Interview: Oisín Rogers, The Devonshire

I’m sat in London’s Soho, in the ‘Green Room’ of, one would argue, the most talked about pub in Britain, waiting for landlord Oisín Rogers to finish a meeting. A couple of The Devonshire’s team are in there answering an online questionnaire for what I assume to be yet another piece of publicity for the site. I sip my tea, casually eavesdropping on what these guys say about working for this juggernaut of a pub. 

Before long, I hear the familiar Irish intonation of Rogers making its way through the bar, which is the single way to access this invite-only area of The Devonshire. “Find out how much Annie Mac will need to do this event,” he says to the team member at his side, before switching his attention to his loyal freelance PR/maître d’ Dominic Rowntree and declaring: “Grace Dent’s review for The Guardian will land tomorrow. I think we’ll be very happy with it.” National restaurant critics, superstar DJs… All in a day in the life of a pub landlord, right? 

But for Rogers, it sort of is, and has been for many years – certainly way before The Devonshire opened. I’d argue his reputation-come-magnetism was formed during his days at The Ship, a Young’s pub in south west London’s Wandsworth. Pub & Bar interviewed Rogers back then – in May 2013 – as even all those years ago, he was doing something different as a general manager that attracted thousands and thousands of pub goers. “Who knows what kind of rubbish I was talking then,” he laughs, with a hint of modesty.      

Talking rubbish, perhaps, but he was clearly doing many things right and proceeded to take that talent (and customer base) to wherever he went with Young’s, which, following nine years at The Ship, was Islington’s The Canonbury Tavern and then Mayfair’s revered Guinea Grill. In July 2022, after six years and, one would imagine, significant sales at The Guinea, Rogers took to social media to announce he was leaving the Young’s business to start his own venture. One year later, on 5 November 2023, The Devonshire opened its doors. Based on the crowds that seem to follow him from pub to pub, I ask whether he thinks Young’s struggled to fill the hole he might have left.

“I think I was treated the same as any other GM who resigns,” he says a little indifferently. “I walked out the door, there was no fanfare. There was no nothing. That was it. I moved on from there and onto the next thing. And that was the end of it.” Make of that what you will. 

A fully-booked Devonshire dining room

Creating an institution 

That end, of course, was in fact the beginning of something that would far exceed the business plan of Rogers and his Devonshire co-founder Charlie Carroll, the man behind the steak restaurant brand Flat Iron. If, somehow, you’re not familiar with The Devonshire, do give it a Google. In short, the duo, alongside ex-Fat Duck chef Ashley Palmer-Watts, took over an old Jamie’s Italian a stone’s throw away from Piccadilly Circus, returning the site to its original pub purpose. 

But, as you may have gathered, it’s no ordinary pub operation. It has its own on-site bakery, its own butchery, three different dining rooms (with two more PDRs on the way), an outdoor terrace, a VIP room… the list kind of does go on. When Rogers and I speak, he currently has 160 people working for him. Yes, 160 people. For one site. It has been featured in almost every national publication and, as well as thousands of customers who flock to Denman Street mostly just to sample the Guinness, The Devonshire has a loyal celebrity clientele who, seemingly, are all chums of this intriguing pub landlord. When stripped back, seeing as The Devonshire is still just one central London pub, does he think this level of success and attention is justified?

“Yeah, I do actually,” says Rogers. “Without having a big head or being full of ourselves, I think we hit something here that guests actually needed. I’ve always said throughout my career that if you open a really good pub then people will like it, and I’m very pleased to have been proved right about that.

“The narrative in the press that pubs are all shit and nobody goes there anymore is also perpetuated by some operators. ‘Oh, beer is way too expensive. People won’t want to drink it. The smoking ban killed us. You can’t drink until 5am.’ It’s all rubbish. I think if you get a really good pub in the right area, and you really look after your guests, people will actually love it. They really like coming in and they like to have a pint and meet people they don’t normally hang around with. That has been central to what we wanted to do.” 

The Devonshire's steak sandwich from the bar menu

Feeling content 

If you’ve never been to The Devonshire, yet you’re still aware of Rogers and his pub, chances are you’ve watched him on Instagram. It’s no exaggeration to say that he (@mcmoop) is probably the most interviewed, profiled and podcasted publican in the country, aside from maybe the likes of Tom Kerridge. Accounts such as The Go To Food Pod, Condé Nast Traveller and, yes, Topjaw have all aired the black curly locks of the man of the moment, as The Devonshire’s organic publicity machine continues to steamroll across hospitality’s digital landscape. If you really are keeping an eye on what he’s up to, you’ll also notice that Rogers is frequently drinking and dining with the people behind these accounts, occasionally treating key influencers to lunch at some of his favourite Soho haunts. Personally, via his Instagram stories, I’ve seen him around the table with Giles Coren from The Times, Topjaw’s Jesse Burgess, Eating With Tod’s Toby Inskip and many other influencers. And these people, obviously, all adore The Devonshire. Are these relationships with those who can dictate the prestige of venues with the drop of an emoji genuine friendships or strategic socialising to the benefit of business?    

