The Bishop of Norwich, you may be surprised to learn is not the good man of East Anglia but in fact a licensed bar and restaurant in Moorgate – a real oasis in the City. You might almost walk past the bar but for a small door leading into a sawdust-floored hideaway for stockbrokers and the like. The Bishop of Norwich is part of the family-owned chain of Davy’s Wine Bars. There are 44 in total, largely based in London but with a few dotted around the West Country. The Moorgate branch is managed by Julian Dove who has been there for just over eight months. He has been with the company for two years, previously having worked at “The Vineyard” in Tower Hill.
The words Julian chose to describe his bar are “City”, “Stockbrokers”, “Great Atmosphere” and “Wet Led”. He maintains that with the drinking, there is a demand for food and that hot bar snacks are a particularly profitable venture. With a weekly turnover of £3000 in food sales, his best seller is old faithful ‘Bangers and Mash’ washed down with Davy’s Old Wallop Bitter.
The bar stays open all day but peak times are 11.30am to 2.30pm and then 5.30pm until 9pm. Dove comments, “With most of our customers under time pressure, we often get asked for snack items like scampi or spring rolls – that kind of thing. We have a buffet which we’d like to expand to make more exciting but haven’t really been able to”.
The Bishop of Norwich has nine staff in total, including bar staff, kitchen staff and management. The kitchen has one Whirlpool Combination Oven supplied by leading UK catering equipment importers, Valera Ltd. They also have a fat free fryer, the “Quik n’ Crispy” – also supplied by Valera. While it was not being used as it should have been, at least since Dove has been in residence at the bar, however, the Quik n’ Crispy has been used effectively for the past two and a half years, to create a variety of hot bar snack items at the “City Boot”, a nearby branch of Davy’s Wine Bars.
Valera sent Gary MacDonald, its regional sales manger of six years to retrain and show staff at the Bishop of Norwich the tips and tricks of how to use the Quik n’ Crispy so that they can really make the most of their kitchen, staff and menu.
Gary visits all his customers personally, working mainly across the South of England and visited The Bishop of Norwich as part of the service and support, Valera offers all of its customers.
MacDonald explains “that whilst the Whirlpool Combination Oven is ideal for denser food items like Jacket Potatoes and Pies; the Quik n’ Crispy is just the thing for hot bar snacks like chicken nuggets, scampi, onion rings and potato skins. One of the best things about the Quik n’ Crispy is its speed and performance. He continues: “The Quik n’ Crispy works fast, reducing cooking time by a massive 75% of the pack cooking instructions. Another point to make is that if you put something frozen straight into a normal oven onto a tray, as it heats up, it becomes soggy. With the Quik n’ Crispy, the food item sits in a basket, so any unnecessary moisture falls into the drip tray below, so what you get is a better tasting product overall in a faster time – exactly what you need in a place like the Bishop of Norwich!”
Anything that is ovenable will work in the Quik n’ Crispy and the fryer works especially well with anything that is breaded or battered. The Quik n’ Crispy is relatively low priced for such an incredible output of food and it cooks more cleanly so the food tastes better.
Kitchen safety is obviously an important issue in any bar or restaurant. The Quik n’ Crispy works without the need for bulky hooded ventilation systems. This is very helpful at the Bishop of Norwich as extraction is a bit of a problem in basement bars or listed city centre buildings. What’s more, the Quik n’ Crispy hot air fryer doesn’t use oils. Oil can be a dangerous commodity and there is always the problem of what you do with waste oil once you have used it.
Valera is also the sole UK importer of Sanyo Professional Catering Equipment. As Gary MacDonald says; “Valera never makes a promise it can’t keep”;
Valera promises the very latest in catering equipment technology, competitive prices and a complete after-sales service from over 500 dealers and service agents nationwide. Valera takes incredible care in its service to customers, which not only includes personal visits to train customers but also an excellent after sales service. In addition to the personal attention each outlet receives from Valera; customers can also get advice on developing their menu. The Quik n’ Crispy is already enabling The Bishop of Norwich to expand their buffet and hot snack offering to its customers.
The Quik n’ Crispy is an easy and profitable way of frying, grilling and baking hot foods. It is unique compared to normal fryers as it is a smokeless, greaseless machine. It’s a versatile machine, capable of creating a host of dishes with consistently perfect results. You can even cook several dishes at once with no cross-flavouring whatsoever. It’s a speedy, easily programmable counter top model which makes bar life easier and your menu snacktastic!
