Meet Steve Phillips, operations director at modern Thai eatery Busaba. A new speaker for 2020, he’s looking forward to taking part in our ‘Casual Dining Ops Director’ panel session (on 26 March), alongside Bone Daddies’ Steve Hill, Browns’ Dave Lewis, Dishoom’s Brian Trollip and (session chair) Simon Stenning, founder of FutureFoodservice.com.
Steve started his career as a head chef at Cafe Rouge in the 90s and has since held senior operational roles at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Levi Roots Caribbean Smokehouse and The Restaurant Group. Over the last two years as Busaba’s operations director, he’s helped negotiate the business through tough industry times as part of a new executive team.
What restaurant & pub operators do you particularly admire and why?
Dishoom as they are staying firmly in the casual space but with a consistent offer that modernises and is accessible.
Pizza Pilgrims as they have captivated a great product but with a lot of fun and energy.
I also love the emergence of food halls, which offer diversity of offer and choice to the customer. They all seem to have people and team at the core of their values too. So many other smaller concepts are trail blazing and I enjoy discovering them too.
What do you think is the key for operators to successfully compete against their competitors?
Point of difference is key. What makes you special: food, service, experience and surroundings? Then people come and try you. Getting them back, in my view, is as it always has been: great food and solid hospitality.
What do you see as the key casual dining trends for 2020?
My guess is Asian food will continue to be popular and more focused. One/two dish concepts will emerge, as well as other Asian cuisine such as Filipino food. There are a couple of street food guys smashing this now! However, I think large chains and rolling out 20-30 sites from a successful concept is over. People and trends now move on so quickly a ten year roll out to 30 sites just doesn’t seem possible now.
Brexit 2020: What are the implications for the casual dining sector?
As a strong Remainer, personally I was worried. However it’s happened now and hopefully only positivity comes out of putting the in/out/re-vote etc to bed. I think and hope that the government will be sensible over immigration and maybe a points system will help our sector!
The rise of food delivery: What do you think are the pros and cons for 1) your business and 2) the casual dining sector as a whole?
I have recently moved house to a core delivery zone (from outside London) and I now fully get it. It is easy and will only get better. I think operators need to be mindful that Eat Out customer expectations are currently relatively low but will just get higher. I would predict that poor packaging, cold food, lost drivers and badly-presented products will become a thing of the past and you’d better stay ahead of the game.
There will always be a place for eat in but I would guess that 4000-6000 sq. ft units that everyone was after in the past will now economically be more like 2000-3000 sq. ft max with good Eat Out set up within the design.
What’s your bestselling dish / drink at the moment?
Calamari and Chang Beer.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?
Seeing the teams grow. We have taken a very insular team of GMs and got them really owning their businesses. Lots of work still to do but we have a fantastically stable team of GMs and Head Chefs and it feels like they are all on a great journey with us. Of course, I also get a kick out of great sales growth and stronger profit conversion too.
And the most challenging?
Keeping everyone pumped and motivated, even when sales are challenging and times for the industry are tough. You come to realise how easy it is when you have opening after opening and you can’t stop writing bonus checks, I miss those days!
What does the next 12 months have in store for your business?
Over the last two years we have rebalanced our business from some of the mistakes of the past, refocused the teams on our new goals and streamlined what simply isn’t needed in our business — with a focus on ‘Happier Guests’ and superb food. The next year for us is to continue this work in some ways but we hope to also reap the rewards in the next 12 months of the work we have done. We will continue to stay ahead of the game on Eat Out and we are nearly over the line with an exciting new project, which will also keep us busy.
Describe the Casual Dining trade show in 3 words:
Leading, relevant, [a] highlight.
How important is the Casual Dining show to the casual dining sector?
Casual dining is almost a different language to our Fine dining and QSR cousins. This show really hits the mark for our sector and offers anyone involved a time to stop, refresh, learn and be inspired.
Can you tell us a bit about your much-anticipated session at Casual Dining 2020?
Hopefully it gives other operators a sense of: ‘we are in this together’. Inspires more junior operators on their career journeys. And hopefully some insight into my role and our business.
Who or what inspires you to be even better?
Youth. I love seeing new ideas, new ways of doing things and new tech. Watching great concepts doing well and seeing how people grow.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
Give direct, fair and appropriate feedback to everyone that reports into you. Be honest and hard on the problem not the person.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself that most people don’t know:
I’m an Irishman! Born in Dublin and very proud of where I come from.
See Steve at Casual Dining 2020
Casual Dining Ops Director Panel: 2.15pm in the Keynote Theatre 1 on Thursday 26 March
Featuring:
- Steve Hill, Operations Director, Bone Daddies
- Dave Lewis, Operations Director, Browns Brasserie & Bar
- Steve Phillips, Operations Director, Busaba Eathai
- Brian Trollip, Operations Director, Dishoom
- Simon Stenning, Founder, FutureFoodservice.com (session chair)
