Wok stars
In 1969 Jim Thompson, a former agent for the American Office of Strategic Services for Thailand (the precursor to the CIA), disappeared without trace while on a walk in the Cameron Highlands of Central Malaysia. Despite extensive searches, his body was never found. What happened to him has remained a mystery to this day.
It was a blow for Thailand at the time, the country where the American had lived since the 1950s and where he had single-handedly transformed and commercialised the Thai silk industry. In Bangkok, Thompson had become a celebrated resident and one of the few foreigners to receive the Order of the White Elephant for services to the country.
Thompson's disappearance happened 34 years ago and yet his name lives on as a Thai symbol in the UK as much as in Thailand. In 1994, Tony Carson, restaurateur and son of comedian Frank Carson, inspired by the story after a trip to Thailand, named his first Oriental bar and restaurant in London's King's Road after the man. The restaurant sold paraphernalia and trinkets from the Far East as well as classic Thai dishes. It was an immediate success, leading to a rapid expansion to eight sites.
And there the group stayed until 2000, when Noble House Leisure bought the company. Two years later, it recruited former Sainsbury's restaurant division manager Adam Elliott to act as a driving force behind a huge expansion programme, something the management was convinced Jim Thompson's deserved. "When Noble House bought the group, the Jim Thompson's estate was fairly mature, and yet the drive for expansion and growth was lacking," Elliott says. "It was an untapped market and unmarketed, running along but with no energy. When I first got to Noble House, the fact that there was a restaurant called Jim Thompson's was news to me.
"I could see there was a great opportunity to expand. Indian food has always been there at the top, but now Thai green curry is in the top 10 favourite British dishes. I think over the next 12 or 18 months, awareness of Thai and Oriental food will increase even more. There's a market out there."
By the end of 2002, Elliott had nearly doubled the estate to 14, but the food, he acknowledges, was poor, standards had slipped, quality was variable and ready-made cooking sauces were being brought in. His priority was to bring the quality back. "I realised that we had to go back to basics, back to scratch cooking with everything made in house and on site," he says. "Thai food is about making it there and then to get the colour and the taste. You can't create an authentic Thai dish without that."
Elliott brought in Tamas Khan, a Laotian chef, to create a new menu of Thai, Vietnamese and Malaysian dishes, to hire a team of 100 Thai chefs and to put a consistent system in place. Elliott is currently talking to Thai authorities to bring chefs to the UK and is embarking on a sophisticated training programme for them.
"We're being very adventurous," he says. "My chefs are all Thai housewives who come to cook for us with their own slant on traditional dishes. I'm allowing that to happen within a boundary. Yes, we're consistent throughout the brand but each dish might be slightly different and that's what makes us unique." The new Jim Thompson's menu is being launched on a staggered basis. Alongside traditional favourites like Thai green curry, Khan has introduced more seafood and fish, with new dishes like chilli crab claws, Vietnamese spring rolls, spicy papaya salad, roti bread and sticky rice pudding with guava.
A wok station now stands in the middle of each restaurant so the wok chefs are visible. "You get the theatre of the flames, the passion and the smells of the cooking. You are suddenly part of the entertainment of the evening," Elliott says.
Business is good. Booking at certain restaurants is now essential, particularly in the evenings. Lunchtime trade could be improved, Elliott says, but weekend lunchtime buffets and special lunchtime deals are being introduced to boost trade.
Elliott is pleased with the results to date. "Before, we did reasonable food, brought it to the table, made sure everyone was reasonably happy. We brought the wine to the table but there were no sell-ups, no recommendations and no ‘wow' factor. Now I actually believe we're delivering."
Noble House's expansion programme doesn't stop there. There are plans for a further 14 sites over the next two years, although for now Elliott is happy to consolidate his progress so far. "We are always planning more, but now it's time to take a breather and see exactly what we've got and what works," he says. "Then we'll take that package and really run with it."
Tiger Lil's
Far Eastern street markets and woks over flaming oil drums inspired founder Alan Lorimer to set up Tiger Lil's in 1996.
The concept is simple - diners select food from a display of raw ingredients, including chicken, pork, fish, ribs, beef, tofu, pak choi and lily flowers. The food is taken up to a wok chef, who stir-fries it with a choice of sauces. For £12.50 diners return as often as they want to the wok station and are served a limitless supply of jasmine rice at the table.
The concept caught on. After the first site in Clapham, south London, was opened in 1996, two more followed in Islington and Bayswater a year later. Each restaurant does about 1,200 covers a week at about £18 a head.
"Seven years ago this was a unique concept and was unheard-of," operations manager Louise Duncan says. "And it's still as popular as it was, which is incredible as there haven't been many changes in those seven years."
It's all change now, however. The company is embarking on an ambitious expansion programme and is planning to open 30 restaurants in five years. But first a few tweaks are needed to ensure success.
Duncan was brought in to oversee the group during the roll-out and ensure profitability. "The menu needed to be more flexible, the service needs an overhaul and the decor is due for an update," she says.
For the first time, Tiger Lil's is offering an à la carte menu, and customers can now be served at the table from a choice of 15 dishes.
