Espresso: Oisín Rogers, The Devonshire, How Guinness Shaped The Culture of Ireland

0:06I've done fucking dozens of interviews about Guinness and it's just so boring to be honest with you Let's do it in one sentence then. We put the bloody thing in so it would pour correctly. And we have a good pint and we keep the glasses clean and the staff know how to do it. That's it? That's it. But we've done the same with the lager. We've done the same with the wine. We've done the same with the chocolate pudding. We've done the same with the cooking of the steak. We've done the same with the way we sharpen the knives for the kitchen. We've done the same with the art. We've done the same with the staff training.

0:39We've done the same with the door staff. We've done the same with how the customers feel. So in our terms, the Guinness is a drop in the ocean of the many, many, many things on our huge, big plan of bits. And it's surprising to me still that that thing that we know we got it right and we know the Guinness is great, but it seems to color a lot of people's feeling about what this place is. and weirdly it makes us seem to people that we're an Irish pub which we're kind of not and we're intentionally not this is a pub for Soho this is a pub for the people around here to come and have a great time and feel that vibe of being comfortable, safe, happy and well looked after it's not about Guinness it's not about Ireland it's about being in Soho, being in the Devonshire and having that timeless history I think I listened to a podcast or an interview you did and you're like this is this is a solo pub with an irish accent yeah and i thought that's a beautiful way of saying saying it's got a little tinge of yeah there's definitely there's a lot of it especially with ross and sam here by the way being and they're legends yeah and um yeah it's got an irish accent but it's very much not an irish pub i think and i think that's really important that people feel that it's for everybody what does the perfect i asked some random questions as well what does like the the perfect pint of guinness and the texture of that like teach someone about the texture of ireland nothing i would say i think i i think the the overarching thing here is the guinness were always a brilliantly benevolent uh and really good thing for dublin in particular but irish in general ireland in general they always looked after their staff they made sure that everybody who worked for them had um really good accommodation and paid them really really well they were they had uh they had their philanthropic uh firm for hundreds of years uh like the whole story of how they went to the caribbean and to nigeria on the basis that they wanted to help those those places really is a good value and vibe and i think so what's that about the nigerian bit and so the reason the reason why guinness is the biggest uh beer in nigeria is because they felt as a rich uh um company as a rich sort of um british company at the time that that it would be philanthropic and a positive thing to go to africa to set up a big brewery which would give employment and um make the life better for those people and they actually did it quick one guys espressos have got a brand new sponsor unleashed unleashes inventory management software that talks directly to your finance and econ software we use unleashed daily islands i bloody love it we've got our admin time in half saving approximately 30k a year why use it save money save headaches save stress get granular clarity on your margins know where your stock is don't miss availability look your favorite brands literally use unleashed as their backbone candy kids tiny rebel trick always religiously look there's a link in the show notes please feel free to book a call with josh and his wonderful sales team at unleashed they're amazing even nothing comes of it and even better news you'll get your first month free if you reference hungary thank you yeah i've never heard of that other than going to nigeria yeah the um let's go back that was 19th century 19th that was oh fuck i thought i was in the 90s But I think there's a kind of an intangible thread through that that makes Irish people know that that product and what it stands for is a good thing.

4:31And I think in an awful lot, people don't really, really talk about it. But I think there's a sort of, it's not benign. It's a positive thing. There's something beautiful about it. And that history translates into the glass. And I think that's why nobody can copy their marketing, because nobody really gets it or understands it, because it's a big, long, timeless arch. Big story. What kind of shocked you about London? Or how do you think London's changed Osh, just being here for so long? I absolutely adore London. And, you know, when people ask me what part of Ireland I'm from, I always go back to I'm a Londoner because I came here in 1989.

5:14I've lived here longer than I lived in Dublin. And, you know, people ask me about what restaurants should they go to in Dublin. I haven't got a clue because, you know, when I go home, my mum's the best cook and that's right. I'll know about pubs and stuff. But London's my home and has been for that length of time. And I love it here. and of course it is constantly changing but I do think it's changing for the better all the time. I love the way people say, people quite curmudgeonly come up and go, oh Soho's completely fucked compared to how I remember it. It was much better when there was more sex shops and, you know, more robberies and, you know, this shop's gone and that shop's gone but it's always in a state of absolute flux.

5:55Yeah, it doesn't matter which road you go down or which street you go down, there's always a new place open and another place closed. it's it's a it's it's a transient and constantly evolving brilliant uh place and and i love that about here you said i i think it was an instagram post you called your your old man a true legend yeah um i believe my my old man's a bloody legend as well i love him but what were some of the things he's taught you um that kind of maybe maybe not consciously but maybe subconsciously kind of filter into how things are run here i don't know i i often think about about dad dad my my dad's a very placid uh fun uh incredibly clever uh academic oh and uh but he loves going to pub he loves his friends and he really values stories and social interaction and being able to spend time with people he loves and i think they're all really really positive and wonderful things to bring and i'd like to think that my my own my own girls would uh would know that too but one thing i always remember was his his dad uh paddy rogers had this phrase uh whenever he was under any kind of pressure or any business pressure big businessman he always he always said the one you the one thing you should always try and do is to avoid, sorry, he always used to say, the one thing that you should always try and do is to avoid unpleasantness.

7:32And I always took that and I thought, fuck, that's actually really good. Because if you actually spend time avoiding unpleasantness, it leads to some wonderful things. And you kind of filter out a lot of dickheads from your life if you think about things that way. and you know you surround yourself with people who enjoy fun and pleasantness and good times and love and bits and pieces like that and i think a lot about that thank you so so much for listening it honestly means the world to me i hope you enjoyed your morning coffee and go and have an amazing day let's be having ya if you want the full episode it will be in the show notes a link will be in the show notes the full episode thank you so much please leave friends as well means the ...