lil dave's lil life

[SuuPRlim]

What is the gaming licence for.

After hours gambling in the restaurant?

Ha - no, although what a great bloody idea!!!!

We are launching a betting site - after running a poker site for the last year we are taking the step up!

What's your betting site's USP?

We have an existing database from the region which is pretty extensive, built our own software which is going to be really good and we have teamed up with some very shrewd guys on the pricing model to get a really good risk management/pricing strategy which is what really gives you the best product for your customers.

Non of this is unique, but this a very strong, very competitive industry and the value of the products are all pretty well known by the customers, so it's less about unique and more about doing it right. The software, the price model, the bonuses.

Also you need to throw a shitload of money at it, it's really hard work, but coming into it with a large existing player database is a very good starting point.

[BorntoBubble]

What is the gaming licence for.

After hours gambling in the restaurant?

Ha - no, although what a great bloody idea!!!!

We are launching a betting site - after running a poker site for the last year we are taking the step up!

What's your betting site's USP?

We have an existing database from the region which is pretty extensive, built our own software which is going to be really good and we have teamed up with some very shrewd guys on the pricing model to get a really good risk management/pricing strategy which is what really gives you the best product for your customers.

Non of this is unique, but this a very strong, very competitive industry and the value of the products are all pretty well known by the customers, so it's less about unique and more about doing it right. The software, the price model, the bonuses.

Also you need to throw a shitload of money at it, it's really hard work, but coming into it with a large existing player database is a very good starting point.

Good luck with it, I think Richard Bransons book said that there are two options for a successful business.

1) Come up with a new idea, test the market, gamble etc etc
2) Take a successful business model and do it better than the competition.

It was not quite like that but you get the jist.

Option 2 is actually a hell of a lot easier and is what branson has done. Similar to what you have done already with restaurant you just in my eyes have to always keep on at what your good at.

So many of my friends have started something, been great for 2 years then took their foot off the pedal and shit has hit fans quicker than they can recover it. I think the ethos you have with your staff is great, and a great model for going forward but you have to keep the next generation coming through.

[hhyftrftdr]

What is the gaming licence for.

After hours gambling in the restaurant?

Ha - no, although what a great bloody idea!!!!

We are launching a betting site - after running a poker site for the last year we are taking the step up!

What's your betting site's USP?

We have an existing database from the region which is pretty extensive, built our own software which is going to be really good and we have teamed up with some very shrewd guys on the pricing model to get a really good risk management/pricing strategy which is what really gives you the best product for your customers.

Non of this is unique, but this a very strong, very competitive industry and the value of the products are all pretty well known by the customers, so it's less about unique and more about doing it right. The software, the price model, the bonuses.

Also you need to throw a shitload of money at it, it's really hard work, but coming into it with a large existing player database is a very good starting point.

Good luck with it, I think Richard Bransons book said that there are two options for a successful business.

1) Come up with a new idea, test the market, gamble etc etc
2) Take a successful business model and do it better than the competition.

It was not quite like that but you get the jist.

Option 2 is actually a hell of a lot easier and is what branson has done. Similar to what you have done already with restaurant you just in my eyes have to always keep on at what your good at.

So many of my friends have started something, been great for 2 years then took their foot off the pedal and shit has hit fans quicker than they can recover it. I think the ethos you have with your staff is great, and a great model for going forward but you have to keep the next generation coming through.

Would love a can of refreshing Virgin cola right now.

All the best Dave! Always enjoy reading your thoughts, be that gambling, business or otherwise. I'm not far from Leeds so shall try and pop in for some fish and chips sometime soon. I'll drag all my friends with me, so a table for 4 will suffice.

[SuuPRlim]

I liken it to pushing a snowball uphill, if you push hard enough it will always get bigger but stop pushing and it melts, let go and it rolls to the bottom and smashes.

[SuuPRlim]

What is the gaming licence for.

After hours gambling in the restaurant?

Ha - no, although what a great bloody idea!!!!

We are launching a betting site - after running a poker site for the last year we are taking the step up!

What's your betting site's USP?

We have an existing database from the region which is pretty extensive, built our own software which is going to be really good and we have teamed up with some very shrewd guys on the pricing model to get a really good risk management/pricing strategy which is what really gives you the best product for your customers.

Non of this is unique, but this a very strong, very competitive industry and the value of the products are all pretty well known by the customers, so it's less about unique and more about doing it right. The software, the price model, the bonuses.

Also you need to throw a shitload of money at it, it's really hard work, but coming into it with a large existing player database is a very good starting point.

Good luck with it, I think Richard Bransons book said that there are two options for a successful business.

1) Come up with a new idea, test the market, gamble etc etc
2) Take a successful business model and do it better than the competition.

It was not quite like that but you get the jist.

