00:00I'm in the beautiful Northumberland countryside at its latest gem.
00:03Jack Brown, who's built a reputation in Newcastle with Nest and Flight, is branching out on
00:08his own.
00:09He and fiancé Alice Lawson are refurbishing the former Hjem restaurant at Hadrian's Hotel
00:14in Wall.
00:15Alice and I have been talking about it for a little while, you know.
00:18We've got Nest and Flight in Heaton, which I co-own with two others.
00:24And the formula worked really well, and we had such great success with Nest and Flight.
00:29And we always wanted to take that next step.
00:32It was how we did that.
00:34And we started looking at some new ventures, and this kind of fell in our lap.
00:40So we met an agent for another property, which we looked around, and that agent brought us
00:45to this landlord.
00:46And it kind of all fell into place where it was exactly what we were looking for, and financially
00:53it worked for us.
00:53First and foremost, bring the local pub back.
00:57And that support for us is key, you know.
01:00That's what takes us over day by day, week by week, you know.
01:03The locals coming in for the odd pint, the odd glass of wine.
01:06And for us, growing up in small towns and villages in Northumberland, we had that kind
01:11of growing up where the families, we all went to these sorts of establishments.
01:15What we're doing is trying to create a product that we believe in, that we believe the locals
01:20are after.
01:20But once we're open, we will sort of change and adapt as we find our customer base.
01:26We're anticipating a lot of walkers from the wall, perhaps some cyclists, but we're wanting
01:31to create a destination.
01:32So with this restaurant, restaurant Willow, as it's going to be called, it's going to
01:36be its own entity.
01:37And we're hoping that people will come to the hotel for the restaurant as much as they
01:41will the pub.
01:43And to have all those different sort of revenue streams for us, that was the bit that enticed
01:49us in.
01:50To be able to give people the opportunity to stay employed was massive.
01:54And to have the team who have worked together for two and a half years.
02:00Coming to a new venue is a huge pressure off a new opening, for sure.
02:04One of the things we're doing this week is trying to employ a few of the locals, you know,
02:07where there's a few roles, part time roles that we're trying to fulfill.
02:11Again, kind of becoming part of the community, but bringing people to this side of the world,
02:15whether it's family coming from down south to visit someone in Hexham or Corbridge or
02:19one of the local towns or villages, we just want to create that pull no matter what, you
02:24know.
02:25I think everyone has a venue there where they visit, say maybe yearly or every few years
02:33because they've gone maybe out of the blue and they love it.
02:36And that's what we're kind of hoping to create a customer base that we can tap into and we
02:41believe that once we get people in the building, that we really will hopefully get them on
02:45the hook and they'll want to return.
02:47Hadrian's Hotel in Wall is set to become a local destination once more with both a fine
02:51dining restaurant and a village pub.
02:53Brown's team hopes to attract visitors from across Northumberland and Newcastle and much
02:59further beyond there.
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