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7 - 13 September 2012
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BUSINESS PROFILE COVER FEATURE
THE CATERER AND HOTELKEEPER INTERVIEW
DES GUNEWARDENA
If DAVID LOEWI
After five years of steady progress, this month sees D6[,D London,Jormerly Conran
Restaurants, make a big splash, with the opening oJtwo major new destinations in the
capital: South Place Hotel and the Old Bengal Warehouse outlets. Kerstin Kuhn speaks to
chairman and CEO Des Gunewardena and managing director David Loewi
Your last opening was Skylon five years ago.
With the South Place Hotel and the Old Bengal
Warehouse restaurants both opening this
month, it must be an exciting time for you after
such a long period of consolidation.
David Loewi We were always planning these
new ventures and yes, it is very exciting. It's
always an adrenalin kick to open new restau-
rants, both for the staff and the management
because they present new opportunities to
grow. People who have left the company return
and we're in a really exciting time right now
with these two new major openings.
DesGunewardena But a lot of people have said
to us: "You've been really clever, you've been
through a period of consolidation during the
recession." But it really wasn't by planning at
all. The reason is that there have been delays
- the Old Bengal Warehouses should have
opened two years ago - and problems with
landlords and developers. We wanted to open
a new restaurant at the Cube in Birmingham
in the site that Marco Pierre White has now got
but in that case our developer went bust. So it
has been a little bit more by luck than judge-
ment that we've had this period of consolida-
tion' which actually served us quite well. The
past few years have been tough for the restau-
rant business, particularly 2009. The past two
years have been 0 K and in London restaurants
still outperform the rest of the UK.
You put the company up for sale a few months
ago. What's happening with that?
DG It's happening. We've had a lot of
interest, ranging from people you might
expect, such as UK private equity houses, to
quite a lot of people who are 9verseas. We've
had interest from America, from Hong Kong,
the Middle East and India. We're now in the
process of evaluating the bids and in an ideal
world, we'd like to make a decision at the
end of summer.
221 Caterer and Hotelkeeper 17 September 2012
You sold your interest in the Copenhagen
venture. Will you try to move away fromyour
other overseas businesses, too?
DG No, not at all. Our plan over the next 10
years is to do more overseas ventures. We're
very happy with trading in Paris, Tokyo and
New York and we're very happy being there.
We entered Copenhagen as a joint venture and
then the property developer went bust so we
ended up buying back his shares. Now we have
sold that share to a local consortium. When-
ever we launch a business overseas we always
like to partner up with someone local so that's
what we've now done in Copenhagen, too.
Howdid the Olympics affect your restaurants?
DL Most of our restaurants benefited from
strong Olympics bookings both from spon-
sors and the National Olympics Committees.
A handful of our venues, mainly in the City,
did suffer from regular customers deciding
not to come to London because of the exagger-
ated fear of transport problems. But overall we
had far more winners than losers and the
Olympics was a great boost to the business
after what has been a tough few months
because of the awful wet and cold non-
summer we've had this year.
Next year will see your first out of London
launch. Tell us more.
DLWe are opening at the Trinity Leeds shop-
ping centre in March next year. It's an amazing
development, it's going to bring that part
of Leeds to life again. We have a fantastic
space on the two top floors of the building next
dpor. It's going to be a very glamorous space.
There will be two restaurants overlooking
. Leeds' Holy Trinity Church. We're going to
' have some lovely outdoor terraces and a gar
den ~ it's going to be great. Although we are a
London business, we're really excited about
this project.
As you are a London-based business, how
much market research have you had to do to
get the offer for the Leeds clientele right?
DGWe have a small investment in a company
called IRC, which has a very successful restau-
rant in Leeds called Restaurant Bar & Grill.
Leeds isn't London but there' s a good restau-
rant scene there and it has got quite a well
developed financial sector of lawyers and
accountants and out of all the cities outside
London it's probably one of the strongest.
The people ofLeeds like to go out and our
location is very central. The restaurants are
going to be very high-end, destination restau
rants - not at all like last time when we
took Zincs out of London, which was much
simpler.
Howdo you run your business?
DGThe thing about us as a company is that
we're not so centrally mn. We do expect gen-
eral managers and executive chefs to mn their
restaurants as their own businesses and take
on that responsibility. We're asking them to
let us know what we should be doing rather
than us telling them how to mn their restau-
rants. That structure is absolutely at the heart
of what we do and without that we would
never have been able to grow as much as
we have.
DLThat's why I joined the company all those
years ago. I came from a big international
hotel company where decisions were made in
Geneva and Chicago and it would take years
to change the concept of a restaurant. Some
people really enjoy that but our business is
much more about empowering people and let
ting them make their own decisions and
become entrepreneurial. Of course we'll nur
ture and guide them and the DNA of the busi-
ness comes from us. But we do expect our
managers to be like managing directors in
how they mn their business.
www.catererandhotelkeeper.com
r
"As a company we're not so
. centrally run. We do expect
general managers and executive
chefs to run their restaurants as
their own businesses and take on
that responsibiUty"
Des Gunewardena
I
II
BUSINESS PROFILE
What is the secret behind running a successful
restaurant?
DGWhat makes a successful restaurateur is
really understanding the dynamics of how to
be a success. Sometimes you can design some-
thing and it might work for a while; a successful
restaurateur will have the vision ofhowto evolve
that so that it continues to be successful.
We have sold restaurants but we have never
had to close one because we always managed
to make them work. A good example of that
was Paris when we opened Alcazar. We're gen-
erally very good at openings and we've never
struggled to get people to come; but in Paris a
few months in it wasn't a big success. Paris
restaurants work very differently from restau-
rants in London and together with Michel Bes-
mond we worked out why it wasn't working
and made changes accordingly.
