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Key Takeaways
- Jon Spiteri grew up in a family that has spent more than 100 years in hospitality.
- Spiteri rejects the idea that employees should “leave their problems at the door.”
- He says content doesn’t need millions of views to matter.
For more than 100 years, hospitality has been part of Jon Spiteri’s family.
But for Spiteri, that history matters less than what has been passed down with it: a love of taking care of other people.
“It’s in our bones, that whole thing about people and looking after people,” Spiteri says. “I still get the thrill from that.”
His parents came to England from Tunisia in 1957, the year Spiteri was born, and opened an 18-room guesthouse and snack bar in Tunbridge Wells. Growing up above the business meant sharing family life with the people they served.
“Less of a family life, more of a social life,” Spiteri says. “Taking care of other people.”
That lesson stayed with him. Spiteri went on to help open restaurants, including St. John and Sessions Arts Club, and even when he tried to leave hospitality, he found himself coming back.
“It pulls you back in,” he says. “You just can’t leave.”
Today, that love has reached another generation. Spiteri’s children found their own way into hospitality, and the family is now working together at Latimer in West London.
Spiteri understands why they chose it.
“You don’t do this for money,” he says. “There are a lot easier jobs. You do it because you love it.”
For Spiteri, that means caring for the people who work in the restaurant as much as the people who walk through its doors. He wants employees to grow with the business and believes operators should support them when life gets difficult.
Most managers tell their employees to leave their problems at the door. Spiteri thinks that’s exactly the wrong approach.
“Bring your problems to work, and let’s see if between us we can sort them out,” Spiteri says.
It’s the same lesson hospitality taught him growing up: The business works when people take care of people.
Storytelling builds relationships
After decades in restaurants, Jon Spiteri is still learning new ways to connect with the people who walk through the door.
One of those lessons came during a customer advisory board meeting, where my presentation changed how Spiteri and his daughter thought about telling their restaurant’s story.
“I think I had to hear it from you,” Spiteri says. “All the notes were about you and what you said.”
The message that stayed with him was simple: Put yourself out there.
For Spiteri, that means showing more than food or carefully produced marketing. He wants the people who work inside Latimer to become part of its story.
“I want to include our staff,” Spiteri says. “I don’t want people to say what we think. We want them to say what they think.”
He also came away thinking differently about what success on social media needs to look like. A post doesn’t need millions of views or thousands of new followers to make an impact.
“If you just get one person that comes in, that’s fine,” Spiteri says.
That perspective has become increasingly important as the way restaurants communicate with customers has changed.
“You have to be on there, and you have to be relevant, and you have to be honest, and you have to be straightforward,” Spiteri says.
Storytelling also gives restaurants an opportunity to better understand the people they serve. Spiteri has learned that the customers operators expect to attract aren’t always the ones who ultimately show up.
“You don’t know who your customers are,” he says. “You need to engage with those, and you need to understand why they come and what it is they like.”
That requires being willing to speak, listen and occasionally have people disagree with you.
“Not being afraid to say something and letting people interact with you about stuff,” Spiteri says.
For Spiteri, telling the story isn’t separate from hospitality. It’s another way to build relationships, one person at a time.
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