… Says “I started as kitchen porter”
By Christy Anyanwu
Shola Medupin and his wife, Eniola, are one couple who did not quite imagine the Enish Restaurant they started in Lewisham, London, United Kingdom, in 2013, would give birth to 11 restaurants in the UK and three in Dubai.
Another milestone came for the couple in 2019 when the business moved to the United States as they co-founded Kapriultra Lounge in Houston, Texas, with Medupin’s brother-in-law.
In a telephone conversation with Sunday Sun, the economist/investment banker and security expert, who was getting ready for the opening of another Enish Restaurant in Covent Garden, shared the story of his sojourn, challenges and plans as a food entrepreneur.
What drives your passion for food?
I have passion for cooking. My grandparents had a restaurant and my mother took over. So, we grew up with restaurants in the family in Ilorin. Again, I started cooking rice at the age of seven. I know a lot about food and that is what I have been doing all my life, learning from my mother, grandmother. The kitchen is the best part of the house for me. Before I choose a house, I have to consider the kitchen first. Even before starting the restaurant, I used to cook for friends. I knew so much about food and, at some point, when I got to the UK in 2005, people were encouraging me to open a restaurant, but I simply said, ‘God forbid.’ It was like a punishment. You know what, in my first three years in the UK, I was trapped in the kitchen. Anytime I applied for a job, I wouldn’t get it. But if I applied for a position as a kitchen porter, kitchen assistant, trust me, I would get it. At a point, I was like, this is a curse. But then I was looking for business and nothing was coming, apart from that restaurant. So, I said, let me give it a try. Let me say, like 11 years ago, I would never think that I would create a restaurant.
The first Enish Restaurant, how did it take off?
My first place in Lewisham was rundown. There had been a signboard ‘to let’ for three years and nobody took the place. The first day I went there to check, I saw a big rat. I thought it was Naija people that sent the rat to me (laughs). My wife and I did manual work there to get the place into shape. We couldn’t afford labourers. Opening a restaurant for the first time was the hardest thing I have done in my life. It was a learning curve.
How would customers come? And social media was not strong by then. That space had housed nine Chinese restaurants and they closed down. People around (Lewisham) had bets on me that, if nine Chinese restaurants couldn’t stay, is it this Nigerian man, Nigerian restaurant, that would survive? The rest is history. From there, In 2016, we moved to Finchley Road, London; Croydon, Surrey, 2019; Brixton, 2019; Ilford, Essex, in 2020; and in Camberwell, London, 2021; and we keep expanding. In 2019, we moved to the United States and co-founded Kapriultra Lounge in Houston.
What would you say is your biggest success story?
What I always look for in human beings is potential. If she is not a good cook, is she hardworking, is she strong, is she reliable? Once I can get that, forget the rest. People actually underestimate Nigerians. Even when I got to Dubai to start Enish Restaurant in 2020, they were laughing when I told them about the Nigerian restaurant. This life is just about confidence. I told them, I’m the biggest Nigerian restaurant in the world. Even though I wasn’t, but you claim it because nobody had claimed it online; if you don’t claim it, nobody is going to come and give you. The most beautiful girl in the world, is she actually the most beautiful girl in the world? We have a lot of finer people. Give yourself a title. I googled it, there’s no “biggest Nigerian restaurant in the world.” So I put my name as the best Nigerian restaurant in the world, and I started working towards it. In Dubai, at the end of two years, they told us we were the ones making the most sales in the whole hotel. They started respecting us.
When it comes to decor and neatness, we are almost the best, if not the best. Everything I do, I do to my taste because my taste is very high. Our service and food are top-notch. It might not be 100 per cent, but we are good.
What are your challenges?
One of the toughest things I have done in my life is Enish. My dad came to London in 2015 and was praying, “you will open more restaurants.” I said, Daddy, please, don’t pray like that, I’m struggling with one already. At a point, I wanted to sell Enish for £300,000 in 2014. But the buyer later came up with a partnership deal, which was not what I wanted. I had wanted to sell it for that price and go off to Japan for three months to chill my brain, which was almost bursting. To sell the restaurant would have been the best thing that would have happened to my wife. People see the glamour, but this work is not easy. It’s a lot of sleepless night, a lot of worry, a lot of madness.
Back then, we would just be looking at the camera, checking when the next customer would come in.
How did you break through?
Around 2016, getting influencers really boosted the business. Our first influencer was DJ Cuppy. Up till now, we are extremely close. When we opened Dubai, she flew in just to take photographs all at her own expense. Aside from Cuppy, we got two other influencers. The restaurant has played host to top Nigerian politicians, celebrities such as Burna Boy, Davido, Tiwa Savage, Wizkid, Kizz Daniel, Yemi Alade, Adekunle Gold, Simi, Peruzi and Anthony Joshua, just to mention a few.
The post How I built thriving restaurant business in UK, US and Dubai –Olushola Medupin, founder, Enish Restaurant appeared first on The Sun Nigeria.