Forge & Fennel
Restaurant group · Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield
What they look for (Hospitality & Food): Front-of-house and kitchen staff who treat hospitality as a craft, not a stopgap. We're slowly building a group of small neighbourhood restaurants across the north and we hire people we'd happily promote within two years.
What would make you stand out to a restaurant group that promotes from within?
How three sites in three northern cities became the most-talked-about restaurant group of the year
Forge & Fennel didn't open with a marketing budget. It opened with a forty-cover dining room above a former ironmonger's in Ancoats, in a space that the founders genuinely could not have afforded had they not done most of the joinery themselves.
The promote-from-within promise
Co-founder Annie Rourke is explicit about it on the first page of the careers site: every head chef and every general manager in the group started in a junior role at one of the sites.
Why neighbourhood, why north
The decision to open in Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield rather than London was partly economic and partly philosophical. Rents are honest, suppliers are close, and the customer base is loyal in a way that London regulars often aren't.
What they pay attention to in interviews
The founders ask candidates what their last shift went wrong. They are listening for honesty, for diagnosis, and for the absence of blame.
"We don't hire stars. We hire people who'd be embarrassed to send out a bad plate."