Humble Grape’s founder on the best London restaurants to book now
Arriving in the UK from South Africa with £50 in his pocket, James Dawson spent three nights sleeping rough on a park bench after his planned job in social work was cancelled. Now he is the founder and owner of Humble Grape with six locations across London and last year purchased the South African restaurant chain, Vivat Bacchus.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO WINE? When my job as a social worker fell through, Iwent into finance as my friend told me you could earn £11 an hour in banking. By my late 20s I was working in Paris on HSBC’s wine trading desk. It was meant to be six weeks, but I stayed for two years and learned about food and wine in France. Every other weekend I’d rent a car and visit a wine region. Seven years later I’d done my wine qualifications, read all the books and started hosting tastings and selling wine. If you can sell wine in the UK it will teach you the wine market. I was delivering wines on my motorbike before work then I started importing and selling wine to restaurants.
HOW DID HUMBLE GRAPE BEGIN? In 2014 I had imported some beautiful wines but was struggling to sell them, so I opened my own wine bar. We were the first UK hospitality business to do crowd funding and we raised £500,000. Humble Grape Battersea opened in 2015. I was on the floor with my General Manager and we only served toasties but somehow became the number one London restaurant on Trip Advisor. Peoplewould arrive all dressed up expecting Michelin star food and we were doing toasted sandwiches, so we had to elevate the food offering. In two years, we had three venues and an Executive Chef.
AND VIVAT BACCHUS? I’m a wine guy, not a restaurant guy but I knew the owner when he wanted to sell. It’s a taste of South Africa. We simplified the food, serving classics: crocodile, ostrich and frikkadel. 85% of our list is iconic, interesting South African wines.
WHAT ARE YOU DRINKING NOW? Union Sacré Pinot Gris fromCalifornia. A white with a bit of pink in it – it tastes like Summertime.
FAVOURITE PLACE FOR WINE? Humble Grape, Liverpool Street. It’s tiny and quirky with a constantly changing wine curious crowd.
FAVOURITE RESTAURANT? I’ve always loved Chez Bruce, and I had a phenomenal experience at Flesh & Buns too.
FAVOURITE PLACE FOR A LATE-NIGHT DRINK? I’m hoping Speedboat because I’m headed there ton