Europe’s biggest poke restaurant chain Poke House has reached double digits with its UK portfolio following the brand’s latest opening at London’s iconic Battersea Power Station. Newly-appointed UK co-country head, Robert Wickenden, tells FEJ about the chain’s plans to continue rolling out stores across the UK, the importance of sourcing the most energy efficient catering equipment, and why robots are not necessarily suited to the chain’s ‘poke artist’ service formula.
How has Poke House been aiming to expand its estate in the UK and what have been some of the biggest challenges during your roll-out in the country? I have worked in F&B for 17 years, give or take, and the challenges transcend the brand. For the UK market, London is where you go. It is a totally different beast when you compare it to the rest of the UK. Some of the other major towns or cities are at pace and will come onto our radar in the future. So the focus has been London, we have got a variety of locations, and I think with that variety – we have got five-day, six-day and seven-day locations – you’re in a test phase to understand who is your consumer and who are the ones who try it once and come back, who are your loyal consumers? We have a very interesting set up, in so much as in store is more daytime but then delivery is more evening. It’s a trend that flows across everywhere. We are still honing where we want to take a site. Obviously sitting in is much better, eating out of a ceramic bowl is much better. You’re getting it fresh off the line and the rice is warm so you’re moving away from that sushi offer. Us English and the inclement weather that we have constantly, sometimes you need a little hug in a bowl. You’ve also got the health and the colour that sits on top of it, that works best in store, and it’s not a small portion. You’ve got the ginger oil, the honey and mustard, teriyaki, soy, so you have got a variety of things to put on top that change the feel really. In terms of the first few sites, we’ve got some absolutely brilliant sites, I love all of them and think they are all great. Bank in London, for example, there are a lot of employees around there, so less evening trade and less weekend trade, whereas here in the heart of Covent Garden, it’s a seven-day pitch. It starts at 11am and you get some hungry tourists in. We’ve got a good variety and ultimately a lovely product that we can offer at all times. It’s interesting that we get more deliveries in the evening than we do at lunchtime and I think that’s by the very nature of where we are located at the moment. We’ve got Portobello Road and that is a different environment to this one, to Bank, and to St Paul’s, so we are learning something from every site that we take. We have expectations but there are always surprises that come out of any site we take. That is the key thing for our expansion plans as we continue to move forward. Grey Ceramic Dinner Plates
With inflation and supply issues hitting the industry hard this year, how have you tried to mitigate against rising food and ingredients prices? How have you adapted your menus as a result of this? It’s difficult isn’t it, because sometimes you have to hedge and you agree contracts with suppliers, but when those contracts come off, what we don’t want to ever do is compromise quality. So everything in that bowl is fresh. Our avocados are fresh, our salmon is all fresh, our pineapples and likewise with our mangos. I was at the central production kitchen we have just this morning and looking at all of the suppliers that bring goods to us. There are obviously pains, and we are hesitant to pass that on to the consumer, but at the end of the day it is what it is. We understand there is a cost of living crisis and we are trying to do everything that we can to mitigate it, but ultimately we might have to in the future, so we’re looking at ways that we can make it easier, because the price is what it is for everyone. There are frozen avocados out there but we don’t use those because we believe you get a better product with the fresh produce. You want to get as many nutrients into that bowl as possible.
How tough is it to maintain standards across the chain’s sites in terms of chef training and development? We have different ideas and thoughts of what we should do. It would be great to have people chopping ingredients behind the till but we are restricted in terms of space and layout, so it’s about implementing things slightly differently, reviewing everything and seeing where we can pass on the savings. It is a difficult balance to find, because especially in London, there is an element of recession-proof. I was working in 2008 in town and you wouldn’t think there was a financial crisis at that point. We are lucky we are in an area which is slightly less pressured on price rises. In other locations, it is pretty hard work. It’s about making sure we are perceived as good value. What I mean by good value is not how cheap it is, but the quality, the experience, the whole shebang. We are making sure that the whole experience is still great value. You do that by using fresh produce, using good quality products, to make sure that people enjoy what you’re providing for them.
