Wild about Harry's
Harry's in Colchester is no ordinary restaurant. It is a bar, nightclub, live music venue and a comedy club all rolled into one. Indeed, to give it its rightful name, it's Harry's Club Brasserie. Owner Gary Wright believes there are few if any like it elsewhere in the UK.
Wright, 38, was tired of going out for an evening and having to leave a restaurant, drive or walk through town to a nightclub and then pay £6-plus to get in for drinks for the rest of the evening. The former banker decided that 25- to 50-year-olds needed somewhere that combined quality food with good entertainment.
The club-brasserie is in a leafy business park on the outskirts of Colchester, Essex, a stone's throw from a new residential development. The business park provides good lunchtime custom for the 150-seat brasserie, with an average of 40-50 covers served on weekdays. The nearby houses provide some of the evening custom. Wright estimates the average spend is £37, with 550 covers a week during the evening.
From August 2001 to September 2002 Harry's turned over £730,000. Next year Wright has forecast revenue will be £1m. It's an obvious Christmas party venue, and Wright reckons Harry's will take about £200,000 in December this year alone, with many of last year's guests returning.
But it has not been plain sailing, and Wright's tale should bring comfort to would-be entrepreneurs who encounter stumbling blocks on the path to success.
He acquired the lease in 1998 for a total cost of £100,000, and because the venue already had a late-opening licence, Wright assumed he would have little difficulty securing another one. The magistrates turned him down.
Without the licence Wright had to open a licensed restaurant that he called Chez Bou. He didn't want to use the Harry's name when it wasn't the venue he planned, and he wanted a sophisticated name that would discourage the previous owner's nightclub clientele.
Meanwhile, he set about challenging the decision at the Crown Court, doing much of the research himself to save on solicitors' fees. He had studied law after his banking career, which gave him the know-how on where to look and how to brief his lawyers. He successfully argued that the magistrates' original decision was unlawful, the Crown Court overturned it and he received his licence.
It enabled Harry's to be a food operation during the day, yet still hold a late licence and a public entertainment licence for the nightclub aspect later in the evening. It took Wright until 2000 to win the court case and finally last year he relaunched as Harry's.
Some may wonder how Wright has survived with so little experience in the hospitality trade, but he believes his previous experience was invaluable. "If I didn't have the banking and law backgrounds, this business wouldn't have survived," he says.
But even a fiscal background did not prevent errors in the early days. Checking deliveries is a case in point, Wright says. While the delivery items were checked against the order, the prices were not. So chicken breasts at 78p each might arrive at £1.20 and not be noticed. Or fish could arrive underweight, meaning a double portion would have to be served to customers, destroying the gross profit targets Wright had set up.
Earlier this year, Wright had to part company with his general manager for not being on top of such situations, promoting deputy general manager Matt Sullivan to the top position. Sullivan has been at Harry's for two years, having trained originally as an electrician. Now the average gross profit is 67%.
Knowing there was a demand for the product was one thing, but getting people to pay for it has been more difficult than Wright anticipated. There's seating inside for 150-200 depending on the table layout, and a further 200 seats outside. Wright plans to build a conservatory in the spring to enable the outdoor seating to become more permanent.
There is no door charge at weekends when there's entertainment, but there's a minimum £10 food charge per person. The entertainment charge comes through the food prices, but Wright has been surprised at how price-sensitive people are when it comes to food.
There are two fixed-price menus of £10 and £13.95 on Friday and Saturday. These are discounted to £6.99 and £12 on weekdays. At weekends these menus help to subsidise the music and entertainment.
Initially, Wright says everyone ate from the fixed-price menu, which had items the local clientele were familiar with, such as prawn cocktail, soup, chicken goujons or fish and chips, chicken with risotto, or pasta with pork and mushrooms.
Now, Wright says, customers are becoming more adventurous and starting to try the … la carte menu, which offers nine starters, nine main courses and eight dessert options. Starters include sliced duck with pork and apricot (£4.25), and lobster with Thai spices (£12.95), while mains include roasted poussin (£11.95), and oven-roasted golden trout with grapes and Pernod (£14.95).
The food-to-drink ratio is currently 40:60, but Wright hopes this will reach 50:50.
Ultimately, Wright believes there is a chain with perhaps 50 venues nationally in Harry's, but despite his success, he knows he has to overcome several hurdles before number two comes along. The current economic climate means properties that would be suitable are too highly priced, with a seven- to 10-year payback, or have too short a lease. Ideally, Wright wants a long lease and a three- to five-year payback.
More serious, however, is finding the right staff. Harry's employs the equivalent of 30 full-time staff, seven of whom are in the kitchen. All the food is made on the premises, with most supplies coming in as raw ingredients, although a few speciality breads are bought in. Having established his brigade, Wright would be reluctant to split them up to open a second venue.
He has promoted his sous chef to work at another restaurant he owns in the centre of Colchester called G2, and so he is now recruiting a new sous chef for Harry's. But after ads in local papers and on radio he has not seen anyone suitable. He is also disillusioned with using students from the local college, the Colchester Institute.
"If the student gets an overseas placement they're off - you can't blame the student for wanting to go, but they leave at a moment's notice and it really leaves us in the lurch. The college doesn't care and can't help us replace them either," he sighs. Wright has realised that training his own team is the only way forward, and is setting up a training scheme with Sullivan.
Financing the next move is also an issue, and his banking training makes him naturally cautious. He admits there have been a few approaches from pub chains interested in buying the name and venue, and he admits the idea is tempting.
"It would be easier for a national chain to pay me to do this or buy it from me," he says. But so far none of the offers has been quite right, and Wright is a little reluctant to share his idea just yet.
So he's still scouting for the perfect next venue, with Cambridge and Norwich his favoured destinations. With more venues he hopes he would find it easier to deliver the message about exactly what Harry's has to offer. The nightclub brasserie concept isn't always easy to convey in words, and Wright believes only television advertising will bring the desired response. But this is expensive, and until Wright has more than one venue, he cannot justify the cost.
In the meantime, he continues to evolve his concept. Previously open for Sunday lunch only, Harry's is starting to stage live entertainment on Sunday evenings with tapas-style food. Jazz, comedy and live rock will rotate on a monthly basis, and Wright is still thinking about a fourth option.
Right now, however, he has just one thing on his mind - relaxing on holiday in Portugal before the busy festive season.
Harry's Club Brasserie
The Crescent, Colchester Business Park, Essex
Tel: 01206 518518
Owner: Gary Wright
General manager: Matt Sullivan
Staff: 30 full-time equivalents; seven in the kitchen
Turnover: £730,000
Average spend: £37
Seats: 150-200 inside; 200 outside
Covers: 830 per week
