Interview: Sam Harrison
Interview: Sam Harrison
20 years on from opening his first restaurant, Sam’s Brasserie, in Chiswick, Sam Harrison has faced this century’s biggest challenges head on. We spoke to him about how he’s made it through and why his restaurants continue to put people first.
By Charli West
It’s been a tough few years for the hospitality industry. The impact of the COVID pandemic wiped out many, and for those remaining, it’s been an uphill battle to get back on track. From increasing competition of restaurants in the city, to influencers having the power to make or break a business, to finances being hit hard by rising costs, it’s not an easy landscape.
But for one restaurateur, it’s not all doom and gloom. 2025 was a milestone for Sam Harrison, who celebrated 20 years since opening his first restaurant, Sam’s Brasserie, in Chiswick in 2005. Following the site’s closure in 2015, he brought the brand to Hammersmith and Brentford and has seen great success ever since.
Sam has worked in restaurants since he was 16 and, like many, always dreamt of having his own place. In his 20s he spent four years working at Rick Stein’s restaurants in Cornwall, before moving to the other side of the world to work in Sydney. Then he got the bug to return to his hometown of West London, and Rick Stein backed him to open his own place.
Inspired by the hospitality that he received in Australia, Sam wanted service to be at the forefront of his restaurant’s concept. “One of the things I loved about eating out in Australia was you could go to a local beach where the team serving you were wearing boardie shorts and a t-shirt, super laidback, but the food and the service would still be exceptional,” he tells me. “They really knew their food, they really knew their wine.”
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Growing up in Hammersmith and Fulham, Sam recognised that West London had less restaurants compared to the rest of the city. So when a warehouse space popped up in Chiswick, he was overjoyed.
Since that opening, the dining scene has changed drastically. “When I opened my initial business plan in 2005 for Chiswick, I listed seven competitors. I think if I’m writing the same business plan today, it would probably be 77,” he says. The competition goes beyond just other restaurants too, as delivery services mean they’re fighting against people eating out at home – something that completely contrasts what Sam’s restaurants are all about: the dining experience.
“I’ve always wanted my restaurants to be local restaurants based on relationships with locals. We have customers who’ve been coming to us for 20 years and so we’ve become part of their fabric if you like.” Sam says that regulars are integral to the survival of their business, whether they come three times a week or just once every year whenever they’re in London, they all play a part.
That became incredibly clear during the pandemic. The Hammersmith site, Sam’s Riverside, was only four and a half months old when COVID hit. “Because we were so new, we didn’t get any of the funding or support because we hadn’t been trading long enough,” Sam explains. “We weren’t sure we’d be able to reopen, but we had this database of incredible supportive customers and we set up a pledge page. We said to people: ‘Make a pledge and it will become a voucher for you to use when we reopen’. We raised over 100,000, and it allowed us to reopen.”
“We had this incredible loyalty,” he continues, “and I think that sort of built the spirit of the restaurant. There were all these people saying: ‘We don’t want you to close.’”
This focus on community overlaps into their staffing too. Junior chefs have worked their way up to become head chefs, waiters developed into general managers, and staff that worked with the business in the beginning that had left, then came back a few years later. “You’ve built up friendship and trust and you can’t do it without them, so that’s very special.”
So what’s next for Sam? He takes a moment to acknowledge the struggles faced by the industry: “It’s in the press every day about restaurants closing and chains having to offload sites and it is very hard, but I hope there will be some really great opportunities for independents to maybe secure or look at sites that we might not have been able to in the past.
“I think when you have a bit of a downturn sometimes you get a chance for new fresh creative energy to come through. And maybe sites that the big chains would have dominated before become available, and landlords become a bit more open minded and rather than going with the safety of big chains they’ll give somebody a go.”
Sam is keeping an eye out for a new site, following the opening of Sam’s Waterside in Brentford two years ago, he is hoping he can bring the brand to another waterside spot in the near future.
I can’t help but attribute this optimistic outlook to the success of Sam’s restaurants over the past 20 years. From the financial crash to the COVID pandemic, he has faced this century’s toughest challenges, but has made the best of it and been able to lean on the community he’s built.
For Sam, their success is from something much simpler: “We’re just a restaurant that likes looking after people.”
