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DESIGN – What’s the story of Sticks so far? How d
id it come about? How long has it been in your brain? STICK UP Jonny Boyle is testing out Sticks, his Omakase concept, through a series of acclaimed pop-ups. Inspired by Japanese skewer culture such as yakatori and kushikatsu, he shares his journey to this personal jump-off moment. words Richard Seabrooke My first job was washing dishes in a tiny kitchen. Ever since then I’ve had a desire to open a restaurant. There was many, welcome, detours outside of food on the journey and, indeed, continue to be, but that feeling never went away. What stopped it was I didn’t have the idea. What could I offer in terms of a menu that felt unique? To be fair, I never worked that hard on the idea, I worked hard at getting better and better in the kitchen and learning all the time from trips, down the road or around the world, whilst waiting for that idea to appear. When the idea hit me after a trip to Japan, I quickly got to work. I approached it as a culmination of my professional experience and a way to learn new skills. I want to create a globally respected brand (you got to aim big right?), considering every detail from start to finish. The name came first, inspired by how I wanted to both cook and present the food. I sat down with a pencil and some paper and just starting sketching ideas for the sticks and in one go had enough to really feel like there was enough in it. Before I knew it, I had a logo and was doing a test night in our backyard to see what people thought. – You started in a kitchen before going to work for an experiential agency, yet you’ve decided to return to the heat of the kitchen. What was the allure? To be honest it’s not so much the allure of the kitchen. What I mean by that is I have realised I prefer entertaining people than cooking for them. Don’t get me wrong, I love cooking, but I love restaurants more. It’s the full package. The entire experience: the brand, the design, the hospitality, the learning, the digital and social side of things. All of it. – What makes cooking for crowds so interesting and magnetic for you? Two things jump to mind straight away. First, the very instant and live reaction to something that began as a thought and you work so hard to make delicious and deliver to the plate. The feedback is instant. On people’s faces and the noises they make individually and collectively. The second might sound strange, but it’s the calmness and focus of the pressure of being in the kitchen and having 154 plates to bring out. I have a mind that tends to wander, but when you are in a kitchen with the orders coming in, you can really do nothing but focus on that and think of nothing else. – Which came first, Japan or Sticks? Well Japan definitely came first. The East always had an allure to me, and Japan in particular. I’ll always remember Olan in All City telling me before my first trip back in 2009 that ‘whatever you are into, there is someone in Japan way more into it than you are.’ And it is so incredibly true. Sticks was a culmination of experiences, but it struck me after a meal down on Pontocho in Kyoto when, all of a sudden, the dots joined together. It wasn’t to re-create what I had just eaten. Not at all. What I wanted to do was what the Japanese do so very well. They have taken aspects of western culture and made them better. I wanted to do the reverse of that and take something Japanese, or some things to be more precise, and elevate them to another level. – You have created and designed every element of this from the name and branding to menu to experience people enjoy and more. What have you learned through the process? How have you been as a client? One thing is that you just have to make it real. And I don’t mean that in some hip-hop street talk kind a way. I mean you actually have to make it. It’s no good as just an idea. The only way people can experience it, and the only way you can learn how to make it better, is to make it and let people in. A lot of the time you are not sure what decision to make, but you have to make it. And whatever happens, good or bad, just like in the heat of a service in a kitchen, you keep moving forward all the time. Realising perfection isn’t attainable happens 16