Ep.20 - The Real Reason Hospitality Tech Fails (It's Not the Software) - Mitz Patel - Supy Talks Podcast

Speaker A: Welcome to another episode of Supee Talks. Today we're joined by Mits Patel, global head of IT Delivery at, uh, Soho House. MITS has a large history of working at operationally complex hospitality businesses from Preso Italian to David Lloyd Leisure. So today we're going to have a conversation about where operations, technology and hospitality meet. And uh, MITS has some really interesting stories about how often the problem in technology is not the tech itself, it's how people use it and interact with it. So Mits, welcome to the show.

Speaker B: Thank you very much.

Speaker A: Thanks Oren, It's a pleasure having you here. So people get to know you. Can I get a bit of a background from you and how you ended up working at the kind of the cross section of hospitality and technology?

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, how much time have we got?

Speaker A: About an hour.

Speaker B: Okay, let's see. Um, so from a very young age it was a big deal for me. I went to university, did a degree, master's, a PhD. It's kind of like, what do I do next? How do I find a job? And I couldn't. And so I just started part time jobs. Yeah, started a part time job at David Lloyd that just opened up near my house. It was too expensive for me to join at the time, so I thought this is a good way of me to get free gym membership. Uh, and then at some point just kind of emailed the IT director at the time and said, hi, I work in your club. If you are interested, come and do some stuff and just kind of wang my way in. Really from there? Yeah. So, and then went, went stay there. Did a, did about five years there. Um, tail end of my tenure there, I was, um, working. We were just expanding across Europe, so we're just opening up new clubs. Um, and so I was working kind of like on the IT element of the new club openings. Uh, and then my then boss, a guy called David Broom, moved to a company called Preso Italian. Uh, and he said to me, oh, do you want to come and work for me here? And I said, no, quite like free gym membership, it's great fun. Uh, and so I kind of didn't for a while and then moved over eventually. Yeah, so I went from being ultra healthy to eating pasta and pizza all day long. And then, yeah, then, and then eventually ended up here. So I did seven years at Pretzel.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And uh, yeah, when I started we were kind of like a very basic, I think restaurant companies is probably the right way to put it, tech wise. Yeah, everything was kind of spreadsheets and standalone and Internet lines, like single lines into the. Into the restaurants. Um, and we brought it to a really good standard. So Dave, myself and some of the team brought it to a standard where other companies were. Other hospitality companies were looking at us and going, you've got guys to set the kind of the bar on that. Uh, and then, yeah, I felt like a bit of a new challenge. And, uh, again, all my roles that I've had have just come. Come about, like, very randomly. So I, for this role, I messaged our current, uh, cto, a guy called Rajat, and, And said that, you know, if. If anything comes up, give me a shout. And he said, we might have something. And then here I am.

Speaker A: That's cool. So then you swapped gym for Italian food, and now you've got pretty cool lifestyle membership club. You've picked your. You picked good companies.

Speaker B: It is pretty good. I. I don't think I. I was thinking about this last night, actually. I was looking for some people. I said, I don't think I take enough benefit of working here just yet. But, um, yeah, I think it's. I've yet to explore that side of it. It's been a hectic seven months, I bet.

Speaker A: Yeah. Amazing. And as you were saying, David Lloyd, you start out in a more operational role. Uh, obviously now you're in technology IT role. Did that help, like, kind of shape your view on how to get tech into a business?

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. From a very early start, I identified this kind of, like, this gap between the operational world and the tech world in a lot of companies. And you'll often find the tech side of a company pushing something or trying to implement something, but not taking into account the operational side of it. Um, and that's where I found my niche, I think. Um, uh, and it's always been, uh, a bit my happy place is out there in operational world, if I'm honest with you. Even at Soho House, like, my happiest times are going to houses and talking to people. At, uh, Pretzel, my happiest times were going to restaurants, helping clear tables, understanding where the pinch points are and the pain points are, and then finding solutions for that.

Speaker A: That's amazing. I feel like that's probably what makes you so good at your job, because if you sit back in the office and try and fix problems, uh, I find it the same in my world, if I'm just the best ideas come up from getting out there, rather than just sat around in a meeting room brainstorming.

Speaker B: Yeah. And building trust is the big one. So Build trust with the operational teams is key to landing something successfully. If they don't trust you and they don't trust what you're doing and the vision you're painting, they won't follow it.

Speaker A: Yeah. Amazing. And I want to dig a little into your time at Prezza because you were there for a good amount of time. It's a really well known brand and

Speaker B: actually really, um, they like to be called Pretto Italian.

