Why We Are Risking Everything On A New Restaurant | How To Open A Restaurant: Episode 1

we've got a very successful business and if this doesn't go correctly we've just wasted 5 years of our time that's pretty terrifying this is phow phow is a restaurant that Jack and I are head chefs and owners of alongside our business partner James we've been running out of Hay Market in London since November 2021 in 2017 I convinced Jack to enter a cooking competition with me Brixton we lost we kept pushing and we ended up doing several pop-ups across London then we ended up on headen Street Central London I'm a good side yeah pretty mad eh it's changed a little bit since we actually left so we we first opened in sarap over there we just had that outside Terrace and then very slowly we just added few more tables a few more tables a few more tables so it was 300 odd covers a day from a shoe box we didn't even think about half the issues like you know we haven't got any money to open it we haven't got any stuff we like great we got some keys we got a restaurant let's just clean it and start cooking and getting it set up we just literally got some dairy cow mins in made a dairy cow Burger which is what we've continued to serve to this day though me Jack we did have obviously did our pots did everything you did the drinks for a lot of the time I was doing the cooking it was such a novelty so like they got this like weird little cult status and it was just like uh we've been to that weird place on headen Street those two guys running around slinging chining tonics and eventually just going kind of morph into different things you it started off with just okay we open the door and then you wait at the door and you get them get a burger and a takeway box and you can get a takeway drink then we sort of made the menu bigger and bigger but it very quickly got to the point where it was like we're not actually just trying to survive anymore we're just trying to fill the street and then it was like well you know what do we do next it wasn't our goal to have a restaurant in Picadilly the landlord loved it it was very well received by the public so he decided to stay in that area I think Val Works personally because it's an authentic concept we do cook food on a mass scale there's dishes like our cod's head dishes like our mushroom paf you know loads of our vegges coming from Surplus supplies in spittle field like it's kind of been amazing to see this concept evolved what has essentially been a very tough set of circumstances we've kind of moved and evolved with it we've also had a business partner James who's helped out a lot with the strategy side of things you know there's nothing like sitting like here for example in F on a really busy night and seeing every table fall every customer smiling the team's on good form you know it's just a I can't explain the feeling when something works and you're staring at it as such the best way I can describe it is you know I didn't choose them and they didn't choose me we just came together we complimented each other and then every day we just strived a little bit forward for this business I suppose mentoring is the best way of putting it yep I'm a little bit better on leases I'm a little bit better on financial had the experience am I better on creating a menu am I better on the food side no do I have comments on you know how the menus formatted and which customer base might it appeal to yes are they asking me questions on this 500 pages of leases yes so we met in dinner by hon it's a two Miss Star Restaurant of nights bridge at the time when I joined I joined as a commi for me I didn't have any background in cooking so it was my first proper job I went to University really tough to get a job with a Classics degree got a job as a pot wash worked as hard as I could to clear the pot so I could do the desserts and then got another job got another job and then came straight down to London and and I wrote a list down of restaurants I wanted to get a job at first one on the list was dinner walked in there with my knives worked a five when I first died which you know almost killed me and then from there I was just addicted I grew up around food like my dad was a chef so I think he just kind of soaked in and it started off with just a bit of money when I was 13 14 realized it was all right it and then um just kind of snowboard from then and obviously I love food love eating love dining out just love everything that goes around um the aspect of cooking really well Jack and will clearly lead the business they're frontf facing they've got the energy they've got the youth put it this way if it goes wrong it's it's probably my fault and if it goes right they can take the credit Canary Warf is basically the new city so it's like the CBD they got was it City Bank ksvc JP Morgan he used to be the nogo Zone it's a dockland investors bought it and we like London is growing so fast that it's going to have to grow up I mean I've watched Canary wolf at 25 years I remember walking around a few tall buildings and no one being there and the area that we're moving to which is woodwolf just seems to me to be the bit that they've got completely right we looked in the marketing Suite when we were looking around the side and you can see the growth from 85 it's ludicrous I was actually blown away you're behind the city over i f are these the the whole strategy of woodwarf was the right hand side kind of residential so it was uh facing towards the water the the typical feeling in London is that all great independent restaurants have to be in some small Nook and crany down at Alleyway I would say that putting you know great uh kind of you know chefs and Independent Business in our Flagship it the scale of the real estate will kind of as well do the work to create like a really genuine Ambience so there any other independent I think you'll be the first true the whole of yeah I think you'll be one of the first true independent fact we'll be the first ever Independent Restaurant um on can War which I think is quite a cool start um you know two little losers here from [ __ ] stra and Bolton sh this this is our block well this is not our block but you know this is the rest be this is this one is this all residential yeah that's all res apparently this guy build a