TRADITIONAL homecooked English food is served during the day but by night a Horbury pub is dishing out authentic Indian food – thanks to the smoking ban.
Nine months after the ban, the Ship Inn, on Bridge Road, decided to do something a little bit different to boost their takings.
Every evening of the week punters can now order a biryani with their bitter or a garlic naan with their Guinnes.
La
ndlady Pauline Robinson, who runs the pub with her husband Paul, said the inspiration had come from their karaoke organiser John Walton.
She said: “We were talking about doing something like hiring the kitchen out one evening because it was dead.
“Our karaoke man, John, first suggested the idea because he was one of the first English chefs to learn how to cook Indian food.”
In the 1970s Mr Walton travelled to India to learn the art of Indian cuisine and had his own restaurant in Dewsbury.
He suggested local chef Mohammad Aslam would be the perfect choice.
Mr Walter said: “I have known Mohammad since he was at school because he used to wash up for me in my restaurant.
“I knew they wanted to do something so I just put the two together.
“You’ve got to do something because the smoking ban is affecting the majority of the pubs around here and they’re suffering from low sales so now people have another reason to go into the pub.”
But Mrs Robinson said that the change of flavour had confused some of the locals.
She said: “The first week that we did it a lot of people thought that we had closed down.
“People were saying that we had sold up – it was unbelievable.
“So we’ve had to do a lot of advertising just saying that we are still here but there is an Indian restaurant here in the evenings.”
The pub is hoping that the smell of curry will tempt customers who were once put off by the smell of smoke back through their doors.
The full article contains 347 words and appears in Wakefield Express City newspaper.