Speaker A: Just Pretzo Italian.

Speaker B: They rebranded.

Speaker A: Yeah. Yes. I saw they're doing, renovating, uh, a lot of the restaurants. They look really big, refurbished.

Speaker B: Plan going on. Yeah, it's been going on for quite a long time and it's something that, that needed to be done for, for that particular chain. It's a chain that people know love. Um, have visited many a time. Yeah. But it just needed a refresh and they got a really amazing team in to do it. Um, um, current marketing director Nadi Guy, uh, called Mark, um, McCulloch, who, um, has just been awarded an MBE.

Speaker A: Yeah. So that's amazing.

Speaker B: And they, they just. Yeah. The really good thing about that team is they work so cohesively together. Like it's almost like they sit in a room and they just come up with these ideas and it's fantastic. And you know, I always say the pace at which they work is, is phenomenal. You start on a Monday and you're implementing by a Friday because it's that quick a turnaround. But, but it needed a kind of like a refresh and the guys behind it, Kane, put a lot of money into it to, to kind of do that. So.

Speaker A: Yeah, uh, that's really cool. I want to touch on the IT side actually in technology because you were kind of known for testing new technology, um, in the group. So can you just tell me about that? How did that come about? What did you do?

Speaker B: Yeah, so lots of people contact me through LinkedIn and talk to me about stuff they're doing. It could be just some person that's come up with an idea and has built a prototype of something or it could be a, like a new startup that's trying to get something off the ground. And the really good thing about working at someone like Pretzel was that we had this flex so we could kind of cordon off a bunch of restaurants or a couple of restaurants and then just say to people, use it as a test ground. We're happy to do so. Um, and we came up with some, some really cool stuff. We worked with Barclaycard, uh, on a really cool idea of Kind of like a totem that you tap on when you sit down, then you order food and as you walk out it detects that you walked out. And then kind of very Amazon fresh type. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's actually walked out and it just charges you for it. So very early on we're talking about what must have been like five, six years ago when yeah, this was brand new tech and then just, just anything else, you know, touch screens, all in one devices to be order and pay. We were one of the first people to bring dojo all in one devices into the, into a hospital hospitality space.

Speaker A: Nice.

Speaker B: Um, so, yeah, it's, it's been interesting and that's part of what I quite like. I, I like that kind of trying different things. Trying different things and, and some of that, ah, I bring to here as well. So one of the big features that um, I'm m working on here is speed of service in the houses. Um, and there's a distinction between fast service and efficient service. We're not looking for fast service because our houses and our members expect a certain level of service. It's not a fast food takeaway kind of thing. But, um, efficiency of service is important and bringing some of that tech and looking at things like intelligent fridges that you can tap, take what you want and then it knows what you've taken and then charges you for it. Or robots that can make cocktails. Some really cool stuff out there. I just absolutely love hearing about new stuff. There's nothing I won't just have a

Speaker A: look at that's really cool. And I imagine part of that bringing it is, is great for these newer brands that are bringing new technologies to the industry. So I think the industry probably likes you for that. Do you think that comes from you personally or is it the culture of the companies you've been in or. A bit of both.

Speaker B: A bit of both. I think giving, giving some of the opportunity uh, is, is very close, especially small businesses. Yeah, my parents started off running their small business. There's a small shop in Twickenham and they run it themselves and they've run it for the last 40 years. And, and you know that that's the ethos that has been kind of. Yeah. Uh, instilled in me from a young age. Help small businesses, help people get on that first step and, and some of the things that we, we did at Pretzel, uh, have now grown to be really big in the industry. But we were one of the first or one of the second or one of the third to and had a real input in how that was shaped. And it's a really nice feeling.

Speaker A: It's cool because you get to help some of these brands grow and if they're uh, good, they go onto something great. But also as a business you get to stay at the cutting edge and doing things that give you a competitive edge on other businesses. So it's a win win really.

Speaker B: Yeah. And selfishly it's great pr. Right. And that's what all this is about is great pr. You know, being the first to be able to talk about that, being able to say we helped mold some of that. All of that is really nice.

Speaker A: And were there any times you don't have to name names where uh, these things didn't work out or something that really failed that you tried many times?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's the beauty of it. And our mantra was if you're going to fail fast, fail fast, learn and then recover very quickly. Um, I mean we tried to do all in one order and pay devices really early on. Um, we thought we were clever enough to have our own ones built. So there was a well known manufacturer that was charging an extortionate amount for these devices and we said, you know what, we're just going to have those built ourselves. So we sent one of these devices off to China. And um, about six months later this truck pulled up outside our office and it was just pallet loads of these devices that we'd ordered. Um, and they served their purpose, but they weren't great. You get what you pay for. And it was interesting and it was a learning curve. Um, we tried to do Pocket PDQ machines.

