The operator, which currently runs the Tamil Prince and Tamil Crown alongside three Tamila restaurant sites, is looking at opportunities for further growth after averaging around one opening a year.
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Speaking to The Morning Advertiser (MA), Leeson said the business hoped to add another site within the next two years, although no deal had yet been agreed.
“I think we will look for more sites,” he said. “We’d love to open another pub and we’re very interested in going south of the river.
“We’ve got the Tamil Prince and Tamil Crown north of the river and I think South London is quite exciting, and so I’d love to open another pub potentially in South London. As of now, there’s nothing to reveal, but we’re very keen and hopefully there’ll be something from us soon.”
Leeson said the group does not have external investors and funds expansion from the performance of its existing sites.
“We don’t have investors. We fund everything organically and ultimately each new site needs to be justified from the profits of the existing sites. Luckily we’re in a strong trading position, so I’d like to hope we can open something inside of two years. Certainly that’s our ambition.”
From food hall to pub operator
Leeson founded the business with chef Prince Durairaj after the pair first met while working at Market Halls in Victoria.
Their working relationship developed during lockdown, when Leeson was working in operations and Durairaj as executive chef for the same restaurant business.
The pair subsequently launched their own takeaway operation from a small food hall unit in Hackney Wick, where they worked largely by themselves during the early stages of the business.
Their move into pubs came while they were looking for a dark kitchen to expand the takeaway operation.
They were shown a former pub in Islington where the landlord had planned to separate the kitchen from the front of house and lease the two areas independently. Leeson instead persuaded the landlord to let the pair take on the whole site.
“We weren’t looking for bricks and mortar. We were honestly just looking to grow slowly and steadily.”
The site, formerly called the Cuckoo, opened as the Tamil Prince in 2021. Leeson said previous pub pop ups had shown the pair the importance of operating the food and pub elements as one business.
“It was all about joining the space and having the front of house and back of house linked and creating a special environment where people want to come and have a dining experience. It was a brilliant accident, but that’s how it all started.”
Individual site identities
The group later opened the Tamil Crown, with Leeson describing both pubs as built around the same core proposition of a traditional pub environment combined with South Indian food.
However, he said the business wanted each site to retain its own identity. “Conceptually they’re the same. It’s an amazing Indian pub, it’s got a British boozer feel in the front and amazing Indian food coming out the kitchen. But they’ll be defined by the space that they’re in.”
The Tamil Crown has a first-floor dining room and a more traditional Victorian pub layout, alongside some differences in the food offer.
Leeson said the aim was to retain recognised dishes such as lamb chops, roti and onion bhajis while allowing each site to offer some variation.
“It’s creating consistency with a bit of variation, so people feel comfortable and it feels familiar, but there’s still something different,” he added.
The Tamil Crown is currently ranked number 34 in the Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs list.
Leeson said the recognition was important to the business, particularly as it is one of relatively few Indian pub concepts represented on the list.
“It’s a massive compliment and we’re very grateful for the recognition. We work really hard to stay true to the pub element. How we’ve managed to bring the Indian cooking into that familiar pub feel is really important to us. It’s testament to the hard work Prince does and the food he puts out.”
New menu and Christmas offer
The group is also preparing to launch its Christmas menu across the pubs, building on an offer introduced last year.
The sharing menu takes inspiration from the Tamil Crown’s Sunday roast while retaining the South Indian flavours used across the wider food offer.
Dishes include Tamil Nadu samosas, prawns, saffron chicken and paneer, followed by centrepiece dishes including spatchcock chicken, lamb shoulder, fish and pumpkin with sambar.
Sides include spiced carrots and sprouts, gunpowder potatoes, masala gravy and roti.
Leeson said: “In our everyday service we do things really traditionally. The food is very authentic and very much skewed towards South India and Tamil Nadu specifically. With Christmas, we’re flipping that on its head slightly and bringing those traditional Indian flavours into something that feels more like a Christmas dinner.”
“We want people to get that Christmas experience while still having amazing, authentic Indian flavours.”
