Hotel Profile Article - Hotelnews August 09 - Willoughby Hotel

A long time between drinks

On Thursday September 10, the Willoughby Hotel turns 110. One of the oldest licensed premises in the state, it has always functioned as a hotel.

The imposing heritage building sits on Penshurst St near its intersection with Victoria Ave. In the hotel’s early days, Sydneysiders would head there for a weekend away from the city, holidaying in the rooms above the ground floor bar. Large local gardens made it a perfect retreat. Situated near what has become the busy north shore hub of Chatswood, the area is no longer a travel destination and accommodation is not offered. Instead, the first floor houses the head office of NLG Hotel Group, and the Willoughby Hotel is one of the 40 properties in this group.

Licensee Hamish Watts took over the reins of the Willoughby 12 months ago. He’s worked with the Monkey Bar in Balmain, The Burdekin in Darlinghurst and had also done a stint as General Manager of a bar in south London for three and a half years. “When in the UK, it was quite a different business I was working with. The clientele were much younger and we would have DJs and a strong night-time trade,” says Watts. “There’s also no gaming over there. Maybe the occasional fruit machines in some hotels but no pokies or TAB.”

While Watts wouldn’t describe his London bar as being a ‘gastro pub’, there was certainly a solid lunch and weekend brunch business. That emphasis on food is something that he’s putting into place at the Willoughby. “The biggest change here is the improvement to the bar and bistro. We have always had a rip-roaring food trade but it has been in general pub food. We’ve now upped the level and employed a very good chef.” The chef is Faheem Khan, with over 18 years’ experience, including the kitchen of the Elephant and Wheel Barrow in Paddington. Khan has added items such as salt and pepper calamari with cucumber noodles, rocket and aioli, along with rack of lamb with five spices on mashed potato, asparagus and red wine jus. These complement the ever-popular grill menu, pastas and salads.

“We’ve also added Khan’s favourite curry of the week. These are served with papadams and naan, and so far we’ve had butter chicken, chicken tikka masala and lamb rogan josh. We’re going to get the traditional copper bowls to serve them in,” says Watts.

Watts has restructured the kitchen, putting in salaried chefs instead of casuals pushing out frozen food. “Food is a large focus for NLG and, as part of the group food strategy, we’ve spent time with staff educating them on the importance of food and we’re signalling food to the public. This is a close-knit community and word-of-mouth gets around pretty fast.”

It’s a good thing that Watts can rely on his locals to spread the word. The Willoughby is a heritage-listed building and that makes it almost impossible for him to put up any banner or advertising on the outside of the hotel to tell passers-by about the changes and special deals. And that’s frustrating for a licensee who believes he has some good news to get out.

“The Willoughby had a reputation in the past for serving good food. The trick is to combine the staple pub favourites with lighter options, and most items are made in-house, from scratch. “The Willoughby, like all NLG hotels, prides itself on quality of food, service and drinks. This can be seen at other hotels within the group’s portfolio that have rolled out very successful kitchens under the name of ‘Lucky’s grill’. “It’s amazing to see the growth in this area,” says Watts. “The other kitchens are going so well and I feel this is largely due to the quality and consistency of the offering.”

The group’s bar strategy ensures that all venues have an impressive drinks list from wines, to beers and sprits. “We have introduced a large wine list and increased our spirit portfolio. We have a new cocktail list with contemporary classics and an impressive range of single malt scotches on offer.”

Gaming is also important to the hotel, which boasts a state-of-the-art TAB area and great sports viewing facilities.

"Although we’re a relatively small suburban hotel, we have a broad range of products to cater for the diverse Willoughby market. Sport, especially rugby, is popular in the local area and with a strong focus on community sponsorship, we can have a vibrant atmosphere when the Wallabies play." Watts says that the hotel scene in England is so highly competitive that individual hotels try to make a point of difference, whether it’s in the lighting, the music or the overall ambience - something our Australian hotels could do better at times.

Asked to characterise the Willoughby, Watts says there is candle light to give a soft, relaxed mood, a lot of soul and classic music, and the staff are friendly and not pretentious. “We are extremely particular when hiring our team. We are a close-knit bunch and spend time to know our customers.” One of those customers, a local, used to bring his dog into the hotel and the dog would have a drink at the bar with him. It may have been 80 years ago, before health regulations made such an unusual practice illegal, but the Willoughby celebrates this history by having ‘the brown dog badge draw’ every Wednesday night from 6.30pm. While no canines are involved in the ritual, hotel patrons get the chance to win a cash jackpot.

“Tuesdays are the hugely popular trivia night, and Thursdays are our most busy when we offer two meals for the price of one during dinner. The two-for-one meal deal applies to lunches from Monday through to Friday,” says Watts. Other changes in the pipeline include the ‘Friday Long Lunch’ where the kitchen will be open all day and happy hour will start at 2pm. Watts concedes that the day-to-day challenge of being a licensee is always trying to be fresh and re-inventing the hotel. As the food has increased in popularity, so too has coffee. “People like to have a coffee after their meal, and our coffee sales have increased commensurate with our food sales. We are getting good at coffee. We’ve recently done coffee training with our supplier, Grinders, and all managers have completed a train the trainer course.”

There is already a little lounge-like alcove which Watts hopes to enhance so that customers can come and sit comfortably as if at their favourite cafe. It’s a lovely sun-trap, and the daily papers hang from racks on the wall, encouraging people to linger. A small selection of gourmet cookies is also available, and a coffee and cookie sell for $5. “Our coffee is so good that the cafe over the road is no longer open!,” jokes Watts.