Trinity Today breaks bread with Brian Hannon , BESS (1993), as the London-based dining doyen shares his journey from his early days as a Trinity student to his professional beginnings and onto his latest trailblazing ventures F rom his first steps into the industry as a young teenager to co-founding a globally recognised, multiple award-winning restaurant group and becoming a perennial entry on the Murphia List (an annual compilation of the most influential Irish people on the British culinary scene) Brian Hannon's story is one of passion, dedication, and a deep-seated commitment to memorable hospitality and sustainable innovation. ‘I started working in hospitality at the age of 13… from golf clubs to hotels, collecting glasses and working behind the bar. It was the beginning of a journey that would shape my entire career.’ Hannon’s early experiences laid the groundwork for what would become a lifelong vocation. By age 22, he had already made his mark, becoming the youngest area manager for the UK’s largest pub chain, ‘Managing 16 pubs in the West Midlands was an intense learning experience – I was often managing people twice my age, sometimes acting almost like a marriage counsellor! To keep the pub ticking over I had four amazing you also had to ensure the relationship kept going – it was usually a husband-and-wife team running the pub – so that was a great learning years in Trinity, and I met a great group of experience, I learnt a lot about life, and those experiences pretty much set the foundation for everything I’ve done since.’ Remembering those early triumphs, the conversation shifts forward to a more recent milestone: Hannon’s 30-year class reunion in college. friends there He speaks fondly of the event, which was as much a celebration of enduring friendships as it was a nostalgic trip back to his formative years. ‘I had four amazing, fun-filled years in Trinity, and I met a great group of friends there, so the reunion was a wonderful experience and an opportunity to reflect on our academic years and the friendships that have endured over the decades, not to mention the full social life we got to experience.’ Hannon fondly relates one story that reflects that packed social life. ‘We always had Political Science first thing at 9:00am on a Monday morning. The lecturer was Basil Chubb, a great lecturer, and he would record the lectures and they would be archived in the library. So, in the library, there still exists to this day, a tape of Professor Chubb one Monday morning asking “Would the girl in the red top at the back of the room please wake up the chap next to you?” That was me…,’ he reveals with a giggle, ‘so there’s an unofficial record of my attendance, as well as an official one.’ Hannon’s career trajectory eventually took him from running 16 pubs (and part-time marriage counselling) in the UK Midlands, to much larger corporate environments, sometimes running hundreds of sites at a time, to eventually co-founding Super 8 Restaurants in 2014, a venture that finally allowed him to channel his personal values into the hospitality industry. ‘After years in large corporate settings, where the primary focus was often on profit, I wanted to create something different – something that reflected my values,’ he explains. This desire led to the birth of a restaurant group that prioritised quality, sustainability, and a unique customer experience. ‘My business partner, Ben Chapman, and I funded the first restaurant, taking a calculated risk by opening on a short-term lease, and it paid off,’ he recounts proudly. The decision to avoid outside investors was a deliberate one, enabling the two hospitality innovators
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