Entrepreneurs: Meet the restaurateurs behind Inamo, adding tech as a magic ingredient

He formulated the business in 2005 after re-encountering Oxford University acquaintance Danny Potter at a friend’s party. Both were interested in bringing together tech and dining and, parched, came up with their idea of a button to keep the drinks flowing. The pair quickly realised they’d have to build the tech to work for them, as well as creating a restaurant concept.

“Lots of people tell you ‘don’t start two businesses’ — and that’s sound advice! We’ve always found it a massive challenge,” grimaces Hunwick. After a planning meeting in celebrity-favourite Nobu, the pair plumped for Japanese cuisine, playing on the Asian nation’s love of tech.

These days Hunwick and chief executive Lee Skinner run the three restaurants — in Soho, Covent Garden and Camden — while Potter handles digital arm Ordamo hoping to license the idea and tech out.

Inamo has become a celebrity haunt with Gemma Arterton, James McAvoy and the Beckhams among its clientele (Cruz Beckham had his birthday there last year). It has also provided a backdrop for Made in Chelsea and The Apprentice.

It’s quite an outcome for the Oxford alumni, who both toyed with other careers. Hunwick had worked for Have I Got News for You-bothering magazines (“World Cement, World Coal and Hydrocarbon Engineering — I got to go to a cement conference in Kansas City. The material was a little dry,” he smiles). Potter had just finished six months in the kitchens of the Paris Ritz chopping pommes frites when he ran into Hunwick — himself on the verge of a runner job on Mock the Week — and the duo had their “sliding doors moment”.

The early years, Hunwick admits, were tough as they created the tech in their friend Bernie’s back bedroom in Hoxton before eventually opening in Wardour Street. A revamp of St James’s market, home to its second outlet, necessitated a move to Covent Garden. Mornington Crescent — where we sit scoffing Inamo’s signature dragon roll sushi — opened in late 2016 next to the huge art deco former Carreras cigarette factory, Greater London House.

The pair brought in seasoned restaurant chain man Skinner three years ago to add “operational chops”. He became a business partner with the long term aim of making the venture more lucrative to its founders. “If you don’t make this business scalable the returns are minimal. Danny and Noel have invested 10 years into this, you need to make that return readily available,” says Skinner.

With that in mind, their next step will be a significant one. It could be an airport restaurant, as places where diners are pushed for time are well-suited to their concept. A licensing or franchise deal might help this, and parties from the Middle East and the Continent have already shown interest.

Is there a risk that the novelty of Inamo’s tech may wane? “I was always worried about that but the proof is in the pudding, if you’ll excuse the culinary metaphor. We do get a good return rate,” says Hunwick, who produces deep house music and sings in Southwark Cathedral’s Merbecke Choir in his fragment of spare time. An entrepreneur who lives to entertain.