"At the moment Tiger Lil's is all about creating your own meals and many people don't always choose the right thing," Duncan says. "We didn't want to get away from the theatre but now we are bringing dishes to the table if our customers want it. The à la carte makes us flexible and helps our pricing."
Reaction to the new menu has been good, with a 25% customer uptake. Spend per head has been unaffected, as wine sales have gone up with the à la carte menu.
The next stage involves changing the atmosphere, with new graphics aimed at the 18-30 age group on walls and menus, and promotional launches. "We'll be creating the energy and feel of a street market," says Duncan, who is confident of success.
"This is a concept with a lot of legs. I think London is at saturation point, but there's great potential in the suburbs. It's the start of the expansion that'll turn Tiger Lil's into a major player."
Owner: Chris Turrell
Locations: Clapham Common, Islington and Bayswater, all in London
Expansion programme: Increasing to 30 sites in three years
Weekly covers: 1,200-1,500
Average spend: £18
Staff: 80
Selected dishes: Tempura tiger prawns, £4.90; chicken dumplings, £3.20; honey black-peppered beef, £7.20; skewered chicken teriyaki, £6.90; Thai green curry, £6.20
Café Mao
Walking down the King's Road in London eight years ago, Graham Campbell and his wife Rosie came across a Thai fast-food restaurant with a queue outside. They were impressed, not just by the menu and the queue, but also by the minimalist decor. As Campbell says: "There was nothing like it back home [Ireland]. Oriental food there always meant sticky carpets, flock wallpaper and surly waiters."
Inspired, the couple, with no experience as restaurateurs - they were importers of sisal and seagrass floor-covering at the time - decided to bring the concept back to Dublin. With the help of partner Ronald Reilly, they opened their own Oriental fusion restaurant in November 1997.
Caf‚ Mao was unveiled with an open kitchen under chef Donald Flanagan, who had trained under a Vietnamese chef. The 125-seat eatery offered a menu of Asian fusion food in wood-floored and white-walled minimalist surroundings, with the first imported Asian beers in Ireland - Tiger, Tsingtao, Kirin and Cobra.
Traditional dishes hail from China, Malaysia, Thailand and Korea, and take no prisoners when it comes to heat. "We didn't want to compromise the Irish palate and bring chilli levels down," Campbell says. "We are constantly being complimented on our authenticity, and that's important to us. People are travelling more in the Far East and know what's authentic and what isn't."
In Dublin Campbell had found an untapped market and a niche for his restaurant. The Chatham Row restaurant now does an average of 2,300 to 2,500 covers a week with an average spend of g20 (£14). "The concept caused an immediate stir in Dublin because there was nothing like it," Campbell recalls. "We got a write-up in the Irish Times and since that day we've never looked back."
A year later Campbell decided to see if the brand "had legs" elsewhere. He opened his Glasgow site four years ago. The Merchant City area was cheap - Campbell paid £500,000 for the freehold - and it took three years to take off, but it's now "fantastically successful". Weekly covers are about 1,200-1,400, with average spend at £18 a head.
Campbell opened the Dún Laoghaire site (pictured opposite page) in Dublin a year later. Two more sites, in Edinburgh and Belfast, are due to open next year. A third site in Dublin, Dundrum town centre, will open in 2005.
Yet Campbell is dubious about going into England just yet. "The figures will have to stack up in the area we're targeting and there must be nothing else around like us. We can't afford a failure, but we have umpteen applicants for franchises. We're far down the road negotiating a Mao in Dubai, as well as Brussels and Copenhagen."
Carpet salesman-turned-restaurateur Campbell says there's no secret to what he's doing: "We have a very good quality product at a good price point and we haven't deviated. It's also unbelievably tasty and healthy and good fun - you come in and it's a good craic."
Launched: 1997
Owners: Graham Campbell, Rosie Campbell and Ronald Flanagan
Locations: Chatham Row and Dún Laoghaire, Dublin; Merchant City, Glasgow
Expansion programme: three sites - in Edinburgh, Belfast and Dublin. Negotiating franchise deals in Dubai, Brussels and Copenhagen
Staff: Ireland 100; Glasgow 40
Average spend: £18
Weekly covers: 2,300 average in Ireland; 1,200 in Scotland
Selected dishes: Chilli squid, £5.50; green papaya salad, £4.50; teppenyaki, £4.95; shaoxing duck, £8.95; roast pumpkin, vegetable and fennel seed curry, £7.95; laksa lemac, £9.50
Jim Thompson's
Owner: Noble House Leisure
Launched: 1994
Locations: Brighton, Camberley, Chislehurst, Croydon, Ewell, Fulham, Oxford Street (London), Putney, St Albans, Wimbledon, Winchmore Hill, Cheltenham, Manchester, Bristol
Expansion programme: 14 more sites over the next two years
Average spend: £18 including wine
Staff: 680
Projected turnover: £14m for year ending 2004
Selected dishes: Thai classic fish cakes, £4.95; Singapore laksa, £8.85; monkfish curry, £8.85; sambal curry lamb meatballs, £8.85
