Columnists / Meg Houghton-Gilmour
‘Jack of all trades and master of none’
The restaurant generator whirs into action with a clunk and a hiss. In one end goes the same team, the same PR company, the same suppliers and virtually the same location. The gears are shifted, random level 3 inputted on the key pad. After a few grumbles, the conveyor belt at the other end starts to move. Out pops a new restaurant that looks and tastes alarmingly similar to its neighbours.
The news of new restaurants opening is always positive. Anyone opening a hospitality venture right now should be applauded.
But there is a trend that charts the expansion of local restaurant groups with diminishing quality, fewer customers and closures. Brands that open up more and more sites risk diluting their own customer base, let alone spreading out the talent that they might have had in one or two kitchens in the first place.
is needed now More than ever
Ambition is admirable, but what does success mean for a business in hospitality?
Is it the number of sites you have open or the happiness of your customers? Is it the number of staff you have employed or how well looked-after those staff are?
Gambas is part of the Season & Taste group and still represents some of the best tapas in the city – photo: Meg Houghton-Gilmour
In some cases, those aren’t mutually exclusive. Some really do manage to maintain high standards across the board. But if you are making enough money to pay your team and turning out top-notch food that delights your clientele, is it worth gambling? I ask the question because I don’t know. I don’t own a restaurant business, I can only provide the perspective of a punter.
If you were to dial it up to extremes, the food scene could become very homogenous. A few groups owning the majority of restaurants doesn’t promote variety of anything – price, customer base, cuisine – nor does it encourage innovation. Groups risk becoming a jack of all trades and a master of none.
Bristol is crying out for a truly great sushi restaurant, and the Hyde and Co group have just announced they’re opening one in Wapping Wharf. Time will tell if it will maki the cut.
This is an opinion piece by Meg Houghton-Gilmour, Bristol24/7’s Head of Audience. Subscribe here to her weekly food & drink newsletter.
Main photo: An imagination of a restaurant generating machine by Midjourney
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