Option 2 is actually a hell of a lot easier and is what branson has done. Similar to what you have done already with restaurant you just in my eyes have to always keep on at what your good at.

So many of my friends have started something, been great for 2 years then took their foot off the pedal and shit has hit fans quicker than they can recover it. I think the ethos you have with your staff is great, and a great model for going forward but you have to keep the next generation coming through.

Would love a can of refreshing Virgin cola right now.

All the best Dave! Always enjoy reading your thoughts, be that gambling, business or otherwise. I'm not far from Leeds so shall try and pop in for some fish and chips sometime soon. I'll drag all my friends with me, so a table for 4 will suffice.

Hi mate - yep call in anytime would be more than welcome.

[MrDickie]

Holla! Fascinating reading.

1. Hardest thing about running a restaurant? I can imagine the awfully long hours sometime must get the staff down sometimes. How do you motivate them?
2. Where do you get your fish from. Leeds is not exactly near the coast.
3. Whats your preference - Cod or Haddock

Love the gluten free option on the menu. Many takers for that?
MrsD has been gluten free for 3 years now. A chippie near us at Southend does the most fabulous GF food and i love it. The batter is almost tempura like. Really light and crispy ( due to lack of gluts I expect)
We also found a great one whilst on holiday in Norfolk last week.
www.ericsfishandchips.com

[SuuPRlim]

Holla! Fascinating reading.

1. Hardest thing about running a restaurant? I can imagine the awfully long hours sometime must get the staff down sometimes. How do you motivate them?
2. Where do you get your fish from. Leeds is not exactly near the coast.
3. Whats your preference - Cod or Haddock

Love the gluten free option on the menu. Many takers for that?
MrsD has been gluten free for 3 years now. A chippie near us at Southend does the most fabulous GF food and i love it. The batter is almost tempura like. Really light and crispy ( due to lack of gluts I expect)
We also found a great one whilst on holiday in Norfolk last week.
www.ericsfishandchips.com

HI mate,

Hardest thing about running a restaurant is just the sheer relentless attention it requires, never has there been aything so demanding for attention, so needy and so fickle, it literally never, ever ends. Take your foot off the pedal for a day and you can undo weeks of hard work. 100 delighted customers can all be undone by 1 unhappy one. The long hours are a doddle in comparison.

Motivating the staff is a challenge, actually got some very good advice on here about it, the style i've developed as a manager of people is to learn about each person individually and try to figure out what motivates them, different people want different things but I try to create a challenging enviroment where people's strengths get the chance to grow.

Contrary to popular opinion most places buy fish from the same place and that's Russian/Icelandic waters - Scarborough, Whitby, Filey, Brighton etc all have the benefit of being on the coast and can take fresh fish straight off the fishing boats, which is amazing for restaurant dishes (I'm involved in a restaurant in whitby that can buy X fish from a fisherman at 6am 2 hours after he's caught it and have it on the specials board by midday which is just the most amazing thing) but for battered fish and chips fish the icelandic/russian frozen at sea haddock/cod is the best and actually iv worked with coastal restaurant who've had fresh north sea haddock on the menu lightly battered and it sold at a rate of about 1-to-10. The quality of the fish coming from those super north sea's at the moment is just unreal as well. The modern age of the Chippy is that the best quality fish is on everyones fingertips, but you gotta pay the price.

Ahhh the old cod vs haddock debate, the history of this goes back to the days when you had to get your fish from the local fish merchant and if you were in the North East you got from Hull/Whitby etc and it was always haddock, if you're on the south you got from southampton and it was always cod, this created a taste preference in the local areas and as a result if you're form yorkshire the vast majority of the fish sold up here is haddock and likewise downsouth it's cod. The real truth is that when it's battered very few people can taste the difference, if I was asked to pick which was which i'd prolly have a pretty good idea, if you give me some cod and tell me it's haddock I wont have a scooby. IF it's cooked differently though the difference is much more obvious. God I wish chinese frankie was here his comments on this subject are just priceless.

My restaurant is in a Jewish area and given the local preference is strongly for haddock and cod is non-kosher I don't even sell it. So to answer your question I'll be a proud yorkshireman and say haddock!

A fun story on this topic, I used to have a shop in wakefield a few years back, we had people asking for cod i just used to give them haddock (terrible i know) until i did one day only to be told later that the person was allergic to haddock!!!! Shiiiiiiit - i never did that again of course

GLuten free actually hasn't been as popular as I thought it was going to be, I think just need to give time - yeah you're right it's much crsipier than regular batter, we put gluten free beer in ours which makes it quite nice.

I'm glad you've got a good chippy on hand, means i don't have to open near you
 

[Karabiner]

I think you'll find that cod is Kosher David as long as it comes from the sea.

