Jeremy Clarkson has opened up about his workplace struggles while working to earn a profit over Christmas.
The 64-year-old presenter has won praise for spotlighting the difficulties of farm work via his Amazon Prime reality show, Clarkson’s Farm. And more recently, he has been dabbling into the realms of pub landlord as a new career – having taken control of the Farmer’s Dog pub in Oxfordshire.
But pulling pints to make a living is harder than it looks, and now Jezzer has revealed that “Behind the scenes, then, everything is a total disaster.” The TV star opened his pub back in August and since then has sparked anger from locals over his festive menu options and for giving punters just one hour to get through their dinner before needing to take back the table.
Jeremy has discovered that the cost of running a pub is high and comes with a new set of challenges as he attempts to turn a profit. And he has also discovered that believed “it would all be fine,” before adding “I was wrong.”
Writing about his troubles in his column for The Times, the former Grand Tour host even described “horror” scenes in the pub toilets. He shared: “No amount of festival visits would prepare you for the horror of what had been produced at the Farmer’s Dog. It was everywhere and in such vast quantities that no ordinary plumbing or cleaning equipment would even scratch the surface. So a whole team of chemically trained hazmat engineers had to be employed. That’s a cost I’d never factored into any of my business plans.”
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He went on to explain that visitors to his gastro pub have been making off with glassware – leaving him with further unexpected costs. He wrote: “That cost must be added to the £100 a day we spend on fuel for the generator, the £400 a week it costs to provide warmth on the terrace and the £27,000 a month we must spend on parking and traffic marshals to keep the council off our back.
He added: “It’s galling to see how much effort is required to make so little money on the farm. It’s worse at the pub. The customers are coming. There’s no problem there. But turning their visits into a profit is nigh-on impossible.” Ending his column on a positive note, Jeremy revealed that TV chef Marco Pierre White had been a visitor to the pub – and was left impressed by the range of options on the menu.
He added: “And it’s warm and there’s a fire and the staff are friendly and young and happy. It’s a proper, traditional pub. By which I mean you’ll love it, and I’ll lose a fortune and develop a skin disease from the stress of running it.”