the tape it's a 7eventh tallest ilder in the uk1 billion pound I think yeah it's out I mean it's outrageous the design scope is incredible there's so many factors that go into it that you just do not appreciate uh it's a big learning curve for us we just put the feelers up we started looking and then um this is just one we looked at we looked at quite a few different places a few different deals but none of them kind of felt right and when this one kind of came across we just came saw it and just kind of felt like it work it would work right I think lot lot of reservations on our part because it's it's Canary wolf as soon as James told us about Canary Warf like it's a possible site we were very like oh that's quite corporate does it fit with our brand you know we've got some amazing Brands going in around us you know we've got Hulk's already open we've got Mao got dishu now these are interesting brands with good cultures but there's no one I know with a true independent Soul hopefully being on the cor Canary wolf it'll attract a certain kind of customer that's looking for some kind of independent offer this part is think well we could get definitely get these get rid of these and put some herbs herb garden kind of thing it's actually an it's a very unconventional building like obviously VI L the shape of it is like it's an architectural Marvel but I mean I don't think they originally intended to put our type of concept in here can we Guild the walls he's just taking his keys back so this line so that the square footage on this ground floor is the same as the whole of phow in its entirety so it's a big space it's just a little bit little bit more of an awkward layout but there's definitely plenty to play around with it's double the size basically of our curent site so much space there that we can have a composter in the basement you know it's there's so much space there that we can do an aeroponic farm system running through the restaurant it's not like a pokey restaurant in C Garden that just completely limits you so when you see the space the possibilities of it are just absolutely endless basically you got a conflict here between how much yeah how much how much space can be a jack have versus how much space James wants the custom okay sorry gu this is potentially like a hydroponic system like a closed water system with where we can have like fish we can grow you said lates right yeah it definitely is a great location size design everything it's just it's still a risky area but people told us we were mental to come to to Hay Market where Faller they like our PR Company loads of people were like are you sure like this is a bit of a nogo area for restaurant our neighbors are o and Ste Pizza Express anger steakouts Tiger Tiger these are literal Global Brands we're fine dining in comparison just plunked in the middle it shouldn't work can't count count checks just yet you know what I mean k wolf is a risk we've got a very successful business and if this doesn't go correctly we've just wasted 5 years of our time basically they're dealing with the stress because they're 29 and 30 so they can cope with the stress I'm dealing with the stress cuz I've let stress get the better of me before and now I know how to man that I think the thing is before we didn't have anything to lose so now we worked all this to get an amazing team to get an amazing restaurant that's turning a profit and now we've got something to lose uh it feels a lot more real and then couple that with probably the biggest economic downturn in my lifetime for sure but probably in james' as well that's pretty terrifying has been a success over the last few years so it's kind of got just basically just risk gambling everything that we've worked for for the last three years on potential new side but it's also it's what we need to do to grow you know we've got the most amazing team working with us at Val if we don't grow we'll lose yeah if we don't grow we need the business needs to grow to be able to support those amazing staff beneath us you know we never thought we'd be where we are now and it's only a testament to our team um you know I went away for 3 weeks over the summer got married and you know the place thrived while I wasn't here as well so it's a very rewarding thing being able to spend days with your team and then and then to have them implement the things you've been telling them and and teaching them it's quite um it's quite a lovely thing just got the most amazing team now some of that team is coming up for two years with us now if we don't expand some of them are going to move on to other projects we've got a great team base a great staff group you know and you know they can grow with us sustainability is a mentality it's not just about using potato peelings it's about hiring these young guys cuz they're sustainability for the hospitality industry as a whole if no one took on these guys and put the extra effort into their careers then we wouldn't get any new yes coming through you can have all the best people in the world but until you actually open the doors you don't know if it works you can do little bits towards that you can mitigate whether it will happen or not but until you're open until you're full until you're buzzing you know you just don't know we've worked very hard to get to the stage and we're about to risk it all on the next step But ultimately we are hoping the rewards will outweigh the risk eventually this should work we've looked at the risk we've looked at the reward we've looked the potential um and that's why we've taking this calculated risk to be where we are we're going to open a restaurant and this is how like 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Channel: Fallow

Views: 102,410

Keywords: Eater, eater.com, food, Restaurant, Dining, Dish, foodie, chef, food show, michelin star, michelin star chef, michelin star restaurants, Fallow, POV Chef, Chef tutorial, Top London Restaurant, Best London Restaurants, How to open a restaurant, restaurant documentary, how to, how to chef, london chefs, day in the life chef, canary wharf restaurant, iconic london restaurant, canary wharf, menu, fine dining, fine dining london, revolutionary food

Id: DUxyc3ZdPQA

Length: 11min 50sec (710 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 04 2024