What are the feelings a week before opening?
How do you want people to think about Boiler & Co?
We are defined as a gastro and cocktail bar placing equal emphasis on the skills of the chefs, bartenders and baristas.
The chef is a two Michelin star chef, our coffee supplier Kiss The Hippo competes in the Coffee Masters Champion and is the UK barista champion 2018/2019 (no competitions in 2020) and the drinks menu has been written by cofounder Adam Carr who was a World Class Cocktail Judge.
Ultimately we want to be a welcoming and comfortable place for people to come together all day, from coffee in the mornings until late at night.
Any advice to someone opening the bar following your experience to this point?
Make sure you have an operating model that can work even on much lower-than-expected capacities, we call it a worst-case scenario, for example, we expected to be open late last year but delays in materials meant we couldn’t open until January but had been factored in.
Since we started the plans for this build the raw material costs have tripled, the shipping costs have increased and when suppliers add their margin it really adds up. We have taken a really conservative approach, gradually opening the building stage by stage and running below venue capacity so we can build the team as the business grows, it is easy to get excited and launch all-out from day 1 which is a risky strategy.
We walked away from three venues that we liked in Farringdon, Old Street and Kingsland Road, they were all sought after locations and we’d invested financially and emotionally in a couple of them but we couldn’t get the right terms and so put the business plan above any emotional attachment.
For people looking to experience Boiler and Company the Tasting Menu launches on 26.01.21, the ground floor bar will be opening early February and the upstairs opening shortly after.
Location: Blue Fin Bldg, Southwark St, London SE1 9AN
