A year of cuisine and community

It’s been a year since Sam Harrison and business partner Fanny Stocker opened the doors to Sam’s Waterside at The Brentford Project. As they celebrate a terrific first 12 months, we catch up with Sam who is now the proud recipient of 2 AA Rosettes for the food he’s serving, the cherry on the top in what has been a hectic if not exhilarating year.  

“I’ll sleep on Christmas Day!”

Happy Birthday to us! What a year it’s been - I’m still continually touched by how many people continue to say ‘thank you, we’ve been waiting for a restaurant like this in Brentford." I feel like we have made a real impact opening here, one guest told me that she'd been waiting 30 years, so I think we’re doing something right! 

It’s been a year of highs and lows as to be expected when opening a new restaurant. It was tough opening as winter approached and so we greatly enjoyed seeing the Brentford Project come to life in the Spring and Summer with Ballymore’s events and live music by the waterside. We’re excited to see this continue and for the whole area to be thriving and full of life. We love being on the water at Workhouse Dock and it is great to see it becoming a focal point for the area and a hub for the whole community; it’s certainly what attracted me to open my restaurant here. 

This location is really quite special, there is a great sense of local community which we love about Brentford. People are very proud of it and locals seem proud to have us as part of it which I’m very grateful for. As a team we’re looking forward to seeing how the neighbourhood continues to evolve and which other businesses will join us here. It’s still such early days so it’s really exciting. 

Constantly creating

We are continually evolving our menu and options for dishes and we like to link our menu to seasonality and availability, but our Head Chef Jacob and I love being creative and trying new things so there’s always some testing going on behind the scenes. Through the new year into January we are working on a series of special evenings featuring chef collaborations and wine tastings which we can’t wait to launch. Think seafood celebrations, jazz nights and lots more to come! 

I love the mix of clientele we get, it’s so important to attract a mix of people for a neighbourhood restaurant to survive. We need different people coming in on different days, at different times and for different reasons; it might be for a special celebration on a Friday night or just because they can't be bothered to cook at home on a Tuesday night! I love how many regulars we have already, it feels like they have already become part of our family. We also have some great celebrity regulars and some impressive big names… but a good restaurateur never reveals! 

A job well done

It’s always wonderful to hear the positivity and feedback from our customers. I’m genuinely thrilled with how grateful guests seem to be to have us here. We often hear that our food is “some of the best food I have ever had” or the “best Sunday lunch in London.” It makes the non-stop schedule worthwhile. 

Overall it’s been an amazing year, and while tough at times we’ve had some incredible highlights – including the 2 AA Rosettes we’ve received for our food and our nomination for the award of West London's Best New Business.

I’m hoping for a very busy run up to Christmas, and the team and I are ready to welcome new and existing customers to experience our food and atmosphere. We will close for Christmas Day and Boxing Day – a period in which I intend to sleep before returning with a bang for the New Year celebrations! I’m confident 2025 will be a defining year for The Brentford Project as it continues to flourish.