Speaker A: Okay. Yeah.

Speaker B: So very early on the old kind of big old silver Pocket PDQ machines were with the industry standing, we thought we could do a Pocket version of this. So we were working with a couple of companies to try and build uh, like a pocket one. And I remember sitting at home or many a night, 8 o' clock in the evening, someone from a restaurant will find me and go, the PDQ machine stopped working. What do I do now? And like what's this error that's come up? And so, so yeah, a lot of it was trial and error. But that's the beauty of working for some, somewhere like Pretzel Italian is that they, you know, their ethos is just learn from it and move on.

Speaker A: That's really cool. And I feel like through doing those things you, you get better in all aspects. And even when you're looking at new vendors, maybe you can ask more relevant questions. And save the business money in different

Speaker B: ways and is a learning curve. And you know, I've made many mistakes in my time and, and uh, I'm sure it's cost. Cost. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Money to the business and that kind of thing. But um, but, but yeah, you learn from it and you become better. And actually what you're doing is not only are you becoming better, but the vendor is then becoming better as well because you're asking questions that they might not have been asked before. You're, you're looking at ways to work with them that they haven't been pushed to do. And one of my favorite things is finding vendors that uh, are happy to, to push the boundaries of where they're working. What I don't like is when a vendor says, well, this is what we've got and that's what we've got. Unfortunately, if you're going to work with us, let's, let's push some boundaries. That's, let's build something new together. Let's, let's, you know, break some ground.

Speaker A: Yeah. If they bring you along the journey of their roadmap, take your feedback on something we've done with a number of like big prospective clients, Just spoken to them, understand what they need. Yeah. And if there's a bit of alignment between a couple of people, then great, crack on. Yeah, better to hear it from potential customers than again in the meeting room. So. Amazing. What I'm interested to find out about is because you've worked at some quite diverse businesses. Soho House versus Pretzel, Italian or casual dining chain. Like from a technology standpoint, what's the difference? What are the challenges?

Speaker B: Uh, yeah, interesting question. So Pretzel is definitely something we built from the ground up and. Ah, so you knew the tech very well. I knew the tech very well. I knew the stack very well. Um, and we were very hands on in deciding how that was, which direction you went in and who you picked as your suppliers. Um, the interesting thing about something like so House is it's well established and it's been around for a long time. Um, which means that you're kind of, you're, you're adopting technology that's already there. And one of the struggles I've had here is the restrictions in some of the tech that we have. Because we're a global company, there are restrictions in what we can and cannot do, what we can and cannot implement. Um, and that's always been a bit of a struggle here for me, is just trying to work out how we navigate those Kind of those, um, hurdles. Um, but, but yeah, it's a, it's a completely different thing. Like the other thing I say about so House is that there's somebody here for everything. Right. There's. The team is big. It's much bigger. We were like 10 people as a team in it. Pretzel, Italian. Uh, just the projects team alone is 10 people here. There's 10 project managers working on stuff and there's, there's a lot of people here. So. Yeah, pace, uh, is slower.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: But more, uh, I'd say probably more considered is the polite way of saying.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And what. Are there any exciting projects you're working on or things you can tell us about that, that are coming soon we should look out for there? Or is it all behind wraps?

Speaker B: I mean, as I said earlier, the big thing that I'm working on is speed of service. Yeah. And it's, it's one of our kind of like our most, um, high profile initiatives in the business. Um, it's one of the things that our members talk to us about the most and we want to make sure that we continue to provide the right level of service. And that's, as I said earlier, it's not fast service, it's efficient service. Um, so we're looking at everything from some of the stuff I'd done previously, so things like the bog standard kind of all in one devices, QR code ordering, NFC ordering, um, all the way through to some really cool stuff like intelligent fridges. I mentioned earlier robots that make cocktails. Just the other day someone contacted me about a robot that cleans.

Speaker A: Wow.

Speaker B: Which is quite cool. So you could just have it set off in the house overnight and it would just clean the entire house. So those kind of things are really, really interesting. And some of this stuff isn't necessarily just tech. And this is where it gets interesting. Kind of bleeding into the operational world.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, and looking at how we can help ops fix some of these things. Um, but yeah, there's some really cool

Speaker A: stuff that's very exciting to hear. I can't wait to see some of that happening.

