The other day I heard a Thomas Aquinas quote that if the ultimate purpose of a ship’s captain were simply to preserve his ship, he would keep it safely in port forever.
Hospitality has had plenty of reasons to stay in port. It has been battered by a pandemic, inflation, labour shortages, soaring costs and a seemingly endless procession of new challenges. For many, simply staying afloat can feel like achievement enough.
But restaurants weren’t just built to sit safely in harbour – not all of them, anyway.
They exist to bring people together. They create jobs, careers, opportunities. They create experiences. They’re where deals get done and relationships flourish. They buy from farmers, growers, producers and countless other businesses. They occupy important spaces in our neighbourhoods and cities. And, at their best, they make people feel that life is just a little better for having walked through their doors.
The question The Purpose Restaurant Company, the vehicle I created a while back for my return to hospitality, has is a simple one: if restaurants have all this power, what else could we do with it?
Our new website provides the amuse bouche of how we begin to tackle that question.
All around us is unlocked talent and too much of that is locked up or locked away. We look at homeless people and think “it’s their own fault”. We look at women in a sari or a hijab and think “don’t belong here”. We look at a prison leaver and think “never going to change”. Hospitality is great at employing black people – as kitchen porters and cleaners. How many do you see working in a smart restaurant in a suit or in head chef gear?
We believe commercial success and social purpose don’t have to sit on opposite sides of the table. They’re not even two sides of the same coin; when thoughtfully constructed and executed, they are one coin. A restaurant can serve extraordinary food, deliver great hospitality, make money and at the same time deliberately and concertedly improve the lives of the people and communities around it.
That’s what we’ll be navigating toward.
The ship is preparing to leave port.