One of my favourite pubs ever, was one I lived near between 2000 and 2003. It was a cracking pub anyway, but the food was excellent. The menu changed daily and had some great stuff on it. It was the first place I ever ate pigeon, and the risottos were to die for. But every day, without fail, they had rump and sirloin steak on the menu, coupled with proper chips cut and fried on the premises.
The landlady's brother was a butcher, so that's where they got the meat from. And it was absolutely suburb. Most expensive pub steaks in the area but they were worth every penny. Another pub down the road refurbished and decided they would like a bit of the food business. So they priced their steaks at the same price. Just one problem. The ingredients did not match the price point. The steaks were awful quality and the chips came out of a bag. Not surprisingly, they didn't boost their food trade much.
Incidentally the pub company who were running the Devonshire before refurbishment were an interim management company called Ignition Pub Management. I looked them up after visiting the Devvy and seeing a strange name on my credit card company afterwards.
Turns out they run pubs on a temporary basis. But if they find a pub they like and believe has potential, they have another division called Inblenook that runs pubs on a long term basis. They go for it big-style, and food appears to be a key part of their offering.
I just looked at the menus for a couple of their pubs. Both were different, but both had fish and chips and pies on them
