Since it opened at the beginning of September, The Artful Salt Pig at Lighthouse is quietly transforming eating out in Poole. Championing Dorset food, it's the biggest restaurant in the growing Salt Pig estate and already a firm favourite with Lighthouse audiences.
Here, we meet Pat Ward, head of Front of House Operations.
Lighthouse knows a bit about front of house in a theatre, but how does front of house in a restaurant work?
I want every single person that walks through that door to be greeted with a ‘good morning’ or ‘good afternoon’ or ‘good evening’. I was always brought up with ‘good morning, madam’, ‘good afternoon, sir’ and I’m still of that ilk so front of house for me is all about the experience.
Our job is to ensure that The Artful Salt Pig looks as it should – the tables are prepared correctly, the staff are trained correctly, they understand about the ethos of The Salt Pig, that they understand where the food comes from and they understand why we don’t sell Coke! Most days, someone will ask us, can I have a Coke, please? No, we don’t stock Coke. Just like we don’t stick Walls ice cream, we sell Purbeck Ice Cream because it’s made locally. There’s chocolate from Purbeck, crisps from Surrey and Cawston Press drinks.
And, of course, the Salt Pig produce which is at the heart of everything we do.
And how do you bring The Salt Pig ethos to Lighthouse?
Well, that was James and Becky Warren, really, the owners of the company. It’s their vision of The Salt Pig brand that comes across to the consumer and obviously, Simon, the executive chef, then brings forward his vision of The Salt Pig on the menus. At Lighthouse that vision has a more urban feel perhaps, but it is still farm-based and farm-led.
What’s your proudest moment here so far?
One of the busy nights when we do between 80 and 100 people within about five and seven o’clock. So, for me on the floor, with the quality of service, from my perspective, that everybody gets attention, they have a starter, a main course, a dessert, you know, they’re served properly. Then later on that evening as well, you have the rest of the theatregoers, all the cinemagoers, all the concertgoers who come in and want coffees, crisps, a sausage roll to take away, chocolate to take away.
So, you have an evening with what could be two thousand people about to see a show or a film, and they all want to eat and they all want to drink. We’re getting used to those pinch points and learning about the ebbs and the flows and how long they come in beforehand and the different types of audiences.
What would your advice be to a ticket holder who wants to come and have a meal first; how long do they need to allow themselves?
For me, when I eat out, the whole experience, I like to take my time. I don’t like to be rushed…
I would definitely pre-book on a concert, a theatre, a show night, it’s imperative to guarantee your table. And then what we try and do on the bookings is we have so many people every 15 minutes that we stagger it on the booking system. So at least the staff and obviously the chefs have got time to do everything.
So, I’d get here for five o’clock then you can take your time and if you finish early, you can look at what’s going on at Lighthouse, visit the Gallery, have a drink and enjoy the whole experience.
Finally, who would you most like to welcome; and why?
That’s a really good question. Who would I like to serve? Who would be appreciative of Patrick’s loudness and enthusiasm for life?
Somebody who’d be like me, most probably. I’d like to speak to Andrew Flintoff, talk about cricket with him – I’m heavily into cricket – and I’d like to see how he’s feeling after his terrible accident.
Thanks Pat.
:: The Artful Salt Pig at Lighthouse is open 9am-4pm (Sun, Mon with extended hours when there are evening performances) and 9am-9pm (Tue-Sat).
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