Hospitality Meets... with Phil Street

What pairs beautifully with a £250 bottle of Californian wine?
Apparently, a proper dirty kebab at two o’clock in the morning.
For Bradley Dorrington, co-owner of The Wine Cellar in Bury St Edmunds, that particular combination perfectly captures hospitality: great drinks, questionable late night food and hours spent putting the world to rights with somebody else from the industry.
Bradley opened The Wine Cellar at just 25, after abandoning the traditional university route, turning down an apprenticeship with a space company and throwing himself into hospitality instead.
Four years and more than 50,000 guests later, the doors are still very much open (despite one Facebook critic confidently declaring that “wine bars are so eighties” and would never work)
We Cover
Why hospitality is an industry that finds you
Turning down a career in the space industry for pubs, hotels and wine
Building The Wine Cellar in just six weeks
Not sleeping for six days before opening
Launching a business at 25 and learning to ignore the noise
The customer who asked Bradley to sort out her 26-year-old son
Naming his daughter Margaux after Château Margaux - and attempting to make her tax deductible
Drinking £250 wine with a dirty kebab at 2am
Why genuine hospitality is about far more than service
Imposter syndrome and remembering that you earned your place in the room
Facebook’s Tony and his prediction that wine bars would never work
Weddings, night porters and unexplained happenings at Chilston Park
Why Bradley believes hospitality should be taken seriously as a career

Quotables
“Hospitality is an industry that finds you. You don’t necessarily find it.”
“This is hospitality. I can’t explain it any more than this.”
“I think it kind of almost makes her tax deductible as well, which is quite nice.”
“Wine bars are so eighties. Never gonna work.”
“You’re only as good as your last service. You’re only as good as your last glass of wine you poured.”
Final Observation
For all the entrepreneurial drive in Bradley’s story, the thing that comes through most strongly is how much he simply loves hospitality.
The people. The stories. The late nights. The community. The ridiculous moments that become memories years later.
Near the end of the conversation, Bradley sums it up better than we possibly could:
Hospitality makes memories, happiness, laughter, conversation and friendships.
Sometimes it also makes a £250 bottle of wine taste perfectly appropriate alongside a dirty kebab.
And frankly, we’re completely on board with that.
Show Partner
A big shout out to today’s show partner, RotaCloud — the people management platform built specifically for shift-based teams.
RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from one simple, web-based app.
It also makes life easier for teams, allowing staff to check rotas, request holiday, and pick up extra shifts directly from their phones.
To find out more, head to RotaCloud

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Christian Wiens spent his teenage years working in restaurants where, on particularly frantic days, they occasionally dealt with the constantly ringing phone by simply ripping it out of the wall.
Years later, after a career building and growing technology businesses, that particular hospitality headache came back into view.
The result is Loman.AI - voice AI built to answer restaurant calls, take orders, make reservations and generally allow the humans inside the restaurant to concentrate on the humans standing in front of them.
Today it handles millions of calls across more than 1,500 customers.
The journey there has involved manually checking restaurant orders, walking around a zoo carrying three phones, personally buying customers’ food when the AI got something wrong and discovering that even the best sales process in the world is powerless against Mercury being in retrograde.
We Cover
Growing up working in restaurants
Building startups before any of them actually worked
Why modern AI has dramatically lowered the barrier to creating software
The difference between an impressive AI demo and technology a restaurant can genuinely rely on
Why Loman.AI tackled the difficult problem of order taking first
Walking around a zoo monitoring restaurant orders on multiple phones
Personally paying for customer meals when the early technology got things wrong
The restaurant owner who finally got to take his children trick or treating
Why Christian still personally gets involved in customer support
Whether customers actually care if they are speaking to AI
Hospitality as an innovation frontier rather than a legacy industry
And the customer who refused to make a business decision because Mercury was in retrograde