It's only freshwater cod(which is something that I had never heard of) that is not Kosher.

[bergeroo]

Really enjoy reading about the day to day running of the restaurant.

How important are websites like Tripadvisor to your restaurant, can good or bad tripadvisor reviews make or break a business like yours, or is it just a side thing that can bring in a few web savvy customers sometimes but doesn't matter too much either way?

[EvilPie]

I think you'll find that cod is Kosher David as long as it comes from the sea.

It's only freshwater cod(which is something that I had never heard of) that is not Kosher.

Genuine questions here which may seem like a troll but really aren't:

Who decides what is and isn't kosher?

Is there a method of making something that isn't kosher kosher?

Could you take a freshwater cod, throw it in the sea and then it becomes kosher?

Apologies for the derail but this may influence future fish choices so needs sorting asap.

[SuuPRlim]

I think you'll find that cod is Kosher David as long as it comes from the sea.

It's only freshwater cod(which is something that I had never heard of) that is not Kosher.

I think you'll find that cod is Kosher David as long as it comes from the sea.

It's only freshwater cod(which is something that I had never heard of) that is not Kosher.

Genuine questions here which may seem like a troll but really aren't:

Who decides what is and isn't kosher?

Is there a method of making something that isn't kosher kosher?

Could you take a freshwater cod, throw it in the sea and then it becomes kosher?

Apologies for the derail but this may influence future fish choices so needs sorting asap.

Kosher for fish needs to have scales and fins, and not feed from the bottom (eat shit effectively) cod is a bottom feeder and therefore non-kosher, some cod is kosher but jewish customers seem disinterested in distinguishing the difference and just eat haddock. Monkfish, turbot, swordfish etc all feed from the bottom and therefore not kosher, crab, prawns, lobsters dont have scales or fins and dont qualify either. As for who decides this I really have no idea lol, assuming it comes from an old jewish source somewhere? When i first took over i was wondering how much influence i should let the kosher/non-kosher fish affect my menu choices and its not really made much difference.

[Karabiner]

I think you'll find that cod is Kosher David as long as it comes from the sea.

It's only freshwater cod(which is something that I had never heard of) that is not Kosher.

I think you'll find that cod is Kosher David as long as it comes from the sea.

It's only freshwater cod(which is something that I had never heard of) that is not Kosher.

Genuine questions here which may seem like a troll but really aren't:

Who decides what is and isn't kosher?

Is there a method of making something that isn't kosher kosher?

Could you take a freshwater cod, throw it in the sea and then it becomes kosher?

Apologies for the derail but this may influence future fish choices so needs sorting asap.

Kosher for fish needs to have scales and fins, and not feed from the bottom (eat shit effectively) cod is a bottom feeder and therefore non-kosher, some cod is kosher but jewish customers seem disinterested in distinguishing the difference and just eat haddock. Monkfish, turbot, swordfish etc all feed from the bottom and therefore not kosher, crab, prawns, lobsters dont have scales or fins and dont qualify either. As for who decides this I really have no idea lol, assuming it comes from an old jewish source somewhere? When i first took over i was wondering how much influence i should let the kosher/non-kosher fish affect my menu choices and its not really made much difference.

It's amazing that this is the first time I have ever heard about cod not being kosher.

I even have an old Jewish cookery book that belonged to my great-aunt which has several recipes for cod inside.

The "freshwater cod" is actually burbot and somewhat eel-like which would explain it's not being kosher. Is it possible that "freshwater cod" is a more marketable name for the fish rather like "rock-salmon" used to be?

I've found this to answer the cod and other kosher-related questions such as evil-pie's:

http://www.oxfordchabad.org/templates/articlecco_cdo/aid/307920/jewish/Kosher-Foods.htm

[SuuPRlim]

thats strange all the resources i used said it was non-kosher, might have to get it on the menu!!!

TBH it's a total faf anyways and it's quite a bit more expensive atm

[Karabiner]

There's a smart new fish and chip restaurant/take-away recently opened around the corner from me call The Cod and Scollops.

I checked it out the other day as everyone was raving about it, very nice indeed with chips fried in dripping and fresh fish with light tempura-style batter.

There's another of the same name on the other side of Nottingham which is well-established, not sure if that's it or the chain is bigger.

It's not as classy or as big as yours which I'm definitely going to visit next time I'm in Leeds(for kosher cod:)) but certainly a welcome upgrade to the local chippie up the road.

[Sheriff Fatman]

I hadn't realised that you were involved with this place, Dave.  My wife is coeliac and she wants to go there at some point for the gluten-free option (we've used the Fisherman's Wife before, but they only served GF on a Tuesday).

Will have to make the effort sooner rather than later, having caught up on the thread.  Looks like a good option for an evening out.

Good luck with it.  Hope it's a huge success for you.