Wilson’s is two years old!

First things first…thank you!

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again…we’re absolutely blown away by what Wilson’s has become over the past two years and it’s all thanks to those of you who choose to spend your time and money with us each week!

We never take it for granted and we’re incredibly grateful for the support and the kind words we’ve received ever since we first opened the doors. It’s humbling and, despite the fact that none of us are particularly good at taking compliments, we’ve learned to accept them. Deep down we appreciate them more than we probably let on

Reflecting on the past 12 months, we all feel that something has changed… but we’ve struggled to pin down exactly what.

Year one felt like surviving a storm while also trying to understand what we had created and perhaps more importantly what it was we really wanted to create. We changed our minds countless times in that first year as we were knocked about by the inevitable chaos and pressure of opening a restaurant. So when we arrived at our first birthday this time last year we were grateful for sure…but we didn’t feel like we had much perspective. If anything we were just exhausted.

This year feels different.

Things feel more settled and we’ve worked hard to refine and define what we want Wilson’s to be…and just as importantly what we don’t want it to be.

We’ve focused on consistently serving food that we want to eat time and time again. We briefly flirted with the idea of pushing things in a more fine dining direction, but in the end, after a bit of back and forth, we decided to double down on the nostalgia and flavours that originally inspired us. It’s one of the decisions which has had the biggest impact on the way we think about ourselves and how we judge ourselves internally and we’re confident it was the right one!

Out in the dining room we’ve made countless tweaks to the way we run service. We’ve adjusted the way we present food menus, refined the way we talk about wine and introduced some critical internal checkpoints to make sure that we’re setting you up to enjoy your dinner in the best way we can.

Hopefully none of these changes were too noticeable from the table, but for us they’ve been an important part of refining how a visit to Wilson’s should feel. Getting the balance between formality and informality right. Curating the experience without being too intrusive or too prescriptive about it. After all, it’s your dinner!

So what’s changed?

Things feel more stable to us. Hopefully things feel smoother to you. What we know for sure is that we’re more centred, more clear and more confident about what we’re trying to build at Wilson’s. It sounds like a small thing…but for us it’s massive. It’s hard to plan a route if you don’t know where you’re going…and we’re clearer on that now than we have been since we started!

Many years ago I had the privilege of working with Alan Yau, who knows a thing or two about building restaurants. He always said that it takes at least three years to polish and refine a restaurant into the best version of itself. We feel like we’re on the right track…but there’s still plenty to do.

Two years in, we’re immensely proud of the progress we’ve made, and we’re still genuinely excited about what the future holds!