Speaker B: And some of it won't come out. I can't. For example, I can't say to the guys at Greek street, hey, can we take out an entire bar and put a robotic cocktail maker in? They'll say, are you mad?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: But I can see that working somewhere like, uh, a festival or something like that where, like Coachella or Glastonbury, where it becomes a feature, it becomes an art piece. Um, and yeah, well you can put

Speaker A: it in my house. So what I wanted to find out about is when you're looking at all these different types of tech to implement, is there like a process you follow to decide, yeah, we can trial this? Yes, I should look into this because I can imagine it could be quite overwhelming.

Speaker B: I'm um, probably quite a maverick at this kind of stuff. I quite like to just try and shove something in and just see if it works. And that's not necessarily the right way to do things. Um, and certainly not the way that we would consider doing things at house. Um, and so there is a process and the, the process changes depending on what it is. So usually it's, it's ah, we define a process of kind of the requirements and follow a project lifecycle. Um, but yeah, often, sometimes like life's too short, you just put it in and see what happens.

Speaker A: Yeah, totally test it. And the nice thing is with the number of houses and locations you have there probably types of places and venues where you can test something or an opportunity comes out or like our general

Speaker B: managers are fantastic, right? We've got some of the best general managers in the industry. So on it, like when I talk to them, they're, they're keeping me on my toes. They, they ask, making sure that I'm doing a good job because they're coming up with ideas, they're thinking of things that they should be doing, that it's great. And that's part of parcel of it. Right. I talked earlier on about how that engagement with ops at an early stage is really important. Being able to engage with those general managers because I can talk to the house until I'm blue in the face. They don't listen to me. They'll listen to me a little bit. They'll say, oh, this is this guy in a suit that's turned up with crazy hair and he's telling us to do something we better do a little bit when he's around. But really truly, you only listen to your manager because they're the ones that matter.

Speaker A: Uh, it's two way street. If they can see the value in it, they can see how it will help them. If you can kind of pitch that to them the right way, they're more likely to engage and if you get good feedback, you're more likely to be encouraged to try and help them in what they're doing. So it sounds like a nice relationship and that does lead on nicely around tech adoption being a human problem. So do you think that tech adoption is More around people than systems. And how do you go about making sure that people use the tech you implement?

Speaker B: It's a little bit of both, if I'm honest. It is a bit of both. Um, sometimes you can over tech, you can, you can do something for the sake of doing it. And I've been guilty of that. And sometimes it's really difficult when you're in a room full of tech people, the conversation starts to spiral quite quickly and all of a sudden you're like automating everything that you can think of and. Yeah, and trying to implement technology for everything you can think of. And actually really you don't need it. Sometimes you need someone in that room to go, hang on a second, what's going on here? Like, we're going to get a bit carried away. Because if you're a techie at heart, what you want to do is implement new tech or build new tech. Right. And that's what you really want to do. Um, so kind of bringing it back to kind of like reality is an important one. Um, but yeah, I think in general implementing technology in an operational world, it's finding the right tech and it's getting buy in from very early stage of that tech.

Speaker A: And have there been any examples where you've seen. There's been quite a lot of resistance at, uh, the start and then by the end of it you've, you know, you've, you've pushed through and people feel like, I couldn't live without this.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. The, the handhelds is a really good example because we were really early adopters of handheld tools. Uh, I think when we were looking at Pretzel Italian, only a small bunch of people had started doing it and not in the same way we were doing it. Um, and I remember going to restaurants and talking to members of staff that worked for pretzel for 15, 20 years. Um, and had, like I said to them, from today we're going to start using handhelds instead of pen and paper. Uh, and they would burst into tears and they'd say, I do not want to use this handheld. I absolutely cannot use it. Pen and paper was their safety. Right. Like it's, it's a shield if you're not a confident person. Pen and paper is brilliant because I could just scribble anything I want down. I could draw stars on this right now. And then I could walk back, remember you're ordering, tap it into a till. Um, and it was really interesting. Part of me loves that kind of the way the brain works and the psychology behind this kind of stuff. Um, and it was really interesting to take those people on that journey. And sometimes it was showing them the benefits, sometimes it was working with them and just being around and being confident and being present to give them the confidence. And sometimes it was, uh, a bit of a stick approach, going to turn that tell off if you don't stop using it kind of thing, or I'm going to take the pen and paper away from you. But we. When I left Pretzel, I remember talking to some of the team about the handhelds and the journey we'd been on, and we said, what would happen now if we took them away? They said, absolutely not, you can't do that.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And we've started to roll them out here at Soho House, and funnily enough, we kind of had them in houses for the last, I'd say in real earnest, probably in the last, like four or five weeks. Uh, and I've spoken to a couple of people and they've kind of gone. This is like literally my right hand now. If you took this away, I don't know how I would function.

