Going with the Flo

by MARK LUDMON

Flo Pearce of the Tollemache Arms in Harrington, Northamptonshire, tells Inapub how she and Joe Buckley came to be named British Institute of Innkeeping Licensees of the Year 2023.

At the height of summer, the Tollemache Arms in Harrington in Northamptonshire shuts its doors for the weekend and its garden and car park become TollyFest, a festival of live music, street food and entertainment. Nearly 2,000 tickets were sold for this year’s event in July – the fifth since 2016.

“It’s a big party for all the family,” says licensee Flo Pearce, who runs the pub with chef Joe Buckley. “We work our butts off but it’s super-rewarding. It’s something different and keeps all the staff interested. There’s nothing worse than being stuck and stagnant.”

Fresh thinking

New ideas like TollyFest have kept the business buzzing since Joe and his former business partner Nick Bonner took the Wells & Co lease on eight years ago. Flo came on board three years ago and she and Joe saw their hard work pay off in June when they were named British Institute of Innkeeping Licensees of the Year. Winning initiatives have ranged from enhancing training, recruitment and staff retention through to opening a village shop, confirming the 17th-century pub as both destination and part of the community.

Better known as The Tolly, it was an “old-school” pub when Joe took it over. “It was very dark and split into lots of different rooms,” Flo says. “It used to be very higgledy-piggledy and didn’t flow very well.”

Wells & Co refurbished it, knocking through walls to make it more open-plan and relocating the bar to improve the customer flow through to the lounge and two dining areas. But it retained its character, including two fireplaces, and remains a local for Harrington – population 140 – as well as running events such as a quiz night.

However, it now draws people from further afield, especially Northampton, Kettering and Market Harborough, which are within half-an-hour’s drive. Close to the A14, it is also a stopping-off point for motorists –especially as the pub is advertised on five billboards on a nearby roundabout.

Spreading the message

After installing the OpenTable reservation system, The Tolly has a database of 10,000 emails, allowing the pub to send out details of events, news and promotions using Mailchimp. “OpenTable is a brilliant system,” Flo says. “People can tell us about things like accessibility or if it’s someone’s birthday.” The pub has printed branded birthday cards, which are presented at the end of a meal – signed by staff on shift – with a £10 voucher for spending on another occasion. Vouchers are also used for the Tolly Allotment Trade scheme, where people bring in surplus fruit and veg and get a £2 drinks token for every pound of produce. This year, Joe and Flo opened a shop in front of the pub in a horsebox previously used as a bar. Operating seven days a week, it sells milk, bread and eggs as well as local products such as honey and sweets. It is run on a trust basis – people come to the bar to pay or include it in their bill, although there are CCTV cameras just in case.

“As we live in a village so far away from everything, it is something for the local community,” Flo says. It also sells products made in the pub such as a hot sauce and wild garlic butter using garlic grown in the village. Ingredients are starred on the menu if they are available to buy.

Committed to sustainability, The Tolly celebrates local produce in its food menu, sourcing as much as possible from farms in the area and adjusting seasonally – or more often. “Last year, the price of meat and fish fluctuated so much that we had to change a few times,” Flo says. “We print the menus in-house, as you can’t commit on certain things when the prices keep changing.”

This led to a change in cuts of steak, with the pub offering rump and hanger steaks instead of sirloin or ribeye. Alongside these are dishes such as burgers, fish and pies. “It’s great pub grub – good hearty food.”

With weekends usually fully booked, The Tolly added an extension, the Orchard Barn, which offers tapas-style small plates on Fridays and Saturdays, with a large screen that was used to broadcast Glastonbury and Wimbledon. The sustainably built barn, which has a living plant wall featuring herbs used in the kitchen, is also popular for weekday meetings.

Drinks lean towards the premium end too, with Prava, Mahou and Beavertown Neck Oil beers alongside Wells & Co ales and low- and no-alcohol options such as Lucky Saint. As

Flo and Joe’s tips for success

• Have ideas but make sure you have the right team around you to make them happen

• You can’t please all the people all the time, but you can try your best

• For recruitment, keep in contact with good people you have worked with in the past

• Find your niche: we are still a community pub and part of the village

• Everyone learns differently, so tailor training to suit each member of staff well as wines and ciders, easy-to-make cocktails include Espresso Martini, Mango and Passionfruit Margarita, Sloe Gin Fizz and Aperol Spritz. But in line with trends and the pub’s car-based customers, the soft drinks line-up features lemonades using homemade cordial, mixed with seasonal ingredients such as locally grown elderflower. The Tolly also champions premium gins from Warner’s Distillery – only a few minutes’ walk away.

People power

Flo stresses the pub’s success is thanks to the whole team, including general manager, Will Furniss, front-of-house manager Cameron Walker, and bar manager Nathan Buckley, who is Joe’s brother. “It’s down to surrounding yourself with positive people – people who aren’t afraid of ideas and taking risks.” Training has been “hugely important”, she adds. Joe and Will are doing a business development course with licensed hospitality trainer Sue Allen, while Flo and Nathan are starting a WSET Level 2 Award in Wines. Cameron is doing an operations management apprenticeship with HIT Training, which also provides an apprenticeship for one of the chefs.

Part-time staff are recruited through local schools and by rewarding existing staff with a voucher if they bring a friend on board. With some as young as 16, training has adapted to the TikTok generation and is customised to each employee’s way of learning, Flo says. “Sitting down and having two-hour training sessions is completely history now.”

An archive of two-minute videos teaches skills such as changing a barrel and serving wine, followed up by a one-to-one. “We have trained our staff they can’t be perfect all the time but it’s important to learn from mistakes. We try our utmost to keep people happy.”