Why brunch is the most important meal of the day for Sam Harrison at Sam's Kitchen

The mark of being able to run a great business is actually being there, says the restaurateur, who has just opened his sixth London site. He talks to Jungmin Seo and Daniela Toporek

 

Earlier this month you launched Sam’s Kitchen in Chiswick, London, which took over the space of your retail arm, Sam’s Larder. Where did the idea for Sam’s Kitchen come from?

 

I think it came from me being quite greedy and loving breakfast and brunch – they’re probably my favourite meals of the day. There’s something so extravagant about going out and having someone cook you breakfast. When I was a lot younger, before I opened my first restaurant in 2005, I lived in Sydney for two years where breakfast and brunch is a big way of life. Twenty years ago, that hadn’t really happened in London, so that’s always stayed with me.

 

What can we expect from the new Sam’s Kitchen?

 

We want to make the lunch offering in Chiswick a little bit bigger, growing from 24 covers at Sam’s Kitchen Hammersmith to 40 at the new site. We will have more lunch plates, such as pork schnitzel and steak and eggs. We also have a relationship with Chiswick House, which is an amazing English Heritage property with a stunning kitchen garden. We get produce from them every week, so we will have a Chiswick House salad.

 

I’m also really excited to have Abbie [Hendren] as our head chef, who first came to us as a sous chef for our Brentford site. She put her name forward for the head chef role; she’s from a Michelin-star background, but she – like me – liked the idea of that level of cooking at breakfast and brunch. And because the restaurant will be closed after 3pm, we’ll be doing in-house supper clubs in the evening – maybe an oyster night or a steak night.

 

You’ve been involved in the industry for some time now, having opened Sam’s Brasserie in 2005 and then Harrison’s in 2007. What’s changed?

 

I think the industry is a lot more competitive now because there’s more choice of restaurants. Now, you are not only competing with restaurants, you are competing with Deliveroo. When I opened my first restaurant, social media didn’t exist. The way that you marketed or ‘PR-ed’ a restaurant was very different. And all the costs across the board have increased, so it’s probably harder. When I did my first business plan for my restaurant in Chiswick in 2005, I had seven competitors. Now, it would probably be 77. There was a lot less competition, so it’s definitely tougher now, but competition is a good thing. And at the core of it, you still have to try to be the best you can every day.

 

You sold your restaurants to Hawksmoor in 2015 but decided to return to the industry with Sam’s Riverside in 2019. What made you come back?

 

I think I probably missed it too much. I needed a break because it can be very all-consuming, but if hospitality is in your blood, and a site like Sam’s Riverside gets offered to you, the next thing you know, you are doing it. We have 200 booked tonight at Sam’s Riverside – we’re a bit overbooked, in fact – and I still get a buzz from finding extra tables. Without sounding corny, we make money from making people happy, and I think I probably missed that.

 

You’ve had experience in lecturing hospitality students and managing your own team of recruits. What advice do you have for young people?

 

Post-Covid, there’s been so much talk about work-life balance, and I totally get that, but in restaurants, people work Friday nights and weekends. Hospitality is not about working long hours anymore, but if you want to work a Monday to Friday job, we have to be honest: hospitality is not right for you. You can’t be a chef from home; you can’t make cocktails at home. That’s the reality check, but it’s still an amazing industry. Also, with a hospitality job, you will never be out of work, and that’s an amazing position to be in. You can use that to travel the world.

 

You have six sites in and around west London, four of which you opened in the past year. Why the focus on that particular area?

 

I live 10 minutes away from Sam’s Riverside and I can be in any of my sites within 20 minutes from home. Danny Meyer, who has amazing restaurants in New York, wrote a book called Setting the Table that’s about hospitality. In Manhattan, he had four great restaurants and he talked about how he could be in any of his restaurants within a 10-minute walk. We’ve got six sites now, and I’ve only done it once, but one day I served a customer in all six. If your name is above the door, I think that’s quite important.