Speaker A: That's amazing.

Speaker B: In the flip, I've heard people say, uh, I don't really know how this works here for us, we are pen and paper. So it's a battle. But if. If there's anybody to take Soho on that journey, it's someone who's done it before successfully. And, yeah, that's why.

Speaker A: That would be exciting to see how that goes. Because, I mean, yeah, there are various benefits and some of it's tough, but, you know, if it's making the customers lives easier, it's giving the staff more time to spend on building rapport, providing hospitality, um, not just service, then I think it's a win. So my next question was about, like, what makes speed of service difficult in large venues? Because you've got large venues. So, yeah, what's different about that? And how can brands work around it to make it, make it happen?

Speaker B: It's multifaceted. So, uh, there's the layer, which is the tech itself. And the tech needs to be on point every single time. If somebody loses confidence in that technology, especially if you're standing at a table and you're taking an order and that that tech stops working, you, I, uh, have to work twice as hard to then try and get that person to pick that tech up again. It's really, really difficult. And so it has to be bulletproof. It has to work every single time. Just like a pen and paper was.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, if. But Then there's the other side to it, which is the um, the operational side of it and making sure that people understand what the benefits are. Um, and then use it based on those benefits and utilize in the best way possible. Sometimes you'll implement tech and it will be people, it will have all the bells and whistles and someone will just use it for one thing in particular and helping them understand what else you can use it for and why. It's a, uh, big benefit. Is it really interesting one for us. There's things that we think that might work, might not work. So QR codes is a, is a, is a very controversial subject. Um, we were talking about it earlier. Uh, and uh, in our, in our houses there's a split between people that think QR code is almost an industry standard now. You expect it in a, in a restaurant or, or a place you go to. Uh, and then people that think actually it's probably not the right look and feel and fit for, for what we do. Um, the beauty of our houses is that there's uh, like you said, there's multiple areas and they're all different. So you might have like a traditional restaurant where you might really want to use pen and paper because it's look part of the look and feel of the restaurant. There'll be areas of the house which are kind of like private areas where members can just go off, wander and sit down and do some work or read a book that aren't manned by anybody. But you still want to provide service there. And tech really helps in those kind of places. And there's places like um, around the pool for example, in the summer where it's very busy and you want to provide a high level of service very quickly.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's really interesting. I'm interested. Like I'll be fascinated to see where, where you end up. But I can imagine like one of the things is privacy, discretion. And it helps if you want that and other places. Yeah, you're there to uh, show people a great time and then you want interaction. So there's a place for it, isn't there?

Speaker B: Yeah. And m. My attack on this is, is to do it in one place really well. So White City House, for example, is our house of excellence. I've kind of dubbed. Um, and we're kind of throwing everything at it. Yeah, very receptive team there. Really want to see it working. Um, interesting demographic of member and it has a public and private space. Um, also has a Soho, works as a spa. Uh, it has a gym. So it has a Little bit of everything there. And you kind of build a menu of stuff. Right. And I was talking earlier about how GMs in Sohouse are so on it. Once I've built this menu of things, people can kind of go, that works really well there. I think it would work really well with me. That won't work well for us. Let's not put that in my house. And they have the decision, and that's the key thing. And you know, it's an important thing. They, they have to drive this.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's a really, really nice sort of test bed, uh, to see where else in the world you'll take it because the venues differ quite a lot across the world. Okay, cool. And that's a really good example of how things could work. But are there any examples where you've seen tech robots replace that hospitality and service rather than supporting it?

Speaker B: Yeah, like, I think as a, as a tech person, we're always guilty of over, uh, thinking it and over, uh, over kind of building it. Um, I've seen some hotel chains, for example, have digital concierge, like a, like a hologram or an image. And it might work, but does it work? Does it, does it feel right? Yeah, I often, I still want to speak to somebody. Um, sometimes the tech is just not advanced enough. So very early on we were, we were looking at, um, AI in, in phone technology and pretzel Italian. We were looking at how we may m. Miss bookings because the restaurant is busy, um, and how we can kind of kind of COVID that off. And very early on the tech wasn't great. It was very much a, uh, like if you ever phoned the Cinema in the 90s, it was kind of press one for. Yes, press two for that kind of stuff. And, and the technology has come on leaps and bounds, but, yeah, that sometimes it's just, just not the right fit. And you're trying to force something into something that doesn't work. I think, uh, Leona, probably a good example of this. Leon, have, since it's been taken back by the founder, they've started to take screens out of their restaurants and, and put that personal touch back in again. And that's really interesting. I think there's, there's always a kind uh, of like a pivot point in which you go, actually that's too much now. That's, that's where we're detracting from what we want to be.

