Turning pub kitchens into karaoke rooms, closing early and cancelling the ... trends now

As British pubs face a perfect storm of sky-high energy bills, competition from supermarkets, a decline in footfall and staff shortages, it's no surprise that they're looking at unique ways to keep costs down.

For many, this involves calling time on opening seven days a week, shortening their opening hours and saying goodbye to their kitchen in order to stay afloat. 

The Nelson's Pub in Hackney has decided not to open its kitchen from Monday to Thursday due to low footfall, while the Windsor Castle in Finchley has reduced its Sunday hours and is considering reducing its Tuesday hours too. 

Egil Johansen, who runs The Kenton in Hackney, east London, told MailOnline he stopped serving food last year after his gas and electricity bills tripled.

'It's a huge cost serving food. Especially on a busy Sunday when you serve roasts, you need to have a lot of extra staff on,' he explained. 

'We partnered up with a local pizza company called Yard Sale Pizza who deliver pizzas straight to the pub and rather than have the kitchen sit empty we converted it into a karaoke room.' 

This has allowed the pub to generate income without having 'massive expenditures' running powerful kitchen equipment, Egil said. 

The pub, which opens from 4pm most days, has had to navigate increasing costs from suppliers as well as maintaining a Victorian building. 

Egil, who is originally from Norway, added: 'The landlord is putting the rent up ridiculously, so that's probably the biggest challenge for us right now.' 

When asked about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Egil said: 'It was a massive challenge for everybody, for businesses, you know. I took out £80,000 in total just to survive and I'm paying back those loans still today.

'Then we were hit with the energy crisis and it's a nationwide crisis, so people have less money to spend than before. It's not cheap to go to a pub anymore because we have to adjust our prices accordingly.

'We are coming to a point now where pints are between £6 and £7. I remember when I first opened it was about £3.50, it's doubled in 15 years but wages haven't doubled.'

Egil went on to say that recruiting staff has also been difficult since Brexit and mentioned how one employee had to move out of London after university because they couldn't find an affordable place to live.

'It's difficult because when you're asked what to do to cut costs, it's hard to think of ways to cut costs because we don't want to cut corners,' he added.

Rowena Smith, owner of the Old China Hand in Clerkenwell, hasn't had a kitchen for the last 15 years, after she said it became too stressful to operate.

'You make more money doing food,' she admitted, 'but to me it's not worth the stress.

'And we're surrounded by restaurants. If we were a remote pub in the country we'd have to do food but where we are there's so much competition, so we're just going to stick to supplying customers with good beer and wine.'