What are some of the latest kitchen equipment innovations you are using across your sites and how have these helped you achieve your sustainability goals? With the price of electric and all of those things, we are looking for the most energy efficient operation. We do have a lot of lights, so getting the energy bulbs in to offer the right experience when you’re dining in is important. We have to chill and warm our products, so it is about looking to make sure that we’re not comprising by what we are using, but we want to make sure we try and drive down those costs. Costs we can save here means we don’t have to put the price on to the consumer, and ultimately that is what we want to do. Obviously our service has to be top quality, and we look at all of the items in here to make sure we are cost saving, efficient, and not impacting ourselves. We’ve got quite a simple line, it needs a display to keep it at the right offer for everyone. We will be reviewing those to make sure we have got the best. There is lots of equipment that goes in here, even though we are not actually cooking on site. There is work to be done but it’s about making sure it’s efficient when staff are using it and when it is idling. It’s a methodology of just understanding which fridges need to be open more than others. It’s about being sensible. We will keep monitoring and making sure we are in front.
Across the company, how are you looking to improve sustainability efforts and cut down on carbon emissions, or food waste and other types of kitchen waste? These are the things that are very important to consumers, and obviously waste is not a good thing, so we try and make it as small as possible. Making sure all the lights aren’t on and everything like that. At Poke House, the actual colours that we use are the sea, and the logo also shows salmon and tuna, and a sunset, so it’s at the forefront of what we do and what we are trying to create, with the California theme and the vines in store. It is important to us to make sure that we have the right message for what we want to do. There are initiatives at the moment where we are looking at what we can do.
How do you seek inspiration for the menu design process and what are some of the biggest challenges you encounter when putting menus together? We’ve got our set bowls and those are designed and set up to maximise flavours. The seasonal bowls we have, it goes through testing, it goes through tasting and it goes through all the processes you would expect to make sure that every bite is different, every bite is full of flavour. That’s the whole point. Adding things on top can give you that extra crunch, that extra flavour. I think the beauty of our offer is that you have things that are warm, things that are cold, spicy and mild. Things that are soft, things that are crunchy, and when you bring them all together and you top them with the sauces, that can change up a bowl massively. All of our house bowls are just fantastic but then we will also give you the option to change. You can have fresh seaweed, dried seaweed, you can have both at the same time. You can make it what you want it to be. We’ve got sweet, we’ve got savoury, we’ve got everything, so mango, pineapple, you can stick it all into a bowl. We’ve got acai bowls. You can get avocado on toast. So we have this massive variety. The great debate of putting pineapple on a pizza, do you like it? Do you not? With this there isn’t that, you can do whatever you want.
Has having that customisable option given you a more diverse demographic of customers? Ultimately, this is a healthy offer. It is fresh and it is healthy, so it appeals to everyone. It provides that blend of different food types – a rainbow bowl. You’ve got all the herbs and spices so everything that works well together, so you are getting a great variety without even really thinking about it, that crosses all of the groups. It’s about making healthy food tasty and that’s possible. We are doing it.
How can equipment suppliers help operators to cut operating costs in the kitchen and is there anything you would like to see from suppliers to support restaurants? For us, people still want to be served by people. You don’t just want a robot. I think you can definitely have technology helping you and there are things we are working on that we are looking to do on the service side of things, but ultimately this is quite a hands on operation, with the customisation. I would ask staff, ‘what do you recommend?’, because they will have tried the thing. ‘Does that go together?’. So that kind of helping can sometimes be easy, but for those who know what they want, they have technology and type in what they want and they’re done. So it really depends on the push of what consumers are deciding they want. I suppose that innovation is more in efficiencies. We know what we need, and that is the chilling and keeping things warm, and as a consequence it is those things being more efficient in their performance. Staff recruitment is tough at the moment but they are the bridge between the consumer and us. We call them the Poke House artists because it is about building that bowl, setting it up and if customers want to ask questions about what works, they can get an answer. And that is what you want.
How has the launch of your new Battersea Power Station site been received? We are trading well. Again it is a different location. Office occupiers are moving in and more places are open, and it is that beautiful honeypot of where you can work, live and relax. It’s a wonderful offer and I think people really enjoy going there. People go over and come from quite a large radius, but that is the hub that they go to. We trade seven days a week and it’s great actually. We are very pleased with it. The only thing I wish is that we had a bit more space. We have less seating than here (Covent Garden) because it is a smaller site, but we are trading well and long may it continue.
What other expansion plans does the chain have in its sights? It is a difficult time for everyone. A lot of people are sort of anchoring down and saying, right, we will ride this out. So their expansion plans have been put on hold. But we want to look for those locations that suit. We are conscious of where we take sites – we have an expansion plan. There are areas that are not covered currently. The beauty is we have the in-store offer and the delivery so you can expand to different areas. We want to grow the brand, there is no doubt about that. I think the UK is an important market. There are a lot of places across the UK that we are looking at.
Poke House’s new Battersea Power Station site sees record sales
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