Speaker A: And sometimes, uh, I think I'm biased. But some of the tech behind the scenes that enables the stuff, uh, in Front of customers to get that full experience. Uh, where we're going in a lot of areas.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: So that's cool. Okay, cool. I feel like I've learned so much from you already. But we want to help people on this podcast, other people that might be on a career path somewhat like yours. So if you were meeting someone that's coming into their first head of IT role or head of digital role in the hospitality group, is there any advice you'd give them?

Speaker B: Get to know your operational team. That's the most important thing. Get to know your operational team. You're going to be working alongside them, not, not, um, on a different angle, like a different avenue to them. It's really important and, and get really early on, early buy in. I think, I think the other thing is, is be a bit of a chancer. Like some sometimes as the British don't like that kind of, you know, um, being a bit cheeky and asking for, for a free pilot or a discount or something. But do that because often those are the barriers to success that you remove to get your pilot in, to get your data in. Um, and looking at data is really important. I've been guilty of not doing that quite a lot. So in my previous years, put something in, see if it's successful, just go with it. Uh, and actually sometimes looking at the data and making decisions based on data is a really important, important key thing. I think, I think the other thing is, is just, just be really open to what people are, uh, talking to you about. Everybody out here is, is trying to earn a living. They're trying to, to do the right thing and being nice in this industry, we're hospitality after all. Right. That's what it's.

Speaker A: Exactly.

Speaker B: Being nice doesn't take a lot of effort. Being nice rewards you tenfold in the long run.

Speaker A: So I think that's one of the best things about the industry. It's that a people industry. People love interacting still. So that's great. And imagining you're someone that's in a head office kind of role and spending some time in store, in hotel, in wherever. Is there any advice you give on that, how to spend your day? Because it can feel a bit awkward I think for people sometimes when they're doing it.

Speaker B: Yeah. And sometimes operations like you go to a restaurant, they'll go, you're not helping me, you're hindering me. We did this thing, ah. At uh, Pretzel Italian, we did like a back to the floor kind of day. Um, and the first time we did it, the Feedback was the head office people are coming or support center we call it. Yeah, they're coming to our restaurant actually they're trying to help us but really what they're doing is slowing us down because they're kind of going what do I do now? What do I do now?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And you kind of end up just polishing cutlery. Um, one of the best things we did, I remember one time we went to uh, one of our restaurants, which is a seaside restaurant. It had this amazing kind of like at uh, the back of it, amazing terrace, three floor terrace. It was really nice overlooking the sea. It was great. But it was in absolute disarray. I think the summer season to finish, we just gone through winter. It hadn't been used. It just was really run down. And as an IT team a few of us had gone there to do some stuff around tech. And I just, I looked at it and I went, it's just, just, it doesn't fill me with pride. Doesn't look good. It doesn't, doesn't. And so I just said to the guys that we've, we finish a little bit earlier than we did. Let's spend the next two or three hours just sprucing the whole thing up.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: So we cleaned, we scrubbed, we got rid of rubbish and stuff and actually the team got involved as well. All of a sudden they feel pride in what they're doing and they got down on their hands and knees and put gloves on cleaning and we, we absolutely made that terrace look beautiful. And the end result was people walking by were going actually I'm going to come into this restaurant now. I want to kind of sit here and eat. And the terrace was full by the end of it.

Speaker A: That's great.

Speaker B: And it's those kind of things that make uh, a big difference.

Speaker A: Yeah, totally. I'm sure the customers benefited, the business benefited and you're probably your relationships with that in store team like you could go to them, really get the information, knowledge, advice, questions that you want, wanted.

Speaker B: I mean for me spending time in operational world is great. Immerse yourself in it. Yeah, Um, I try and spend at least one day a week in a house if I can. I try and spend at least one day a week in a house if I can.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: If I can't at least keep in touch with what the houses.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And as I say pretzel Italian. It was, it was my favorite time go to a restaurant. And we, we did it successfully many times over after that. Uh, that, you know, everybody got involved. Everything from washing Dishes to hosting to clearing tables, the works.

