The Fuller picture

Mark Fuller, wraparound sunglasses pushed back on his head, is talking telephone-number figures with a Suit in the corner booth of Embassy, his Mayfair restaurant. From a distance he looks and sounds every bit the invincible entrepreneur.

The real Mark Fuller is much less arrogant and far more charismatic. When he eventually slides on to the blue suede banquette for our interview, he talks like a man who thinks he's simply been lucky, saying that sometimes he has to pinch himself.

We're here to discuss his latest plans and the three venues he has opened in the past 12 months: the Embassy restaurant and the Marquee live music bar and adjacent grill. But he keeps harking back to the fact that he's where he is today because his friends have given him the breaks. (His former landlord, Paul Raymond, for instance, gave him a rent holiday when he ran the Boardwalk Bar on Greek Street during the early-1990s recession.)

"I'm a 13-year overnight success," he quips. "I'm the comeback kid."

In truth, most of Fuller's business deals display more shrewdness than luck. One of his best moves was the sale of West End mega-restaurants the 500-seat Sugar Reef and 250-seat Red Cube to Chorion for £7.5m in June 2001. The timing was perfect, coming just before the economic downturn and the fall from favour of the capital's gastrodomes.

Fuller admits as much: "I pre-predicted the economic downturn and thought there would be a turn away from gastro-restaurants; and I was proved right, because Titanic closed, Mezzo is not as busy, and we [the country] are recessive."

It also marked the end of the White Star Line partnership with Jimmy Lahoud and Marco Pierre White. Along with his new partner, acclaimed chef Garry Hollihead (see panel opposite), Fuller has now distanced himself from what he describes as the "over-saturated, dirty" West End with the launch of the 110-seat Embassy restaurant and club last year in Old Brompton Street. In August they teamed up with Artists Network, fronted by former Eurythmics singer Dave Stewart, to open celebrity club hangout the Marquee, along with its 130-seat grill room in Islington.

Far from being held back by the sluggish economy, Fuller and Hollihead, both 42, have let slip that they are already working on their next venture - a country house hotel and restaurant outside the capital. The plan is to turn the nine-bedroom Inn on the Green at Cookham Dean, Berkshire, into a 15-bedroom boutique hotel and restaurant. The pair have signed a 50-50 partnership with the hotel's owner, Andy Taylor, who is chief executive of Sanctuary Music (one of the biggest independent music and TV businesses around). Taylor, who also happens to be a friend and a customer at Embassy, paid £2.5m for the site and has run it as a rock'n'roll-style hotel and restaurant for the past four years.

The pair will reinvent it. In January they'll close the hotel for a £1m refit and reopen it on 14 February as Inn on the Green Garry Hollihead. The rock'n'roll image of the 60-cover restaurant will be replaced by the style and glamour of the Embassy. There'll also be a spa, pool and gym and a further 60 restaurant seats in the courtyard. The bedrooms, which currently sell for £100 a night, will be sold at £150-£200 following a chic refurbishment.

In short, the idea is that it will be a boutique hotel and restaurant in the country. "Embassy customers dine in London in the week but live in the country. For example, Ulrika Jonsson lives in Cookham Dean," says Fuller.

Hollihead, who notched up Michelin stars at Sutherlands and L'Escargot in the 1980s and 1990s, says the food at Inn on the Green will have classical French roots and be similar to that at Embassy, where he hopes to achieve his next Michelin star.

The move out of London doesn't mean the two will be less hands-on. Hollihead, who lives in Wandsworth, will continue to cook at Embassy and oversee the other restaurants, while Fuller, who lives in Fulham and prides himself on being seen in all his restaurants every night, insists he isn't daunted by the 70-mile round trip to Cookham. The fact that both have a passion for motorbikes (Hollihead has a Buell and Fuller a Harley-Davidson) might have something to do with their enthusiasm for the project.

The bottom line, however, is that Fuller and Hollihead see Cookham as a means to spread their risk. Fuller points out that the businesses will appeal to different markets: the Marquee club and grill is rock'n'roll and well-priced burgers; Embassy is a hip, gourmet restaurant and nightclub; and Inn on the Green will be a boutique hotel and top restaurant.

The move also underlines Fuller's strategy to move away from the West End. The Chorion deal saw him switch from running two big restaurants to running smaller ones that focus on quality not quantity. "It's a tough financial time, despite being busy, and the mid- to upper markets are being hit," he says. "If a big restaurant can make £500,000 a month, it can lose £500,000 a month. You can't have too many restaurants in the West End doing the same thing."

He acknowledges that he and Hollihead will have expanded rapidly within just 18 months, but argues: "It is intelligent business - if one goes down we can co-fertilise. All the deals are also property deals, with long leases at Embassy and Marquee and the freehold at Inn on the Green. Projects like Embassy and Inn on the Green are long-term, they are not just generating a quick buck."

