A fair approach to pricing?

Honestly — are you really reading a blog on a bar’s website? I’m curious. Why?

I’m not entirely sure what I’m going for with this post, but I’ve been reliably informed that blogs are good for “SEO” and, eventually, business performance. So here we are.

It’s a challenging time in hospitality, and for anyone reading this, we’re trying everything we can to make the next few months enjoyable and welcoming — for both our team and our customers. We're finally giving some ideas a go that we've long wanted to try, but perhaps avoided for fear of upsetting the proverbial Apple Cart.

Trying new things, even if they’re a bit uncertain, at least feels better than retreating into austerity. The alternative is to hunker down — raise prices, cut hours, ride out the storm. But that just doesn’t feel like us.

I was always taught that Freud’s was meant to be a place you could walk into, feel comfortable, and stay a while. Not a luxury. Not an “occasion.” Just a place you want to be.If we followed the current pricing trends, we’d be well within our rights. But where does that end? When we’ve priced ourselves out of a night in the West End?

We chose not to.

The result? Cocktails priced from £7.50 to £12.10 — and not because we’ve cut corners. We’ve just decided to fight for value, even when the margins make us sweat.

We won’t reduce the quality or portions of our drinks. If it means searching a little harder for the best tequila or purées, so be it. It might not be sustainable forever — but it feels worth trying, even if just to be a little bit stubborn in the face of rising costs.

There’s risk, of course. If the “going rate” for a cocktail keeps climbing, will people start to assume ours are inferior by comparison? Possibly. We’ll find out, sooner or later.

But for now, we’ll keep doing what feels fair — and hope that’s enough.

Kind regards,

Sam