Simon Potts, MD of The Alchemist Bars & Restaurants, is making his Casual Dining speaker debut this year. In his opening day Keynote ‘From cocktails to covers’, he’ll be discussing how the brand has evolved from a late-night bar to all day dining serving around 25,000 covers a week.
What restaurant & pub operators do you particularly admire and why?
Dishoom, brilliantly designed spaces that really, truly compliment and reflect their offer. Effortless service and consistently quality product. Humility of the leadership team.
Loungers, brilliantly conceived brand, genuine all day offer, agile and scalable in a way I have never seen before – sizeable full service bar and restaurant business that can act/rollout at the pace of Pret or 5 guys, brilliant business with excellent vision and opportunity.
What do you feel is the key for operators to successfully compete against their competitors in 2019 and beyond?
Be clear on what your USP is, work to compliment that thing by all means but do not lose sight of the main thing. Guest interaction around the clock, in the venue obviously but externally too through social media, advertising etc
What’s your bestselling dish / drink at the moment?
‘The Colour Changing One’ — a cocktail that does it exactly what it says on the menu.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?
Controlled but genuine expansion means creating opportunities for people at all levels of the business. Catering and hospitality is such a great industry for this – you get the chance to lead and line manage from a young age and this helps personal development. Combine this with an environment where creativity thrives, you end up with armies of very talented people. It’s brilliant watching that development.
And the most challenging?
Being the head of a million mile an hour business in a red hot consumer facing sector means the job is non-stop – you live, breathe and sleep it – not a bad thing but something not everyone is aware of or able to commit to.
Are you taking any steps to make your kitchens more sustainable?
We have ambition to introduce waste reduction targets this year, tech and data supported and properly measured. It’s exciting. You need to do more than pay lip service to these things.
How important is the Casual Dining show to the casual dining sector?
Very, the sector is built on mutual support, best practice and intel/insight – it’s great fun too – so having a platform to take part in all this and combining a show with a celebration (at the Casual Dining Restaurant & Pub Awards night) is the perfect set up.
Who or what inspires you to be even better?
I think ambition and wanting to leave a legacy is a big driver for me. It might sound vain in black and white but I know I am creating opportunities for lots of people in the business, that what we do is making many thousands of guests happy each day and that investors will always back that ambition.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
I heard Karen Jones say a couple of times that you have to be rifle shot clear about your offer and make sure everything comes back to that. We got ours down to two words: ‘Theatre Served’.
See Simon at Casual Dining 2019
The Alchemist — from cocktails to covers: 1.15pm in Keynote Theatre 2 on Wednesday 27 February.
