Edinburgh 2014—2019

Very early into opening Aizle, Krystal got pregnant. I was super happy: I had always wanted kids, I felt like I was getting everything I ever wanted. When she went on maternity leave, we employed Jade as a restaurant manager. It was meant to be a temporary thing — we assumed Krystal would come back — but Jade was doing an amazing job and in the end Krystal went on to pursue her own dream of being a full-time comedian. Ever since, Jade has played a huge role in what we’ve achieved and where we’ll go next. She’s always been a good barometer for how far to push things and how customers perceive what we do. She is now Operations Manager but in a lot of ways she is so much more: she cares for the businesses as her own, and has always got my back; you need people like that in your camp and I’m grateful to her for everything.