#269 - Hospitality Meets Bradley Dorrington - The Story of Dirty Kebabs and Haunted Hotels

What pairs beautifully with a £250 bottle of Californian wine?

Apparently, a proper dirty kebab at two o’clock in the morning.

For Bradley Dorrington, co-owner of The Wine Cellar in Bury St Edmunds, that particular combination perfectly captures hospitality: great drinks, questionable late night food and hours spent putting the world to rights with somebody else from the industry.

Bradley opened The Wine Cellar at just 25, after abandoning the traditional university route, turning down an apprenticeship with a space company and throwing himself into hospitality instead.

Four years and more than 50,000 guests later, the doors are still very much open (despite one Facebook critic confidently declaring that “wine bars are so eighties” and would never work)

We Cover

• Why hospitality is an industry that finds you
• Turning down a career in the space industry for pubs, hotels and wine
• Building The Wine Cellar in just six weeks
• Not sleeping for six days before opening
• Launching a business at 25 and learning to ignore the noise
• The customer who asked Bradley to sort out her 26-year-old son
• Naming his daughter Margaux after Château Margaux - and attempting to make her tax deductible
• Drinking £250 wine with a dirty kebab at 2am
• Why genuine hospitality is about far more than service
• Imposter syndrome and remembering that you earned your place in the room
• Facebook’s Tony and his prediction that wine bars would never work
• Weddings, night porters and unexplained happenings at Chilston Park
• Why Bradley believes hospitality should be taken seriously as a career

Quotables

“Hospitality is an industry that finds you. You don’t necessarily find it.”

“This is hospitality. I can’t explain it any more than this.”

“I think it kind of almost makes her tax deductible as well, which is quite nice.”

“Wine bars are so eighties. Never gonna work.”

“You’re only as good as your last service. You’re only as good as your last glass of wine you poured.”

Final Observation

For all the entrepreneurial drive in Bradley’s story, the thing that comes through most strongly is how much he simply loves hospitality.

The people. The stories. The late nights. The community. The ridiculous moments that become memories years later.

Near the end of the conversation, Bradley sums it up better than we possibly could:

Hospitality makes memories, happiness, laughter, conversation and friendships.

Sometimes it also makes a £250 bottle of wine taste perfectly appropriate alongside a dirty kebab.

And frankly, we’re completely on board with that.

Show Partner

A big shout out to today’s show partner, RotaCloud — the people management platform built specifically for shift-based teams.

RotaCloud lets managers create and share rotas, record attendance, and manage annual leave in minutes — all from one simple, web-based app.

It also makes life easier for teams, allowing staff to check rotas, request holiday, and pick up extra shifts directly from their phones.

To find out more, head to RotaCloud

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