Quotables
“We ripped the phone out of the wall so many times.”
“There’s never been an easier time to build a company.”
“I used to check all of the orders myself.”
“I haven’t been able to go take the kids trick or treating… I was able to do that this year because the phones were handled.”
“I’m definitely interested, but I’m not making any business decisions because Mercury is in retrograde.”
Final Observation
For all the conversation about AI, models, integrations and automation, the most powerful moment in this episode is surprisingly human.
A restaurant owner gets Halloween back with his children because technology took one persistent source of operational pressure away.
That feels like the interesting promise of restaurant technology when it is done properly.
Not replacing hospitality.
Not removing people.
Removing enough of the noise that those people have more time to actually provide it.
Although apparently even artificial intelligence cannot yet overcome the gravitational influence of Mercury.
Show Partner
A big shout out to today’s show partner, RotaCloud — the people management platform built specifically for shift-based teams.
RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from one simple, web-based app.
It also makes life easier for teams, allowing staff to check rotas, request holiday, and pick up extra shifts directly from their phones.
To find out more, head to RotaCloud

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Hannah Swarbrick-Done followed a boy to Thailand with dreams of an idyllic island life.
The relationship lasted approximately one weekend.
Hannah stayed for two years.
What followed included living in a house made from bottles, running one of the world’s largest pub crawls, guiding travellers around Thailand and becoming sufficiently relaxed about footwear that she once wore two left flip-flops without noticing.
Eventually, Hannah returned to Manchester with plans for her own hostel, including the uniforms, interiors and complete guest experience.
There was just one minor omission.
A business plan.
Today, she is the founder of The Yellow Group, helping hospitality businesses align their people strategy with their plans for growth - while also building AI tools, employing a virtual non-executive director called Simon and developing a highly influential golf account with nearly 400 followers.
We Cover
Following that boy to Thailand - and outlasting the relationship by nearly two years
Travel
Designing an entire hostel before learning how to operate one
The leader who asked Hannah one simple, career-changing question
Why promoting somebody is pointless unless you also build the support around them
The difference between holding a leadership title and actually leading
Why hospitality develops skills that transfer far beyond operations
Being told she was “not very good with data”
How AI removed the barrier between Hannah and the story inside the numbers
Creating Simon, her AI non-executive director
Building The Yellow Group as a collaborative people consultancy
Becoming a professional golfer and part-time influencer

Quotables
“I did follow a boy.”
“I had everything, honestly. It was everything but a business plan.”
“At one point I realised I was wearing flip-flops - the two left feet ones.”
“There are managers, and there are people who are leaders by job role. But an actual leader? They’re not common.”
“I am the funniest thing that happens to me.”
Final Observation
Hannah describes her career as a winding journey, but there is a wonderfully clear thread running through it.
Travel taught her to understand people. Hospitality taught her to support them. One excellent leader noticed what she did naturally and gave her the structure to build a career around it.
Now, Hannah is doing the same for businesses: finding the gaps between what they want to achieve and what their people actually need to succeed.
She may not believe in five-year plans, but she has built something far more useful - curiosity, adaptability and an apparently endless willingness to try the next interesting thing.
Even when that thing is golf.
Show Partner
A big shout out to today’s show partner, RotaCloud — the people management platform built specifically for shift-based teams.
RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from one simple, web-based app.
It also makes life easier for teams, allowing staff to check rotas, request holiday, and pick up extra shifts directly from their phones.
To find out more, head to RotaCloud

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

What happens when a morning person who dreams of opening a coffee shop joins forces with a night person who wants a cocktail bar?
Naturally, they rope in their chef mother, add a fiancé with experience in marketing and finance, and open a Greek Mediterranean restaurant together.
This is the story of Eirini Tamousi and Nectar: a family business that took four years, several false starts, disappearing investors and a last piece of finance arriving one day before the deadline to become real.
Then came opening week.
It was, by Eirini’s own account, chaos and in fact her words before we started the chat - "I don't even know where to start"
But amidst the chaos, It was also the beginning of something rather special.
We Cover
Falling into hospitality while studying in Edinburgh
Leaving the industry for corporate HR, and missing its energy
Combining one family’s very different skills
Trying repeatedly to secure the money to open Nectar
Receiving the final finance one day before the deadline
Protecting a family relationship while building a family business
The danger of expecting people to know when you need help
Opening a restaurant without a working fryer or grill
Asking neighbouring businesses whether they had seen your bins
Why honesty during a disaster can build customer loyalty
Reaching more than 300 five star reviews in the first year
Creating a restaurant that feels less like a venue and more like home