Sometimes it's about having the vision to
see how it can all come together.
What is your view of Michelin stars?
DLMichelin is still very recognisable and a very
good accolade to have. But often it's more
\
241 Caterer and Hotelkeeper 17 September2012
SOUTH PLACE HOTEL
Situated between Moorgate
and Liverpool Street in the City
of London, South Place Hotel
will be "more meetthan sleep".
The hotel will feature two
restaurants - the 80seat
Angler restaurant, focusing on
seafood and shellfish on the
seventh floor, with a rooftop
terrace, and the 70-seat 3
South Place, an informal,
all-day diner on the ground
floor with its own entrance.
There will also be three bars,
a residents' games room called
La Chiffre, and a gym with
beauty and wellness
treatments.
Specially comm
work by contemporary London
artists will be a key feature of
the hotel, with the first winner
ofthe annual South Place
Hotel Art Prize having their
work displayed in a dedicated
windowon the ground floor.
Opened 3 September
Developer Frogmore
Designer Conran & Partners
General manager
Bruce Robertson
Executive chef
Tony Fleming
Bedrooms 80
Price From 269 per night
Address 3 South Place,
London EC2M 2AF
Website
www.southplacehotel.com
important for the chefs than the customers,
who just want a wonderful restaurant experi-
with great food and service. We definitely
encourage our chefs who do chase stars
because we recognise that it is important for
them but it's not something we place a huge
amount ofimportance on.
The Modern Pantry is a restaurant in which you
backed Anna Hansen. Is this somethingyou'd
like to do more of?
DG We absolutely would. We have been
approached by a number of people and it's a
really interesting business model and some-
thing we'd definitely like to do more of.
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The reason that it works so well is that we
are investors and co-owners but it's Anna's
business and she runs it. We're there to help
her, of course, but it wouldn't work as well if
she was constantly asking us for advice.
Where do you see D&D London in 10 years?
DG I think we'll be a much more international
business. At the moment we are still a London
business with some ventures overseas but in
10 years' time that part of the company will be
much bigger. We will be much stronger in the
Far East, where there are lots of opportunities
for us - we'll be in Singapore, China, Malaysia,
India - and we'll have more sites in New York.
We will be a much bigger business and hope-
fully have a few more hotels, too, both in Lon-
don and internationally.
Tell us more about the hotels side of things.
DG Hotels are way more profitable than res-
taurants - the Great Eastern hotel was the
most profitable deal we ever did. We borrowed
[sOm, put in [25m with our investors and sold
for 1s0m. We'd definitely like to open another
www.catererandhotelkeeper.com
one in London as well as in New York, Paris-
cities where we already have restaurants.
DL But they are hotels with a difference. The
Great Eastern Hotel was different because of
the number of restaurants it had and the suc-
cess of those restaurants. South Place will be
the same, it's not just a hotel but there's a res-
taurant atop, a restaurant on the ground floor
and all"the activities that go with that. It's a dif.
ferent philosophy that we bring to hotels.
What is that philosophy?
DG Most hoteliers look at a hotel, see the
square footage and think about how many
bedrooms they can squeeze in so they can
maximise the value. Restaurants and bars are
second thoughts. We look at hotels very differ-
ently - we think about how we can really bring
a building to life, how we can make it a really
sexy place. Because if we create that buzz, the
rooms will be so much more successful.
Most hoteliers will look at the 7s,OOOsq ft at
South Place and laugh at the fact that we've
only got 80 rooms, but for us it's so much more
important to have the restaurants and bars.
COVER FEATURE
THE OLD BENGAL WAREHOUSE
The new outlets open on 17September and
will occupy the oldest surviving warehouses
built by the East India Company between
1768 and 1771. D&D London is opening four
new ventures: a modern British grill
restaurant alongside a cocktail bar, a fish
restaurant and a specialist wine shop. The
sites - designed by Conran & Partners - will
occupy the ground and basement floors of
the Grade II-listed Georgian brick warehouse
covering over 10,000sq ft in NewStreet.
NEWSTREETGRILL a OLD BENGAL BAR
Head chef
Kalifa Diakhaby
ManagerTBC
Bar manager
Milos Popovic
Capacity (grill)
56,24 outside
Capacity (bar) 52, plus 30 outside
Typical dishes Aylesbury game terrine, pickled
shallots, toast; fillet steak tartare, Melba toast;
devilled free-range spring chicken; calves'liver,
crisp onion, bacon and sage; Dover sole grilled
or pan-fried; steaks from the Jospergrill.
Average spend 40 lunch; 60 dinner
Telephone 020 3503 0785 (restaurant)
02035030780 (bar)
Website www.newstreetgrill.com
www.oldbengalbar.com
FISHMARKET
Head chef
Barry
Macmillan
Manager
Miguel Sousa
Capacity 55,
plus 40 outside
Typical dishes smoked eel, pickled red onions
and horseradish; grilled Orkney Isle scallops,
citrus dressing; Cornish fish soup; whole
grilled native lobster and chips; fish pie; and
sirloin steak, chips and bearnaise sauce
Average spend 20 lunch; 40 dinner
Telephone 020 3503 0790
Website www.fishmarket-restaurant.co.uk
NEWSTREETWINE SHOP
Theshopwill
specialise in
wines from
Bordeauxand
Burgundyand
the space will
be available for
wine tastings and dinners. A unique colour
spectrum system will ease customers through
the process of identifying different styles of
wine, while expert sommeliers, led by Nicolas
Clerc, will be on hand.
7 September20121 Caterer and Hotelkeeper 125