This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Little Door & Co eyes expansion
Fresh off opening their fifth venue in London, the founders of The Little Door & Co spoke to us about the secrets to their success – and naturally, how to throw the perfect house party…
Having cut the ribbon on their fifth venue Little Violet Door earlier in the summer, Kamran Dehdashti and Jamie Hazeel just keep on opening little doors (of varying colours) in London. Behind these doors is what you could call an open invite to some of the city’s most memorable parties, ‘fictional flatshares’ fitted with bar, restaurant and dancing spaces.
As mentioned, so far there are five dotted around London – Little Yellow Door in Notting Hill, Little Blue Door in Fulham, Little Orange Door in Clapham, Little Scarlet Door in Soho and the most recent one, Little Violet Door in Carnaby – each with their own special quirks to represent the neighbourhood they are in, but all following the same house party format, to much success.
Dehdashti and Hazeel believe they are on track to reach a turnover of £12 million (US$15.6m) for the year ending 2024, and employ more than 150 people across their sites.
“Every door tries to recreate a flat from that neighbourhood, so that they’re all very different,” says Dehdashti. “They’re all based on the same sort of theme, which is going around to someone’s house and throwing/being there for a house party or dinner party. Violet really pulls in from Carnaby’s heyday. You know, the swinging 60s sort of British fashion and culture. And it’s got sort of that background to it. It’s very different to Scarlet Door, which is more sort of a New York, east London loft, if you want. We always try to make sure that there’s a different feel for each.”
Hospitality is priority number one for the group, as at the end of the day, they are the hosts. And every great house party needs a great host. Dehdashti recognises this: “One of the things that people identify with our group is the culture of the teams. The staff are always incredibly friendly, very warm. They’re not wearing uniforms or trained in one singular manner. They’re allowed to express themselves and to greet people as if they were welcoming people to their house.”
Expanding on this, Hazeel says: “I think beyond that house party concept, this really resonates with people. It’s really imbued into every part of our business to do more and to give more. When you welcome someone into your home, what you’re really doing is encapsulating the essence of hospitality and everything that comes with that.
“That means it’s really woven into our culture as a company to always be offering more; whether that’s down to the quirkiness or unusualness, the details of how our spaces are designed, or whether that’s to do with how we train our team to serve customers, how we do our drinks offering, how we manage our bookings – we design everything to get more.”
He adds: “And I think in an economic environment where people’s cash is more stretched and people are more selective about where they spend their money, we’d like to think that people would choose us because we represent value in a truly powerful way, by really making sure that everyone who comes into our venues has has an exceptional experience.”
The formula
While the party can carry on late into the night if you want it to, another feature of the brand that has helped the company’s success is the flexibility of the concept where one can drop in for a quick drink after work, dinner, or go for the full-throttle night out. Big groups, small groups, dates; the doors can play to all scenarios.
As Dehdashti says: “We’re very popular with birthdays and we can suit any occasion. I think you can have food, you can come as a group, you can take an area you’ve got games and activities, and all the way through to sort of more slightly, you know, clubby dancing later on in the nights.”
Dehdashti even adds that one door hosted Phil Wang’s new Netflix series party on a Tuesday night. The central London locations of some of the bars mean that creative agencies have taken them up on private booking, and these sorts of hires have “really helped the mid-week trade”, he says.
While there’s a guarantee of a fun night, it’s also important to note that the team isn’t throwing frat house parties here. “That’s of no interest to us”, Hazeel explains. “We’re a really lovely, classy house party and we are in lovely parts of London with discerning clientele.
“But you know, with the house party theme comes an enormous ability to have fun, and actually people go out to have a good time. And I think a lot of bars and nightlife concepts lose sight of the fact that really people are going out to have a good time. For us, that means a sense of humour and a sense of fun is so important to how we develop our brand.”
Along with the focus on hospitality and the versatile nature of the concept, what the bar brings in terms of food and drink isn’t there to make up the numbers either. Both are key cogs in the operation. Hazeel is a chef, so they take pride in the food (where the venues can serve as a dinner destination), while the cocktail lists offer intrigue and are extensive.
Crimes of Passion (the bar’s take on a Pornstar Martini, which is served in a goblet with a toasted marshmallow) has been the best seller since day one, while Sex in the City (a twist on the Picante) has also become a favourite. Dehdashti observes that in the last two-three years there has been a “huge rise in all sorts of Tequila and Picante-style cocktails”, and these serves are proving popular. Adding to this, Hazeel says Margarita variants and Picante-style drinks “have grown significantly as a percentage of our overall cocktails sold”.
Plans for more
Even though Little Violet Door is still fresh as a ‘new opening’, the team are already looking ahead, and further afield.
On expansion, Dehdashti says: “We’re very happy with our footprint at the moment in London, but think the plan next is probably for north London and east London. Then beyond that, we might start looking at some of the more regional cities. I think some really great London brands have had great success over in Manchester in the last few years. But we’re considering everything at the moment. I think we’re at a point now where we can exploit lots of different situations.”
In what Hazeel describes as a “very unusual position”, considering a current climate in the UK that indicates more and more people seem to be staying in than going out, all the Little Door venues are receiving significantly more guests on a weekly basis than in the past year.
For a while people were spending slightly less when they were inside, but Hazeel says in the past two months “what’s really interesting is that we’ve started turning the corner on that and how people are spending in our venues. That has actually gone into growth for the first time last year, which for us, is very obviously fantastic, and also a really exciting signal.”
As for their house party essentials, for Hazeel there are some things that are a must no matter the kind of party you’re throwing: “First is having a great group of people. We pride ourselves on our venues being a social melting pot and having an unbelievable mix of wonderful guests who come and make up the nightfare.
“And I think for anyone throwing their own house party, having people who are going to be celebrating with them, celebrating their evening, and not causing trouble is very important.”
Laying out the vision of what the pair are ultimately trying to create at the Little Doors, Dehdashti says: “It’s a more high-energy social environment where you dance in one room, you play board games in another, you play Nintendo in a different section, you go to have dinner in another one. It’s fluid. You come with two friends and you leave with 10. Obviously, having quality food and drinks is big too. I think there’s a lot of cheekiness, but it’s all about getting a drink quite quickly and having a good time. We never look to take ourselves too seriously.
“We just want someone to walk out and say, ‘that was really fun’. That’s probably the most important thing for us.”
Related news
Francis Hall cocktail bar opens in Alexandria