Why restaurants are a home for creative people 

Hospitality has always attracted people from different backgrounds, but restaurants can be especially powerful places for creative people.

A restaurant brings together food, drink, design, music, service and atmosphere, giving chefs, bartenders and front of house teams a daily opportunity to turn concepts into guest experiences.  

That creativity in art and service is visible at Hausu and Auguste in London.

At Hausu, music and cinema, alongside cocktails and open-fire cooking, help shape the restaurant’s identity. At Auguste, theatrics and clowning alongside Abruzzo cooking and informal service mould theirs. 

Tom Middleton-Joseph, the co-founder of Hausu, originally moved to London playing in bands and working in nightclubs. 

He said: “I think that hospitality is often kind of a home for misfits and people trying to live an unordinary life. It's a real common story, and quite a beautiful one, I think.” 

 

 

 

 

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Why artistic people move into hospitality 

Careers in hospitality are often planned, from training through to building your way up the career ladder, but some happen by accident. 

Auguste, an east-London restaurant celebrating Abruzzo cuisine masterminded by chef Mike Bagnall and general manager Dylan Walters, is a product of that happy accident. 

Dylan said: “I feel like you meet a lot of people in hospitality that do something creative as a means to fund something else. But then they end up falling in love with hospitality for the same reason.” 

Dylan studied in Oxford before migrating to America, living in Los Angeles for a number of years playing music full time, with a stint in the fashion industry sandwiched between. His journey back to where he is today represents the appeal that owning a restaurant can bring to a creative soul. 

He said: “Initially (hospitality) was a career to subsidise the music industry (for me). I think it's that vicarious joy that you get from both careers. 

“All of the staff that we've hired have got other creative careers that they're really passionate about and they're all quite outgoing and charming and I think it's the kind of place that I'd want to go and eat.” 

Tom, who co-founded Hausu with his sister Holly (head chef) and business partner Christian Williams, had a similar path to Dylan. 

Tom said: “When I moved to London, I was playing in bands and because of that, like most of us, I worked in nightclubs. That’s where I met Christian actually. Then after both (Holly and I) working at a nightclub, and (me) running bars and raves and stuff like that, I ended up going into restaurants.” 

Using creativity beyond the menu 

Both Auguste and Hausu reflect the creative values of their founders, and it’s impossible to ignore the artistic ethos of the restaurants. 

Auguste is named after a type of clown, one of four main clown archetypes, known for slapstick pranks and described by Dylan as “the more pastoral end of clowns”. Meanwhile the name Hausu is inspired by a combination of a colloquial Japanese name for a home and the cult 1977 horror movie of the same name. 

On Auguste, Dylan said: “The idea was to kind of play on the theatre of hospitality to kind of rip into ourselves a little bit as performers. To use that theme, it's like a golden thread that ties through into content and kind of the vibe of the restaurant. I guess it allowed us to build the space pretty quickly, because we had a theme. I think if you don't confine yourself to a theme in a space, it's very difficult as two creative people to just not let our minds run wild.” 

Hausu meanwhile brand themselves as a listening bar and restaurant, and have just opened an upstairs space modelled after the famous Red Room in the classic TV show Twin Peaks. Tom believes his own experience in the music industry has come in handy at the venue. 

He said: “Christian had created the concept of Hausu as a moving listening bar. And they thought I'd be a good person to come and help. So to have a place (like) that it's kind of like a real joy and we get to play whatever we want and try and be a little bit different with that in some ways.” 

Read more chef features -

• My route into hospitality: Pip Lacey
• My route into hospitality: Matty Grove of Caper & Cure

Expressing creativity through the menus 

Interestingly, neither restaurant’s menu reflects their name. Auguste, despite having German etymology, is an Italian restaurant, serving Abruzzo cuisine.  

Chef and co-owner Mike Bagnall celebrates Abruzzo cuisine primarily in the form of arrosticini. Originally from Australia, Mike has spent a large amount of time in the Abruzzo region of Italy throughout his 11-year career as a chef. 

Mike said: “I love going to nice restaurants, but I also just love sort of more accessible food. Every culture has their version of meat on sticks. (Whether it’s) moo ping in Thailand or souvlaki or any culture, everyone's got like a meat on a stick and this is a good version that's not really accessible in the UK.” 

Mike uses a fornacella, a very specific type of Italian grill, to cook his arrosticini skewers. He buys the grill from a specific Italian supplier, one of only a handful to still make them, and will have to wait more than six months for his second order. It takes multiple hours every day to fire up the grill. 

He said: “Because the skewers are so thin, you have to kind of get the grill ranging off. So when you grill it, you get this nice sear and crust on the