Hamish
The Rex Whistler | 23y
Hamish was born in London but grew up in Hong Kong from the age of seven to fifteen, “That’s probably where we, as a family, became more adventurous with food.”
After leaving university, he started working in Bibendum and got into wine thanks to his friend Matthew Dukes who also worked in the restaurant. He left in 1997 and met someone who was doing some consultancy work for Tate. There was just Tate Britain at the time, but Tate Modern was in the planning stages, and Hamish started by helping out at Britain’s restaurant, Rex Whistler. It first opened its door in the 60s and he was tasked with reorganising the cellar, selling what he could, and bringing back some of the restaurant’s former glory.
He progressed through the ranks of Tate and helped to open all the subsequent food outlets at its four sites over the years. For a while he looked after everything drinkable (his responsibilities started with just wine but morphed into coffee, soft drinks, and the whole range of drinks now available in the museums), and is now the CEO of Tate Eats, running the entire F&B arm of Tate.
Starting with a much smaller members’ room and just one other cafe in Tate Britain, the Tate empire now turns over ten times what it did in the early years and Tate Modern alone has around six million visitors a year now. ‘We never thought we’d do so well with Tate Modern, and brought in around two and a half times more than was predicted in its first year.’ Hamish tells me. He’s based between the two London sites and cycles between them, sometimes visiting the group’s other museums in Liverpool and St Ives.
The Rex Whistler itself has changed quite a bit as it was built on the halcyon days of the 70s and 80s and their long, wine-fuelled lunches: ‘We’ve changed with the times and there’s much less business entertaining now. People who knew their wines used to bring their friends for a long lunch and often not go back to work that day! We recognised that they were a dying breed, sadly, but we’re still lucky to have a regular clientele from nearby publishing houses and media companies.’ The restaurant now targets the tourists who come to the museum for a day out and for special exhibitions. Hamish tells me customers drink less but generally drink better, with good wines by the glass always available.
The restaurant’s immediate area, Pimlico, has changed quite a bit in his eyes: ‘a lot more people live around here now and it’s got much more of a heart and soul than it did 20 years ago when I first started working here.’
Hamish tells me about the infamous political intrigue arising from the long lunches shared between politicians, nipped in the bud by the expenses scandal in 2009. He also tells me that there were fantastic waiters and waitresses working there when he first started, many of whom had been there for more than twenty years. They tended to be in charge of their own section, and had their own regular customers who dined at the same table every time. ‘One famously brilliant lady, who said anything to anybody, always served Jeffrey Archer. He came back one lunchtime after he was released from prison, and she gave him a big kiss and exclaimed, “You have been a naughty boy haven’t you!”.
