Why ‘chain’ restaurant shouldn’t be a dirty word

They used to be shorthand for convenient, but uninspired, but nowadays chains are more likely to be serving up cool and innovative foodie experiences. Clare Finney talks to the founders of Dishoom, Wahaca and Hawksmoor to see how it should be done – and picks her five best to try

Steak restaurant Hawksmoor now has 14 sites across the UK (Hawksmoor)

We may have referred to it as the c-word,” says Will Beckett, co-founder of Hawksmoor, the restaurant group best known and beloved for its premium steak. That word is chain, a term Beckett prefers to avoid despite owning 14 restaurants across seven cities in the UK, Ireland and the US. His comments are echoed by Shamil Thakrar, co-founder of Dishoom; by Mark Selby, co-founder of Wahaca; and by Saiphin Moore of Rosa’s Thai, the 40-strong restaurant group that this year celebrates 15 years since Moore opened her first restaurant in London. All of these restaurants have expanded beyond the capital and serve the same menu under the same name across multiple sites. They are chains by any other name, at least to those outside the food world. Yet as far as their owners, their employees and even their regular customers are concerned, “chain” has become a dirty word.

“It’s ubiquitous, repetitive, plain, without innovation – that’s what a chain is for me,” says Selby. Thakrar thinks that it brings up “associations of very large businesses that perhaps care much more about the financials than hospitality or their teams”. Moore doesn’t like it because it implies there are restaurants within her group run by people other than her and her team. “Chains suggest franchise – but all Rosa’s restaurants are run by us,” she says. Relationships with her Thai suppliers, most of whom she has had since day one, are still managed by her. And so is checking the quality of the food served in her outlets.

All these groups have plans for further growth. They’re not looking to be Costa Coffee, but they aren’t shy of expansion, either. They see its merits. There’s the money, sure – and when restaurants are closing at the rate they are, that’s not to be sniffed at – but there’s also the chance to “do good” at scale. “Do good” is a vague term, of course, but there are plenty of concrete examples offered by these groups and other less likely candidates, says Juliane Caillouette Noble, managing director of the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA), whose express aim is to set a standard for sustainability in the industry, and provide businesses with tools to improve.