smokiewoodlands

we are doing food all day but call around noon & I'll be there to speak with ya

from noon til late on saturdays & noon til 10.30pm on Sundays

As much as I love The Duke. It's been an easy decision to head back to the west end, from Monday as I have my old job back running the members bar & restaurant @ teatro/stanza. The Duke will eventually become the best venue in that area once there's some decent advertising, word of mouth from the locals will get round (& further afield) & there's a landlord that will do things for the locals that are a bit more than normal (things done with a key?) I will always look for The Duke's score on a Saturday & a piece of my heart will remain in Nunhead after I have gone to the wild west end. Good Luck! smokywoods

It's my 2nd last day today & as we have a busy night tomorrow for my last night, hopefully tonight will be a bit better than normal slow friday?

Sean, who is Keef?:)-D

That might border the illegal gambling act but I'm sure we can find a way round it with a prize bought from the entrance money Quiz Night on Sunday evenings to start very soon too

Thanks for your list of possible nights for The Duke, we are hopefully going to be building our reputation around Great Food, Great Drinks & Great Music, but that might change? I hope to see you soon at the best Dining Room & Lounge Bar in Nunhead!!! Yours Sincerely David Taylor (tu)

And finally Parking has never been a problem for us as we're located in a quiet street opposite the school that is still being rebuilt!

Dear Curry Club Members, I'm the new General Manager of The Duke at 57, Nunhead Lane & wanted to offer you the chance to eat a curry at The Duke? we could do you a decent curry option if pre booked, Chicken Jafraizi, Pilau Rice, Naan Bread & all the cobra you like for a score (?20) per head! Mondays would be best for me & how many people are in your club?

Sorry, JFK (Just for kids) we do a Lincolnshire sausage with mash or chips ?5.50, Haddock & chips ?5.50, Macaroni & cheese ?5.50, Vanilla ice cream ?3

The Duke is at 57, Nunhead Lane, Nunhead SE15 3TR & we do food at night from 5pm-10pm Sat & Sun lunch is served from noon til 5pm, so all day Sat & Sunday (noon-8pm) We only do a Roast (Beef, Pork & Veggie) on Sundays at the moment but will be doing a brunch on Saturdays, ?9.95 for 2 courses including a bloody mary (or a bloody shame) starting that on Saturday 11th October 2008. Hopefully we will see you soon?

Excellent, I look forward to hearing from you!

As long as I'm in charge there will always be a cask conditioned ale available, it takes half an hour to an hour to set up the next keg so that would be the only delay with the ales, a bottle alternative will be sourced by myself next week! I do apologise for the problem that you had the last time that you came & introduce yourself the next time please, I'm David by the way

The Duke is a new concept & the crown in the logo has forks & knives as we are trying to push quality food at reasonable prices, I don't think that The Chook of Embra was in mind when the owners re named it? The Duke Dining Room (& Cocktail Lounge from the 7th October 2008)

Gate Crasher from Peckham, at the monent we have one real ale & it takes 48 hours to peg it, settle it then once we start using it we need to have sold it within 5 days, as we're not very busy about 95% of the time there are plenty of problems with real ale & staff morale & possibly when people are employed to serve the public, they don't take it seriously coz they are only here till a better job shows up or they can't be bothered to run down stairs to change the keg? I'm here now & as much as I would love to have 3 or 4 casked ale available for our wonderful guests, we are throwing away more than we sell due to the poor turnout of our locals who love the pub but go to the Nun's Head or Lord Snooty Lane instead but I will try or die trying to make The Duke an Oasis in a desert of Themed Bars or Public Houses The Duke should be mobbed every night, lunchtime & even breakfast as the food here is the best in the area bar none!

I hear what you are saying but at the moment Sunday Lunchtime is the only time we are busy & this will not keep us open for long, my job is to try and see what works & even though you don't fancy coming here on a Monday for a curry & beer night, I'm hoping that there is more than one type of customer that will go for what we're doing Lordship Lane is Lordship Lane & I don't think that anything I do will make a blind bit of difference to what goes on down there, I have looked at The Duke as a business & want to attract as many people to the venue as possible. MMM was meant to be a one off to herald The Duke being opened on Mondays. If my guests are coming once a week to the venue on a Sunday for lunch then that's great but if they are coming to the venue 3 or 4 times a week and eating or drinking or preferably both then that's fantastic coz The Duke will prevail & not be something else next year like another Fun Pub or worse still, a Car Park. it seems that this idea isn't "currying" favour from our regulars so for the moment The Duke will remain closed on a Monday until I can think of something better! Weds was the busiest night this week, thursday was not so good but the weekend when we should be busy, was a disaster even though everyone that comes on this forum loves the food, nobody is coming here to eat it & unless I'm wrong, the biggest fans of this place choose to go elsewhere at the weekend! My strengths actually are running top end cocktail bars, where it's table service with cashews or nibbles & not some cheap TGI Fridays, high volume venue that I know nothing about. I want The Duke to be edgy, different & interesting but I do need the support of the locals to help "make it happen" The owner of Locale was in last night commenting that his Restaurant was rammed but their cocktail bar is quiet. Perhaps the solution going forward is for The Duke to be a Restaurant all the way through the premises? But I would rather it could be versatile, great food, great drinks & great music!

I'm thinking about opening on Mondays for the 1st time with the "Monday Madras Madness", all the curry U can eat & all the cobra U can drink for a score! What do you think about this idea?>:D

Is Nunhead Mum on this forum please?

if you build, they will come

Jeremy, Nunhead is the future of dinning & cocktail invention in London, join the rest of the gang & head for the duke

Hail, Hail 4IAR

I hoop so, ha ha ha

Nick's going to be moving on very soon, but I'm more of a sales driven guy & need to connect with the area & the people that live there, I need to know what people want from their local (hopefully we can attract from outside the area too?) I look forward to meeting with you, my name is David by the way

hi, I'm reasonably new on here & will be taking over the management of The Duke on Weds & I really do need to make it much busier than it is just now. The situation with football in pubs these days is thus- Sky/Setanta charge about ?2k per year to supply their products to bars so none of the really small/ medium sized venues will take it as there's also extra rates incurred to boot. The Duke dinning room (& cocktail bar)is dedicated to providing proper old fashioned gourmet cuisine at very reasonable prices & we won't be showing any football unless the owners have a change of heart but for specific sporting events in the future ie the london olympics, world cup football & the euros, or any big matches (all on terrestrial tv)we will def be showing them in the front of the venue only, I will hopefully encourage the proprietors to buy a decent sized screen for cinema nights, private hires etc yours sincerely Smokie W

these are all good ideas thanks everyone!