Rejecting the Rat Race

[AdamLawrence]

Shaun, when you first moved to Ludlow and set up on your own, what were your objectives? Were you frustrated with the pressure of leading a large brigade, was it about trying to find a better balance between work and life? Who else is/was there who was running the same kind of small but high standard restaurant/little or no help/live above the shop kind of place? (I'm thinking of Robin and Marion Jones at Croque-en-Bouche in Malvern, but would be interested to hear of anyone else doing this kind of thing).

Thanks

Adam

[Shaun Hill]

The main objective was to be independent. With no capital other than a mortgaged house on Dartmoor, the options were limited to either soliciting financial backing - either from banks or from shareholders - or thinking small. And I preferred the latter.

I enjoy working alone but recognise its drawbacks. In a large brigade you can employ people who have more specific skills than yourself, a good pastrycook for instance and take credit for all their talent and work. Alone you are constricted by what you can do without help.

The upside of this is that you don't have some jerk forgetting to put salt in the bread or serving up what should be in the bin and that the head chef is also in charge of such customarily lowly jobs as boiling the vegetables. So it will be consistent if nothing else.

I came to Ludlow because I liked the look and feel of the place. It had a thriving food market, good food shops and a deli. Most important, I could afford to buy a property here and this meant that I could set up shop without all the peformance of cash flow and business forecasts and the sort of input from bankers and accountants that destroys ventures.

For instance, I work on a gross profit margin of 50% - this means that half of what you pay will be raw material. In a standard business where 65% -70% - less than a third toward raw material - is deemed routine I would have had problems.

Of course I need to work at a profit and compensate for the extra spend on food by employing hardly any staff, one - excellent - waitress and a part time cleaner represent the entire payroll. This means for instance that nobody pours the wine for you. My view is that it is perfectly fine to expect this - or anything else from a restaurant but not to expect that it is free. I work to my own priorities and hope that there are enough like minded to make the place commercially successful.

I had seen Robin and Marion Jones doing this sucessfully, also Jacques and Jenny Astic at the Old Woolhouse in Northleach. These were more inspirational for me than say places like La Potiniere in Scotland as they offered choice to the diners