Smoke & Salt

Idea

Introduction

Smoke & Salt is the first restaurant from Smoke & Salt Hospitality Group Ltd. In the current guise, it is an award-winning restaurant with plaudits from some of the most well-known critics and hospitality bodies in the UK. It combines our vision for modern dining with ancient food preservation techniques.

We are looking to capitalise on our success in our shipping container restaurant by starting our own journey towards making Smoke & Salt Hospitality Group Ltd the edgiest and best hospitality group in London. Headed up by chefs and co-owners Aaron Webster & Remi Williams, they have many years of combined hospitality experience between them, and so the focus will be to create an incomparable work environment. Smoke & Salt Hospitality Group Ltd seeks to build a group of restaurants which will be the envy of peers and the favourite of guests. The first step in this process will be to rehome their current restaurant into a fully-fledged brick and mortar restaurant.

Intended impact

Smoke & Salt Hospitality Group LTD came about through a passion to develop and create a brand that represented more than just food and beverage. Through personal experiences, hospitality as a concept needed to be reimagined in such a way that would better serve its customer base while maintaining sustainable financial success.

These are the core values of what we do:

· Innovative but approachable food blending the modern with the traditional

· Friendly, casual and intelligent service

Smoke & Salt has delivered these things consistently up to this point, and we believe a new space will only allow us to enhance and build upon our offering. The kitchen team will have more space and freedom to be creative and to put into motion projects which have not been feasible in the current space. The front of house team will be able to deliver a more comfortable dining experience and will be able to cater to the needs of our guests even better.

Substantial accomplishments to date

The core management team is comprised of the two founding directors Remi Williams and Aaron Webster. These two are currently responsible for all business management and day-to-day restaurant operations at the current site in POP Brixton.

Aaron Webster is a chef with 10 years experience working in the Hospitality Industry. Having cooked at restaurants such as The Latymer at Pennyhill Park, Dinner by Heston and The Shed. Having come up with the name Smoke & Salt in 2013, he teamed up with Remi to start Smoke & Salt.

Remi Williams is a chef who completed a degree in Chemistry from Imperial College, before studying culinary basics, before taking up chef positions at restaurants including Deuxave, in Boston's Back Bay

Smoke & Salt is a casual fine-dining restaurant located in Brixton, London. It has won numerous accolades including The Cateys ‘Best Newcomer’ restaurant (sitting along some other iconic winners such as Gordon Ramsay, Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles, Restaurant Tom Aikens, The Hand & Flowers, Simon Rogan and Ollie Dabbous to name but a handful), a 5 star review from Time Out and placed 6th on their ‘Top 100 restaurants in London that you have to try’ list. Other national press pieces include great reviews from the likes of Marina O’Loughlin at the Times, Bill Knott at the Financial Times and Keith Miller of The Telegraph.

Monetisation strategy

Smoke & Salt was tested directly with guests through a series of pop-ups, supperclubs and residencies before launching their Pop Brixton Site. In 2017, the concept was adapted to meet the demands of a new site, with Smoke & Salt Pop Brixton opening to the public in mid-June 2017. This site was established as a first major venture after several years of the afore-mentioned smaller pop-ups and residencies. The previous test-runs were designed to test individual food products and a chance to achieve target food costs.

Now, Smoke & Salt generates sales in several ways:

1. Restaurant Sales - guests sitting down at the restaurant to dine

2. Catering/Events - private catering on and off the main restaurant site

3. Gift Card/Retail Sales - includes tote bags purchased through the website

Use of proceeds

The funds will be used for the following:

1. To secure the restaurant site

2. Purchase the equipment required to operate

3. Fund the fit-out for the restaurant

4. As initial working capital for the business