“I love creative people,” says Rogers. “There’s an element of yes, of course, you’ll court these guys when you see them. But I’ve found so often that when you do meet them, that they’re really great and that you get on well with them. Topjaw’s Jesse and Will [Warr], I’m very fond of them, and we’re actually quite close mates, completely away from any kind of promotion of the business or anything like that. We just have a bit of craic. Same with Tod. I found him really interesting and we get on really well. 

“I’m interested in and besotted with how these people create so much reach with such a visibly simple way of doing things. They’re charismatic, that’s the thing. And I’m attracted to charismatic people. If you look at my mates, you’d think they’re a bunch of very creative, interesting lunatics, and I tend to naturally surround myself with them. It doesn’t do the business any harm to foster relationships with creatives, whether it’s film makers, songwriters, singers, photographers, performance artists, actors. And they all flock around us and it creates a huge level of colour and fun. I suppose you can call it content, but, fuck me, we live for content. It’s what life’s about. You’ve got to have things to talk about and things to stimulate and entertain you.”

How many pints of Guinness does the pub really sell?

Let’s talk numbers 

When I ask Rogers if his social media pals and the likes of Ed Sheeran and Margot Robbie have helped generate a specific volume of clientele, Rogers says he has “no idea”, before pausing and adding: “In a way, I kind of hope it’s not a lot and I think it probably isn’t as much as people think, because I would like to think that the reason that people come into The Devonshire is because the people they’ve spoken to who have been here before have said it’s good. We’re in the storytelling business, so we want people to leave here with a story to tell others.

“And we know that happens, where people come in, they really enjoy their pint of Guinness, they have a lovely meal, they don’t have a shock with the bill, and they go home saying ‘fuck me, that was really great.’ Then they tell their friends at work and their family and people they meet when they’re playing sport or when they’re out in another pub, and all of a sudden those people are interested in coming, and they come and they have a nice time, and it spreads that way. And I genuinely and truly think that’s way more important than the internet, and the fact the internet’s there, still pumping away, it doesn’t do us any harm.”

It certainly doesn’t. I mean, I’m chatting to Rogers at 11am on a Thursday and you can feel the energy inside the building bubbling away, ready for service. By the time the interview is over one hour later, the dining room is filling up and the Guinness taps are already being given a good run for their money. Speaking of which, when it comes to Guinness and money, I’ve lost count of the numbers banded around when industry folk gossip about the amount of the black stuff The Devonshire sells each week. £50,000… £100,000… is it really hitting such levels?

“The 20,000 pints of Guinness a week thing is true, although we haven’t hit it every week. It’s around 17,000 a week on average, but we were right up to 19,500 last week.” To save you reaching for a calculator, at £6.90 a pint, that’s £134,550 of revenue on just one product. 

“I can’t give you top line numbers on sales, because that’s confidential, but I can say it has massively exceeded any of our expectations in terms of footfall, turnover and volume. It’s busy all the time, which makes a big difference and we’re very proud of it.” 

Scallop, bacon and malt vinegar from The Devonshire's à la carte

Looking to the future

If you sit out on The Devonshire’s second-floor roof terrace, on a clear day you can just about see the swarms of investors circling its perimeter, clutching bags of cash and occasionally making sudden dives at the building in a hope of turning the attention of Rogers, Carroll and Palmer-Watts. The trio have been adamant that this is a one-site project, swearing they will never look to replicate it. So how often are they asked to do so?

“At least twice a week,” says Rogers. “You name it, they’ve all been around knocking on the door, but I haven’t engaged with any of them. Part of the deal was that we don’t do another one, because I don’t want myself to be diluted – I need to be here. The Devonshire is designed to not be rolled out. I think that’s quite refreshing, because we’re able to make a lot of decisions that are unique for here that would never work anywhere else.”

In that, he could mean anything from having a butchery in the basement to the amount they spend on wine glasses and steak knives – he says it won’t make sense in any other operation, especially on a spreadsheet. And you can see what he means, particularly in such a central location. There is just so much going on under this one roof that it’s a wonder Rogers is still upright after one year riding this beast, let alone leading the late-night singalongs in the Green Room every Tuesday. He describes this first 12 months as “like being on a rollercoaster in a hurricane”. With 19 years remaining on their 20-year agreement with landlords Landsec, will the 56-year-old still be here in two decades’ time?

“A rollercoaster in a hurricane, yes, but with loads of added happiness and wonderful things happening at the same time,” he concludes. “I certainly have spent a lot of time feeling a bit overwhelmed and discombobulated, but at the same time, I’ve had really great fun delivering amazing experiences for an awful lot of people. We’ve signed for 20 years here and I’d like to do that 20 years. I will be at The Devonshire. That’s the idea.”  

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