Opening an Italian restaurant in Edinburgh’s West End as General Manager, at 25, was one of the biggest opportunities of my career, and I’m still glad I said yes. I was working alongside an owner with an existing portfolio of restaurants and bars across the city, which meant there was a reputation to uphold and a proven culture to bring to life in a brand new space.
Building the Team
This was my first experience of building a front of house team completely from scratch. Hiring one person to fit a business and its culture is one thing. Building an entire team that works together, fits the culture and is confident enough to use its own initiative is another challenge entirely. We were starting from a blank canvas, so after scrolls of CVs and rounds of interviews, I built the team that took us through opening day.
Designing the Service
With the team in place, we planned the restaurant layout, set up the bar and found a home for every piece of equipment and stock. My main focus, though, was building an order of service that felt seamless and consistent, whoever was serving you.
It started with the culture the owner had built across his restaurants: every single person welcomed with a genuine Ciao. The real complication was that Quattrozero had two doors and two very different services, sit in table service and takeaway, and getting both working smoothly together took careful, friendly communication throughout. Takeaway customers were guided straight to the menus, the queue and their order. Sit in guests were seated, talked through the specials, and offered a complimentary snack and still or sparkling water before we’d even got to drinks.
We built in little moments of theatre too. A gentle “some polenta chips or garlic bread to accompany your mains?” before leaving the table. Every pasta dish finished with parmesan and a crack of pepper from the giant peppermill, right there at the table. Small details, but they were at the heart of the training and the experience we wanted every customer to have.
Systems and Training
Behind the scenes, I put in place the systems every good service depends on: opening and closing checklists, daily tasks and responsibilities, house rules, risk assessments, and a completely new till system to learn from scratch.
Then came training the whole team in everything I’d built, from opening procedures to making coffee, portioning ice cream, cocktail making, seating and booking sheets, table service with personality, upselling, handling complaints, food hygiene and personal presentation. I also built the rotas, working out exactly how many staff we needed for a full sit in service, how that shifted between a quiet Monday and a heaving weekend, and how the takeaway counter fit around it all. Once we opened, volumes were consistently higher than expected across the board, so we adapted quickly.
Opening Day
This was also my first time working with a fully open kitchen, and I won’t pretend I wasn’t nervous about how the chefs would run it (if you know, you know). There were a lot of Italian hand gestures, but the team were brilliant, bar one chef whose attitude wasn’t right for us and who I had to manage out. What we built instead was real mutual respect between front and back of house.
I will never forget opening the doors to what we’d created together. Between the restaurant and the takeaway, our biggest challenge, the moment we opened at 12 noon it was manic, but the good kind of manic. It’s a restaurant I was, and still am, incredibly proud of.
Looking Back
Quattrozero still comes up in conversation more than almost any other venue I’ve worked in. If you were ever a regular there, I’d love to know, and I will still argue we made the best pizza in Edinburgh.
If you’re planning your own opening, that mad, brilliant feeling on day one is part of what you’re signing up for, and it’s worth every scroll of CVs that gets you there.
