Your side of the table
Customers remember birthday dinners, familiar faces and the person who knew where they liked to sit. Staff remember the work that made those visits happen. This page brings together what the archive already knows about uniforms, badges and training, and asks former colleagues to add their own memories. We cannot tell the story of every kitchen, bar or dining room from a menu or a photograph alone.
You might have worked at one restaurant for years or stayed for a shorter period. Either can be part of its history. Start with the name and town, because several pubs shared similar names. Add the years you worked there and your role. An approximate year is fine if that is all you remember; please do not turn an uncertain recollection into an exact date.
Uniforms and familiar faces
The 2009 Beefeater Grill refresh included black uniforms, alongside steak and wine training for front-of-house teams. That is one dated example, not a description of every uniform worn throughout the chain’s life. Earlier styles varied, and a photograph from your own working years could help show what changed. Were there different clothes for the kitchen, bar and restaurant? What did you wear, and what name was on the sign outside?
Our Inside a Beefeater article also follows the small details customers noticed: the welcome, the bar, the table and the staff who knew the regulars. A former employee may remember how those same spaces worked during service. The 2009 refresh report ↗
The badges people wore
The five photographs below show a red Beefeater Steak Houses pin, Restaurant, Service & Quality and Kitchen, Service & Quality badges, an In House Trainer badge and a staff name badge. Their wording connects the people in the dining room with those in the kitchen. A name badge adds a personal detail, but it cannot tell us the wearer’s whole working history.
The seller describes the red pin as a 1970s example; that date has not been independently confirmed. The supplied collection describes the two Service & Quality badges as 2000s examples. Those descriptions do not mean every restaurant used all these badges at the same time. If you wore one, tell us which restaurant issued it and roughly when. The staff section of Inside a Beefeater keeps the original notes beside the photographs.
Training, from Solihull to the restaurant
A contemporary 1995 account described a business with about 270 restaurants and 11,000 employees. It reported Whitbread’s £5 million commitment to training over four years and a £1 million training centre in Solihull. These figures belong to that report and that period. They do not tell us which courses an individual employee attended. The Independent’s 1995 training account ↗
The In House Trainer badge suggests a role in helping colleagues learn, but the photograph does not date it or explain the course behind it. An October 2010 Beefeater Grill menu described a Steakmaster training programme and staff able to advise on cuts and cooking. Did you attend training, show a new colleague the job or wear that badge? Your own account can connect the printed words with everyday work. Beefeater Grill menu, October 2010 ↗
Tell us about working there
- Which restaurant and years?
- What was your job?
- Your best and worst shift
Use the memory form to tell the story in your own words. You can add a photograph you took or have permission to share. Contributions are read by a person before they appear, and the public archive keeps its warm, family-friendly approach. We would love to hear what made your restaurant and your colleagues memorable.
Share a staff memory