Speaker A: Yeah, amazing. And just looking a bit towards the future. Like, I can imagine you having your own hospitality tech business, but are there any, if you had a blank canvas, are there any things you build today? Like any ideas?

Speaker B: A long time ago, myself and two of my friends. So, uh, there's a guy called Dave Broom who is the, uh, CIO at Pretzel, uh, and there's a guy called Ross Perez and he's the, um, he is a, uh, digital customer facing digital technology at Pizza Express. We all worked at Pretzel together. I remember going to one night we went out for a meal and we sat in one of these, I think it's Ed's Diner or something like that in Spitalfields. And we sat there and we're just talking about some of the industry issues that we were having. And on the back of a napkin we literally came up with this thing called the Box.

Speaker A: Nice.

Speaker B: And it was like this. The biggest issue we had at that time was, uh, integrating with systems. And we thought about this kind of middle where I guess you could call it these days of some system. When we planned it all out, we agreed and we signed everything so all of us would have 33% sharing stuff. Uh, some of those kind of ideas are, uh, bought in the back of a fag packet. Yeah, the ideas that exactly are really cool. Right. Those are the kind of things. And I do actually wish we'd kind of progress with it because for a good number of years it became quite a big issue in, in hospitality in general. I think if I had a blank canvas and I, I could do anything with it. Um, probably something, um, something around the operational AI space. I think that's, that's quite a big thing at the moment. Um, I guess AI is used as a term quite freely and I think knowing how to use it and where to use it is quite a big thing. Automation is probably a big one for us.

Speaker A: I like the idea of the box, but what was the box specifically going to solve? I love the name, but like, what was it going to fix for us?

Speaker B: I mean, we planned this in one night, right? So there wasn't a huge amount of thought went into it. But essentially what it was is it became an interface to any system. It allowed you to transfer data from one system to another. And, and I'm, um, I'm, I'm guessing there was probably people sitting on tables around us at the time who looked at it, stole the idea and have now produced it. And there's stuff out there already. That does it. But yeah, that was a very early

Speaker A: on I can see. And that's one of the things that's changed in uh, tech, at least in what I've seen is that we've gone from having a lot of uh, all in one, all singing or dancing systems, which quite honestly were probably quite good at 50, 60% of what they did, to more of a best in class tech stack approach where people pick and choose the right bit for their business and then bring those things together to be something stronger. Um, and I'm sure a device like the box would have really helped uh, in that.

Speaker B: But uh, the analogy I use is if you go to a restaurant and there's a menu and the menu has a hundred different things on it.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: You know that restaurant is not going to be great at one of those things, is trying to do too much.

Speaker A: It's funny, my first boss used uh, to use that example and he called it bad Italian restaurant syndrome. When there's a menu this big covering your face but none of it's done well.

Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. That is that. And you know, if you're going to be good at something, be good at one thing. Yeah, be excellent at one thing.

Speaker A: Okay, great. I think we're getting towards the end of our chat now. So I just, as someone that's been in F and B and hopefully has a good, good palate, I'd like to find out a bit about your tastes. Okay, so I'll do a quick fire round. I've got five questions so I want to hear. Um, first of all, what's the best restaurant meal you've had in the last six months?

Speaker B: Last night I went to Dean street, um, and I had, I was lucky enough to get like a, like a chef's table type experience there. Um, and the food was phenomenal. Like I've never tried food like that before. And actually I'm one of these people that give me a plate of fries and I'm happy. I'm a, I'm a self confessed chip connoisseur. Um, and yeah, it was, it was great and it pushed me to try new things. Like there was things on that plate that I thought to myself, there is absolutely no way I'm trying that. And I thought, you know what, I'm

Speaker A: here, give it a go.

Speaker B: This is it, let me try it. And I really enjoyed it. So it was really, really good.

Speaker A: Yeah, amazing. And what is the best like under the radar restaurant right now?

Speaker B: There's a couple of um, Indian restaurants. I'm An Indian. And so Indian food is my kind of, like, my love. Really. Yes. Uh, and there's a. There's a couple of kind of really, um, good, like, kind of independent Indian restaurants that you can go to if. If you went to somewhere like Harrow or Kenton. Some really good places there that you. That will give you authentic Indian food. Uh, so. Yeah, something like one of those ones, perhaps.

Speaker A: Any names you remember of those or keeping your secrets?

Speaker B: There's. I'll tell you my dad's favorite one. Okay.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So my dad's favorite one is a restaurant called Rams in, uh, in, uh, Kenton Road in Harrow.

Speaker A: Nice.

