Perseverance pays off for WA’s best restaurateur

When an excited Neal Jackson opened the doors to his first restaurant, he was left shocked and somewhat dismayed.

The English-born chef, in his early 30s, had invested a fair amount of time and savings buying a restaurant where he planned to spend his days cooking up his brand of fine cuisine for eager customers.

The only problem was that the business he bought was in the apple-growing town of Donnybrook in the state’s South West, and on opening night not a single person showed up.

The same thing happened the next night, and the next, until on the sixth evening a table of four showed up and Mr Jackson and his wife Linda jumped to attention.

Two decades later, Mr Jackson has learnt from his experiences in the South West and now spends his days cooking up his fine food for plenty of eager customers at one of WA’s most successful restaurants, Jackson’s Restaurant.

The restaurant has been voted Western Australia’s best restaurant in a recent survey of the hospitality industry by WA Business News.

Sitting at a linen lined table in his modern eatery, a humble Mr Jackson is simply pleased that after years of trying to make a restaurant work he finally has.

His wife no longer needs to finish her job and come and work front-of-house at the restaurant – a big change to the Donnybrook days.

Mr Jackson had convinced his wife that they should buy the South West restaurant, which was called the Anchor and Hope Inn.

He said it didn’t make a whole lot of money, but he persisted for about three years because he thought he could make it work.

“The place was a very quaint country type of building,” Mr Jackson remembers.

“It was filled with Australiana stuff and coming from England I was quite taken aback by it. It had nice grounds, log fires and I thought I could do something with it.”

He picked the business up relatively cheaply, but while Mr Jackson knew that it had struggled in recent times he was still shocked that no one turned up when they re-opened it.

Trade eventually picked up as Mr Jackson began building a reputation among the locals as a chef producing quality food.

Yet, Mr Jackson said the couple only made enough money to “survive” and keep the business ticking over, so when he was offered a job to work in Alan Bond’s new Bunbury hotel, The Lord Forrest, Mr Jackson sold the business, getting as much for it as he originally paid.

The struggling restaurateur suddenly became a jet-setting executive chef.

“I was getting paid well, I had a company car and the whole bit,” Mr Jackson said.

“It was hard work but it was quite an exciting time. I had trips to Japan and Hong Kong.”

But about five years later and around the same time that Mr Bond was in the process of selling the hotel, Mr Jackson was approached to operate a restaurant in partnership with the owners of the Clifton Beach Hotel.

He thought it sounded like a good idea and made the move, but it was a decision he said would end up proving costly and trigger his move from Bunbury to Perth.

Mr Jackson operated the hotel’s restaurant, Louisa’s, for nearly a decade in a partnership arrangement with the owners.

Mr Jackson said while initially the partnership worked, when differences of opinion surfaced he quickly became aware that he should have been more careful before entering the arrangement.

The main problem he said was that while it was a 50:50 partnership, his partners were also the landlords, which effectively gave them the upper hand.

Under the agreement, if Mr Jackson wanted to walk away he needed to sell his share to his partners.

As the relationship deteriorated, Mr Jackson sought legal advice, the first time he had done so during his career.

He left the partnership but ended up getting burnt financially.

Soured from the experience, the couple sold their house in Bunbury and moved to Perth.

Mr Jackson arrived determined, but seemingly too old, for Perth’s restaurateurs.

He couldn’t get a job after applying for several positions and found himself at a loss.

So he looked around for a site to start another restaurant.

He ran his eyes over what is now Star Anise in Shenton Park.

“The rent was dirt cheap, which was very attractive, but it didn’t feel right and it wasn’t licensed and we were looking for something that was,” Mr Jackson said.

Something did feel right when Mr Jackson took a look at an Italian pizza restaurant in Highgate that had red and white chequered tablecloths and Chianti bottles hanging in wicker baskets on the walls.

The restaurant had once been the popular Corsino Italian restaurant, and Mr Jackson believed that with a bit of tender love and care the site would work.

Confronted with a business he wanted, Mr Jackson realised that he would need outside financial assistance.

And with the wounds of the previous partnership still raw, Mr Jackson was forced to enter a fresh venture.

This time, however, his eyes were wide open.

“I was very wary about having another partnership, but there was no way we could get in with no money,’ he said.

Mr Jackson called up Peter Walsh, the owner of Bunbury abattoir V&V Walsh, who knew the couple through his sister and had offered to invest when he heard Mr Jackson was headed to Perth.

“I used to entertain a lot of overseas clients and I took them to Louisa’s and every time I went there it was the best meal I had ever had,” Mr Walsh said.

Mr Walsh’s offer to invest was initially knocked back by Mr Jackson.

But when Mr Jackson returned to Mr Walsh months later, he said he had no hesitation contributing 10 per cent of the costs, and called his brother Greg, who also contributed a 10 per cent share.

Lawyer Keith Bradford also expressed an interest in investing with Mr Jackson, and also put in 10 per cent.

This time, though, there was an exit clause for Mr Jackson, who could buy out all his partners.

And, unlike the opening night of Donnybrook’s Anchor and Hope, Jackson’s Restaurant took off.

But the experience was just as shocking for Mr Jackson.

“The first night was horrific,” he remembers.

“I was painting the front of the building at 4pm and we were opening at 6pm. I’d set an opening date and I had been a little too ambitious.”

Mr Jackson had planned on keeping bookings low and ease into the new business. But on opening night the restaurant was full.

“It took us ages to feed people,” he remembers.

Mr Jackson became physically ill from the stressful night of service, which included a dishwasher walking out halfway through a shift.

Things have markedly improved since that first night.

Within a year, the business had made enough money to pay back the original investment from all the shareholders, who still remain silent business partners.

The kitchen staff has grown from three people to eight, and Mr Jackson’s reputation as a quality chef continues to generate offers to start up other restaurant ventures.