Quotables
“We were living it without actually knowing if it was going to work out.”
“People don’t know what’s in your head, funny enough. Unless you tell them.”
“You told me there’s no food, but I can have alcohol.”
“I didn’t know our bins were going to fly away.”
“The things that feel like big setbacks in the moment are quite often the things that shape you the most.”
Final Observation
There is a polished version of entrepreneurship in which somebody has a brilliant idea, raises the money, opens the doors and confidently begins building an empire.
This is not that story.
This is four people repeatedly questioning whether they should continue, learning how not to destroy their family under pressure, opening without the ability to serve food and searching the streets of Edinburgh for wind assisted bins.
But it is also a story about what happens when people keep choosing the thing they believe in.
Almost one year later, Nectar has become exactly what the family hoped it might be: warm, imperfect, honest and full of people who keep coming back.
Hopefully, by the time Phil visits, it will also have food.
Show Partner
A big shout out to today’s show partner, RotaCloud - the people management platform built specifically for shift-based teams.
RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from one simple, web-based app.
It also makes life easier for teams, allowing staff to check rotas, request holiday, and pick up extra shifts directly from their phones.
To find out more, head to RotaCloud

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

The story of the office that smells like itself
What do university ASBOs, Stash Monkey, Sarah Beeny, private equity cold calls and an office with its own recognisable smell have in common?
They all feature in the unconventional journey of Chris Davies, CEO of flexible office brand Uncommon.
Recorded inside Uncommon’s Fulham podcast studio, after Chris and Phil had already used up most of the good material during an hour-long pre-podcast chat, the conversation explores accidental entrepreneurship, yellow energy and the value of making decisions before certainty finally arrives.
Chris also invents the word “Un-Starbucks-ise,” reveals why his university time resulted in an actual legal threat and casually announces that he would eventually like to create a hotel brand.
Naturally, we made a note of that.
We Cover
Why every Uncommon building looks different but somehow feels the same
Recognising an office by its smell
The university business that nearly earned Chris an institutional ASBO
Being sued over the name Stash Monkey
Why your dream investor should not receive your first-ever pitch
Making decisions when you are only 51% certain
The joy and danger of filling a business with yellow energy people
Why a company is a team rather than a family
Learning to manage the energy you bring into a room
The hospitality stories that definitely cannot be shared publicly
Saunas, ice baths and Chris’s future hotel ambitions

Quotables
“People need to think of time as a resource.”
“You kind of don’t want your best shot to be your first one.”
“We’re a team. We’re not a family.”
“People can be odd.”
“I like doing, in my personal life, as many reckless things as possible because I think it makes me feel alive.”
Final Observation
Uncommon began as a happy accident: a residential development that failed at planning and became an experiment in creating somewhere people might actually enjoy working.
But what followed was not accidental.
It took uncomfortable calls, imperfect pitches, wrong decisions, difficult conversations and a willingness to move while only 51% certain.
The result is a growing business with five distinctive locations, a strong hospitality instinct and an office brand that Phil can apparently identify with his nose before he has even reached reception.
Which is either excellent branding or the beginning of a very niche superpower.
Show Partner
A big shout out to today’s show partner, RotaCloud — the people management platform built specifically for shift-based teams.
RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from one simple, web-based app.
It also makes life easier for teams, allowing staff to check rotas, request holiday, and pick up extra shifts directly from their phones.
To find out more, head to RotaCloud

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy