August 2, 2015

 

Regency restaurant has been passed from one generation to another since 1930. Its spectacular seafront location has a history of being occupied by wealthy people and businesses.

 

The original owner of Regency’s building, Mr Thomas Coutts of the ancient wealth managers, Coutts Bank bought the property as a holiday home so his wife could enjoy the view of the sea while she ate king prawns. This was a time when people did not travel abroad for holidays, they came to Brighton.

 

Later, a luxury jewellery store took possession of the building in the early 1900s and used it for 30 years leading up to the birth of Regency restaurant.

 

85 years on and Regency remains in the Coutts’ former apartment serving what they tag as “specialty seafood” and there are no plans to expand the business beyond Brighton.

 

The current manager, Emilio Savides has been running the Regency with his brother and children for 30 years and they have a team of dedicated staff who understand the rules of the business. They just want to keep up with their regular clientele: Brightonians.

 

Emilio spoke to Brighton FoodStyle with an emphasis on their resolve to remain in their strategic spot: “We are in Brighton, this is our base and this is where we will stay.”

 

While Emilio and his team were busy maintaining their modest profile, a Chinese celebrity blew their trumpet across East Asia. He dined at the restaurant two years back and he shared his fish experience on social media. Celebrities are usually believable, especially by their thronging followers.

 

One celebrity’s post on social media gave Regency an unanticipated break in Brighton’s Chinese community.

Emilio claims that he and his team are not aware of the identity of this celebrity and the exact time that he visited.

 

Their customer turn-out just seemed to receive an overnight transition and they are all glad about it.

The way to keep their new Chinese loyalists coming is to keep up with the same quality of seafood that the anonymous celebrity fancied two years ago.

 

Emilio says: “It is very competitive on the restaurant front in Brighton because of the franchise restaurants that have recently opened up and are forcing the smaller ones out of business.”

 

“This is why we make sure our meals are reasonably priced and we source our fish locally as we are right in front of the sea.”

 

The humility that Emilio and his team display is obvious in the way they attended to their customers and even in their prices. The business had faced two difficult seasons in the past so the family just wants to make some profit and remain relevant. There are no excessive goals.

 

“We saw the recession in 1989 and in 2007 and we were able to survive both; our profit margin is small but we are able to balance things because we have been through these times when people had less money to spend.”

 

Thirty years on, Emilio and his brother hope that the upcoming generation of the family will learn from the bigger organisations and put the restaurant on a pedestal for expansion.

 

Watch a brief interview with Emilio below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: Brighton   restaurant    Chinese