You guys opened in March – what’s the story before then? 

Freddie: We met working at Galvin La Chappelle – I was senior sous chef there, Zac was the executive chef. We started doing pop-ups on our days off, just for a bit of fun really. Then we eventually did the maths and realised we could probably make a good go of it. We quit our jobs and did it full time at the end of 2019.

Shit. 

Freddie: Yeah, we did about three months of pop-ups from January to March 2020 and they were all going really well. We were picking up a bit of a following, doing well on Instagram and stuff. Then lockdown happened, and obviously being a new company we didn’t qualify for any government grants, any funding, any furlough. It was tough. We didn’t really know what to do, I think we probably had about two days of drinking a lot. 

But then all of the shit happened with the supermarkets, and nobody could get any food and all that sort of stuff. So we started getting in touch with our suppliers, went out to the wholesale markets in Leyton, and started delivering food to friends, family, and neighbours. And it absolutely rocketed off the ground without us really trying. Everyone told everyone they knew. 

Unreal. So what did you do?

Freddie: Lucky for us, Zac’s brother has a construction company and he loaned us a few of his vans and gave us a tiny little unit in Wembley. Then we turned our pop-up website into a tiny online supermarket. It was crazy actually, I think we were one of the first companies to go to market with the veg box thing properly when it all kicked off. It literally went from zero to turbo in about two days. We did that for the whole of the first lockdown, and that basically paid our rent.

Thank fuck for that. What about in between lockdowns?

Freddie: We started to do the pop-ups again all across London. Kensal Green, Spitalfields, a couple in Hackney. But then of course we had another lockdown, so we went back to veg boxes and so on. We added on a cooked meal kit, like a sunday roast home delivery, etc. Basically we were just hustling, scraping enough money to pay rent and have a beer at the end of the day.

Zac: D’you remember New Year’s Eve? We thought, fuck – we ain’t got no money for Christmas. So we advertised New Year’s Eve boxes, just so we could buy our fucking loved ones some presents! And it went MENTAL! We ended up staying at work until like 2am. And then we thought we’d go for it and offer them in Manchester as well cos Fred was spending Christmas there. On New Year’s Eve morning we had like sixty deliveries, man! 

And then what about when life got a bit more back to normal?

Freddie: When it all eased up we were at Hackney Coffee Company for most of last year doing a residency. It was great, it got pretty busy as well. 

Zac: Yeah, from April to December, that’s where we were. We made some great food and of course we left completely amicably, but we didn’t really end up making any money unfortunately. But what it did do was expose us to lots of people in the area; we got a lot of momentum off the back of it. 

Zac: And obviously us finding the permanent spot just a stone’s throw from Hackney Coffee has been amazing, because it means we’ve had lots of our old customers come down. 

That’s incredible. So you’re a real neighbourhood spot?

Zac: Yeah, I think every restaurant markets themselves as this, but we genuinely are a neighbourhood restaurant. We’re not expensive, we’re always here, we know people by name. It’s as neighbourly as you really can get. 

Having repeat customers influences the menu too, we have to keep it interesting for them. One of the most humbling things that’s happened to us is that we’ve had the same faces visit three or four times. And they’ve always had different dishes. There are a few things that we kind of can’t get rid of, like the frogs leg Kyiv because they’re just a bit of a staple. But we change at least 40% of the menu every week. 

And that’s for the staff too, man! Most people working in restaurants are there to learn. We’ve got young people in the business that we want to keep motivated and learning.

So true. If you’ve got interested people in the kitchen, you’ll have interesting food on the menu. 

Zac: Completely. And we’ve got such smashing people working with us. We’ve got a manager starting with us full time in a few weeks but since we opened we’ve just been relying on friends and family every night. My mum does shifts, my brother does shifts. Freddie’s girlfriend does shifts, my girlfriend does shifts. It’s so cool, man. We obviously pay them, but there’s all these people willing to give us their free time to help out. 

That’s incredible. And obviously will add to the whole neighbourhood vibe too! So you opened in March, what’s it been like – challenging? Or just amazing to have the space?

Zac: Both in equal measure. We’ve had some setbacks. Our bar fell down overnight a couple of weeks ago. It smashed our water filter tap, so essentially for ten hours we had water hammering through the floor. The basement flooded and we lost thousands of pounds worth of wine. We had to have 900l of water pumped out the place. That was pretty shit. But we managed to clear it all up and open that night! 

Jesus, that’s a turnaround. I bet you didn’t know whether to laugh or cry or both?

Zac: Yeah, fuck me that was hard. We walked in and it was like it was a prank. You know in Home Alone when he floods his house? It was like that. 

But the whole thing? It’s been AMAZING for sure. I can’t speak for Fred, but I don’t think it’s sunk in for me yet. I’ve had a few moments where I’ve had to pinch myself. Of course it becomes your day to day; you get up and you just go to work. But there’s some nights when you walk around the room and it’s buzzing, full of people, and you just think: ‘wow, this is what it’s all about.’ 

You’ll find Zac and Freddie cooking from Tuesday to Saturday at Rogues, 460 Hackney Road, E2 9EG. Stop by and say hello.

Photography by Aria Shahrokhshahi