Beyond the chefs table
NAB is helping Fifteen restaurant create culinary delights and provide opportunities for disadvantaged youth. Tim Denoon reports.
You've watched the TV show, salivated over the food and quite possibly snapped up the matching apron. But what you might not have done is met the business guru behind Jamie Oliver's latest recipe for his Fifteen brand of dining.
With a background in CBD property investment and some development rather than hospitality, Adam Garrisson was unsure at first what the benefits would be of investing in a business that traditionally has a low success rate. "Initially the only knowledge I had about the Fifteen restaurant was what everybody else knew," Garrisson says. "But then I got really intrigued about the whole concept and discovered it was much more than just having a kitchen with disadvantaged young people working in it. It was an opportunity to change people's minds about a lot of things."
Ramona Enconniere from NAB obviously agrees. NAB is not only Fifteen's business bank but is one of the sponsors of the Fifteen Foundation, the organisation that funds the training of between 15 and 20 unemployed and under-educated young people each year. "At first I wasn't sure about the restaurant," Enconniere admits. "We had a meeting at the site and I was concerned because it was underground and not clearly visible from street level. Also, it's well known that 80% of ventures like this fail within three years of opening unless you have
something really special behind them. But once Adam showed us his business plan and we found out more about the work of the Fifteen Foundation, NAB was extremely confident and
more than happy to provide support."
Garrisson also put in an enormous effort with Tobie Puttock to set up Fifteen Foundation Australia, a full charitable entity that works hand in hand with the restaurant. The whole process of setting up the restaurant and the foundation took over two and half years and stems from a long-term friendship between Puttock and Garrisson.
Open for business
Despite its basement location in Collins Street in Melbourne, the latest incarnation of Fifteen has proven its street cred with its unusual mix of social awareness and ‘Oliveresque' cuisine. The number of bookings received by the restaurant since its September 2006 opening has only confirmed what Garrisson suspected, that many people want to be part of the experience that they've only glimpsed on television. "We've had to set up our own call centre in the office," he says. "We've got a hundred phone lines with between three and 10 operators so that we can handle the volume of calls. In the first three days of opening we had 6,000 enquiries and now we've got 15,000 people booked in between now until the end of March."
With numbers like that it seems a sure bet the restaurant will make a tidy profit, but Garrison is circumspect. "It's really important that we have longevity – we don't want to be popular just for the first 12 months. That's why what we're doing is very carefully thought out. It's not just trying to make it ‘hot' and then having customers disappear. The key is that the restaurant has to work in its own right – the food, the atmosphere, the service – you can't just rely on other aspects." Presumably he means the avalanche of publicity that surrounded the trials and tribulations of the restaurant – all captured in gritty style by Channel 10's fly-on-the-wall coverage.
Garrisson agrees that his background in financial management will be a key factor in the future success of the restaurant as well as the foundation. "The business model for setting up Fifteen is quite different from a normal restaurant. For example, the kitchen we have is twice the size of a normal kitchen because we've got the trainees. In total, we've got around 35 employees which is quite high for a 90-seat restaurant. We've also arranged a leasing agreement – with NAB's help – for a lot of our equipment."
Furthermore, Melbourne's Fifteen operates under an arrangement similar to a franchise. The UK arm of Fifteen has no financial investment in the Melbourne restaurant but receives a percentage of the gross turnover.
The other factor is the relationship between the restaurant and the Fifteen Foundation here in Australia, something that not everyone is familiar with. "The budget for the foundation is in excess of one million dollars a year cost. The restaurant obviously can't make that much profit – it's a 90-seat restaurant – so it's really important that people understand that the foundation still has a huge requirement to be able to get support from philanthropic organisations as well as corporate sponsorship." It's here that NAB stepped in as well, filming a series of advertisements with the trainees that was rolled out as the television series went to air. The trainees have also received advice from NAB with their personal banking.
Making a difference
In the meantime Garrisson's own dream of making a difference in the community is coming to fruition. If diners aren't persuaded by Fifteen's tempting menu of tagliatelle with rabbit ragu or tiramisu with crostoli, they would surely be won over by the enthusiasm that Garrisson has
obviously passed on to the business and to its employees.
"There are lots of reasons why I've been involved in setting up the foundation and the restaurant," says Garrisson. "But I have to say at the moment the restaurant is not financially rewarding at all. It's simply become a passion of mine to be able to make a difference. When you meet the trainees and you meet the other kids – it's so different from anything I've been involved in. When people walk into the restaurant they have an opportunity to see what we're doing in the community and that's one of the key things I'm hoping for – that it makes a difference in the way people perceive other people."
Ramona Enconniere has the same enthusiasm while still keeping an eye on the bottom line. "It's a great example of how NAB has invested not just in a business, but in people who make up the wider community. We think Adam will have great success with the restaurant so we're looking forward to seeing the figures from the first quarter." And with any luck, Fifteen will generate even bigger numbers.
Tim Denoon is a features writer based in Melbourne.