWF (<< Twitter handle) and if I'm ever going to be able to make the trip to Spain to visit the folks then I'd better get on with it!

I've got a new chef starting today and with it a clearer understanding of where I'm heading with my pub. I've been here 20 months with the restaurant side of the business having been running for 18 of those months. A large part of those 18 months has been spent on a huge learning curve where I've dealt with everything from chef's leaving at a moments' notice to enormous dips and troughs in trade to actually stepping into the kitchen and wearing the chef's whites myself.

Up to this point I've marketed the food side of my business by shouting about the chef and bigging up their talents and I've marketed the wet side of the pub as being all about me and being fun and friendly and warm etc. The big decision that I've made is that this will no longer be the case. There are no longer two sides to my business. There is one and it is all about me and the quality of service and atmosphere that I offer, demand from my staff and present to the public.

It no longer matters who the person in the kitchen is because what they will deliver will be done to a standard that I demand. The waiting staff will all be cheerful and friendly because that is the kind of person that I choose to surround myself with (plus admittedly, my main waitress is my beautiful daughter Emma!) and the overall product that I am asking you to buy from me ie, my pub, will match these high standards of quality, friendliness and personality at all times.

I'm very proud of what we do here and invite you to come along and see for yourselves whenever you're in the area. Bring your smiles with you when you come!
Love and peace. mjp

A brief first go...

So I figured it was about time I added blogging to my whole computer based shizzle. The headings / profile etc along with the twittering should tell you most of what you need to know about me as a person and what you read from hear on in will I hope, prove interesting, thought provoking or at the very least amusing.

This first attempt is dull I accept but it is nearly 2am and I just blew half an hour setting the whole thing up. What's more, whilst doing so I forgot what I was planning on saying in my very first blog post!

I must be up at 8am to get the kids to school as MrsP will have been long gone to work by then so I'll post this purely to see what it looks like and promise more interesting content in the future.

I have an exciting week ahead so should be able to report on these things as they occur. GrannyP (my wonderful & long suffering mum) arrives at some point tomorrow along with a selction of my brothers so I am cooking a giant roast dinner for eleven which I am definately looking forward to. I've also been accepted into the arms of the "bestofoswestry" website and all that it promotes which is an excellent step forward. Watch this space and I'll keep you informed of my progress.

Thanks for bothering to read this at all, Love and Peace. mjp

It's all very narrow isn't it! All kind of squished into the middle of the page. A bit disappointing but I'll work with it and see what I can do in due course...