Fuller reckons the economy will continue to be depressed for at least another six months but says he and Hollihead are getting into position to expand as soon as the market improves. He reveals there are plans to put at least 20 Marquees across Europe in the next five years (Dave Stewart is in Paris looking at sites as we speak). A lot of the Marquees will just be grills, as Fuller doesn't underestimate the power of the burger. "They are cheap and simple," he says. "Burgers were popular in the 1970s and 1980s and then somebody pushed them out. Why reinvent the wheel?"

He is coy about other restaurant or hotel plans but says he and Hollihead are also looking at sites in Knightsbridge, Fulham and Chelsea and he hints that they may put an Embassy-style restaurant on the river at Fulham within the next two or three years. "People are crawling out of the woodwork to offer projects," he says, adding, with some of that entrepreneurial confidence, "but we are here to make history and have fun."

The partnership

When the White Star Line group sold Red Cube and Sugar Reef in London's West End to Chorion in June 2001, directors Mark Fuller, Jimmy Lahoud and Marco Pierre White went their separate ways.

It was, says Fuller, time to spread his wings: "Marco and Jimmy took me as a fledgling and then I grew, so it was always going to end," he says.

For his next venture he wanted to run a smaller restaurant and saw Garry Hollihead as his ideal partner. Hollihead had been executive chef of Red Cube and Sugar Reef but, as a former Michelin-starred chef, had perhaps lost his way. Fuller has a two-thirds stake in the partnership and handles the financial side, while Hollihead concentrates on the cooking. "Garry is one of the greatest chefs ever and a friend," says Fuller. "It works in a similar way to Lahoud and Marco, or Gordon [Ramsay] and his father-in-law."

Both like being hands-on, as Fuller explains: "If the loo's blocked, I would put my gloves on and unblock it - and Garry would do the same. After service, of course."

Embassy

29 Old Burlington Street,
London W1
Tel: 020 7437 9933
Opened: November 2001
Set-up costs: £2m
Predicted turnover: £3.5m-£4m (on target)
Average spend: £50 a head
Seats: 110
Covers: 80-100 for dinner; 30-40 lunch

The 110-seat Embassy restaurant, which opened in November last year, cost about £2m to set up and Fuller says it is on target to turn over £3.5m-£4m this year. It is aiming at the same sort of clientele as the Square, Gordon Ramsay and Mirabelle. Hollihead describes the food as having classical French roots with a twist: dishes such as venison Wellington (£18.25), rather than beef Wellington, where the fillet is topped with a mushroom duxelle and then wrapped in a Savoy cabbage leaf before being covered with a fine lattice of pastry. He serves about 100 covers on a Saturday at an average spend of £50 a head. Membership of the club downstairs is £500 a year, although diners are allowed in at the restaurant manager's discretion. Here, it's waitress service at the tables. "You can't guzzle beer from a bottle," explains Fuller.

Under the grill

Why Embassy?
I used to be co-owner of another rock'n'roll venue, the former Embassy in Bond Street, in the 1980s. So when I secured the former Legends nightclub site a few streets away in Old Burlington Street, it seemed logical to call the restaurant Embassy.

What did you learn from running Red Cube and Sugar Reef?

I discovered it's impossible to create an exclusive midmarket restaurant in premises with 300-500 seats. I worked flat-out every night while the then executive chef, Garry Hollihead, who was serving up to 700 covers a night, struggled to maintain quality. Business dictates that you have to be full, so you cannot be exclusive. You have got to keep it hands-on, and that is where a lot of companies fail.

Apart from there being too many restaurants, why are you so disenchanted with the west end?

Because of their location, Sugar Reef and Red Cube attracted rowdy groups. New York has police on every corner and it's safe and clean; central London is dirty: people urinate on the streets; there are syringes lying around.

Why are you both so happy with Embassy?

Well Garry is because he can concentrate on the Michelin-standard cooking he was known for. I am because it's in a delightful and expensive part of town - the car park across the road smells of perfume, and there are no hordes shouting "Oi, oi, oi".

Marquee Club & Grill

N1 Shopping Centre, Parkfield Street,
London N1
Tel: 020 7288 4401
Opened: August 2002
Set-up and investment: £3.5m (50-50 deal with Artists Network)
Predicted turnover: £4m-£5m
Average spend: about £20 a head for three courses
Seats: 130
Covers: 230 a day (weekends)

The £3.5m Marquee club and grill, which Fuller and Hollihead launched last month in a 50-50 deal with Artists Network, is more casual than Embassy, serving mainly burgers. Hollihead bikes up to the 130-seat grill in Islington several times a day to oversee the kitchen. Average spend is £20 a head and, at weekends, up to 230 covers are served each day.

Ironically, the live music venue, which is expected to turn over £4m-£5m in its first year, may be a bit closer to Fuller's roots than Embassy. He started his working life as a band manager, which is where he first met Dave Stewart, who fronts Artists Network.

One of his aims, therefore, is to create a better-quality concert venue. According to Fuller, the PA system, which cost £500,000, would embarrass Wembley. "You go to see a band in this country and get served cow pie and beer. In the US you have a choice. At Marquee we keep the grill separate but you can have good food and see a band."