INTERVIEW
By the Dart INTERVIEW
DAVID RoTHwELL
RDYC HOUSE MANAGER By Kate Cotton
traditional old gaffers and crabbing boats sailing in from Brittany. David rothwell has been in charge of everything
I
involving food and drink at the club, including bar, catering, events and the function room, since may 2014. Having run The Laughing Monk at strete for 16 years
he’s no stranger to working long hours and hosting crowds. David said: “It’s a great little team here at the yacht
club. there’s bar manager Lauren and new chef paul, who’s just replaced Alistair. the CrAb weekend will be a bit of a baptism of fire for him, but will give him a good taster for Dartmouth regatta.” During regatta the club is open to
caught up with the Royal Dart Yacht Club’s House Manager while he was preparing to host the Cross Channel Regatta (CRAB) – with more than 70
bigbury-on-sea for four years, including 29 apartments, a leisure club and brasserie. And before that he ran the popular The Laughing
Monk restaurant with wife trudy. For 16 years they lived above the restaurant, with David as chef and trudy front of house. the couple met when trudy was working front of house at the Hungry Horse in Harbertonford and David was managing salcombe’s marine Hotel. they married in 1986 and lived in Kingsbridge. With-
in two years they were running their own restaurant. He said: “We decided to work for ourselves, as we
were basically ships passing in the night working all hours. “the opportunity came to buy the
everyone and David is in charge of up to 15 casual staff in the bar and kitchen. the riverside terrace is lively and often full to bursting. “my first regatta was exhausting and extremely busy but I thoroughly enjoyed it, there was such a buzz around the place,” added David. “We had a bit of chaos on the Friday when the cellar and card systems went down but we ploughed on through and, by 8am saturday morning, we were all fixed to enjoy the rest of the weekend. “It’s all about preparation and planning. You work to get ahead of yourself and, that way, you can always put things right. “I thrive in this atmosphere and enjoy being busy.
success comes from putting people at ease, ensuring if they’ve got a problem it’s put right and if they’ve got a request you provide it. “I worked seven days a week when I started at the
yacht club, to sort everything out and be on site as ‘mein host’. I can delegate more now I’ve settled in and got everything in place.” before taking up position at the yacht club David managed a complex of luxury beachside apartments at
He’s no stranger to working long hours and hosting crowds.
monk, which had been closed for nine months. the plan was to buy it, develop it, sell it and move on. “but we moved in above the restaurant and became part of the community. We enjoyed the way of life, were totally committed to strete and stayed. Our children grew up there and went to stoke
Fleming primary school and Kingsbridge Community College. because of the hours we worked I was able to pick them up and drop them off at the bus stop in the mornings and evenings – it was perfect. “the kids also worked in the restaurant. socially, it
was such a good upbringing for them. they were very at ease in the company of adults and always around people.” With David and trudy at the helm the monk twice
won the south Hams District Council best restaurant awards. “When we had it, it was all terracotta and stone walls,
fireplaces and full of locals,” he added. “Our ethos was for the food to be fun and people to enjoy visiting the restaurant. the same was for our staff too, as a business is only as good as its staff. We embraced the whole thing and wouldn’t ask our staff to do anything we wouldn’t do. We had one lady who stayed with us for 11 years.” the Laughing monk is still in the hands of ben and
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164