For Ian Hornblow and his two sons, there's "nothing better" than working alongside your family.Hornblow is a surname synonymous with hospitality in Wellington.
For restaurateur and proud dad Ian Hornblow – think Kasey's, The Roxburgh, Cafe Bastille and Moore Wilson's Fresh – working alongside your two sons is about as good as it gets.
Ahead of Father's Day, we get to know the trio and discover that there are few cons when it comes to the family biz, unless of course, you were hoping to take a sick day.
How did your working relationship come about?
"We currently work together at Panman, our paella shop, catering business and the production kitchen for our Hoot Sauce. We opened our doors in July to the Wadestown community and we're loving the vibe. We've really been welcomed into the community.
"Dad has always been involved in the hospitality industry, so a lot of our childhood was spent around restaurants, after school and during the school holidays. Naturally, as we got older, Dad started to give us jobs. We started with cutlery polishing and topping up water glasses and eventually progressed to waitering in a handful of establishments over our teens and throughout university..... READ MORE
Ian Hornblow’s family was the first in Wellington to sell fresh bread on a Sunday – his car windscreen would steam up during early-morning deliveries. “I used to drive my Holden down the hill with my head out the window and see a whole queue of people waiting. It was a four-minute trip up the street and back for fresh loaves. You’d cut the top off and smother it with butter and Marmite and it would still be steaming.” The culture of food is something he’s always relished. His family ran adjoining stores Hornblow’s Food Market and Hornblow’s Dairy in Newtown for 45 years. “Newtown was a total melting pot where cultures collided,” Ian remembers of his childhood. “Next door was Kim Young, the fruiterer. The Island Bay fisheries were just down the road. There was a really cool Asian restaurant across the street...”