Speaker B: He absolutely loves it because it's all you can eat buffet. Uh, and like, he just goes in and goes, right, I'll have everything.

Speaker A: Love it.

Speaker B: He just absolutely loves it.

Speaker A: Great.

Speaker B: Whenever it's his birthdays, his anniversary, anything, I'm like, where do you want to go? Any restaurant you want. He goes, I just want to go to Rams.

Speaker A: Amazing. We'll have to test out. Hopefully you'll still get a seat in there now. Yeah. Um, amazing. And do you have any, like, best cheap eats? If you're looking for. To not spend much.

Speaker B: There's a brand called skvp. Sri Krishna Vadapal.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: It's, um. It started off as one brand, like one branch in Hounslow, and it's. It's grown phenomenally over the last five, six years or so. Yeah. Food, um, is so reasonably priced, and it's really tasty. Um, they've now. It's really clever. So the guys that own it are really, really clever. What they've now done is they've started opening up within university campuses, knowing that there's a captive audience of people that want to try it. And the worst thing they could ever do is open one. Open opposite my office. And so now I. I am there all the time eating it. So it's really good.

Speaker A: That's good. It's so funny you say it, because I love that brand as well.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: The first time I went to, uh, Mumbai, I had Vadapav. And I was like, my friends will love this. Where do I get them? Um, went on the Internet place in Hanza, and I went and got about 20 of them. Got all my friends around. I could afford it. It was just after university. And I think probably very few of my friends had had a verba puff until that moment. And they stick in my mind. So that's really cool that you can.

Speaker B: It's a really good brand.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And they've just had some really good funding from a bigger kind of company, so that's allowed them to expand quite a bit.

Speaker A: Okay, cool. And is there a guilty pleasure kind of chain that you secretly love?

Speaker B: Pizza Hut was my. One of my favorites. My mum's favorite, in fact. So I told you about my dad's favorite. My mum, I work for Pretzel. Um, and, uh, I said to her, look, you know, free pizza.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, and although she liked it.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Her, like, top favorite has always been Pizza Hut.

Speaker A: Amazing.

Speaker B: So Pizza Hut is probably my. My guilty pleasure. They're closed now, so their dining restaurants are closed. So really the only other one I can think of is Burger King.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, it is a. They do like a, like a vegan Whopper or a veggie Whopper, which is just fantastic. It just feels like I used to eat meat when I was younger, and then I stopped when I got to about 13. I just realized what it was and what I was doing. Um, but I'm one of those people that likes meat substitutes, so people kind of go, why do you eat fake sausage? I like meat. I liked eating. I just don't agree with the principle.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So, yeah, I mean, burger is fantastic for that guilty food.

Speaker A: That's great. I'm going to add in the bonus question, which is, are there any of the brands of the, um, substitutes for meat that you. You, uh, stand by?

Speaker B: Linda McCartney's was probably my first kind of thing and holds a special place in my heart from a very young age. Um, I think, uh, Move M Mountains has got really big and it's really good. But there's a lot of own brand stuff now that is fantastic and just tastes just as good.

Speaker A: Amazing. Okay, I've got one final question for, for you, which is, is there one restaurant trend that you'd like to see disappear?

Speaker B: Uh, we've talked about a few of the things that today. So we talked about QR codes, which I don't think is going to disappear. A lot of the time. The consumer drives this kind of stuff and we. And even if you don't like it, if the consumer wants it, you have to have it, right?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Otherwise you're swimming upstream. Um, I think one of the things I don't like is if I go to a restaurant, one of the first things I'm asked is, uh, have I got a booking? Uh, and then have I got any allergies before I've even sat down, before I've even taken my coat off? And it just seemed like two real big blockers on a journey that might be fantastic. My. My experience has already started off quite negative with two real kind of brutal questions. Um, so I think moving that allergy question to a more safe space around a table with your family and friends rather than at the door.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Is probably, ah, something that I would like to see change.

Speaker A: That's cool. That's a really interesting one. Um, so thank you so much for your time, Mitz. It's been a really good conversation. I've learned a lot from you and I'm really excited to see what innovations you bring to Soho House over the next year or two. We'll keep an eye out for them. Um, if anyone wants to find Mits or share his details on LinkedIn, go and look at his content. He's always putting it out there. But yeah, thanks again for your time and we'll see you on the another episode.

Speaker B: Thank you so much for your time and the stuff we do at so House isn't a single thing. There's a massive team that work behind the scenes doing it. Um, and, yeah, just thanks to all of them for putting up with my crazy ideas, really. But thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate it. It's been fantastic, amazing.